TY - JOUR

T1 - Social actors’ perceptions of wildlife

T2 - Insights for the conservation of species in Mediterranean protected areas

AU - Cortés-Avizanda, Ainara

AU - Pereira, Henrique M.

AU - McKee, Ellen

AU - Ceballos, Olga

AU - Martín-López, Berta

N1 - We thank A. Urmeneta and the staff of the Bardenas Reales Natural Park, for their logistical support. The Bardenas Reales Natural Park gave permission to conduct the interviews and social surveys. We thank all the interviewees and respondents of the survey who provided their knowledge and basic data for understanding how different societal actors perceive the importance of biodiversity in the Bardenas Reales Natural Park. I. Rodríguez, X. Pérez, M. Sanz, and E. Arrondo helped with the survey. ACA was supported by a Post-Doc contract Programa Viçent Mut of Govern Balear, Spain (PD/039/2017), a Post-Doctoral grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (SFRH / BPD / 91609 / 2012; Portugal), and a contract Juan de la Cierva Incorporación (IJCI-2014-20744; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain). OC and HMP were supported by iDiv—German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, funded by German Research Foundation grant FZT 118. This work was partially funded by the project AAEE123/2017 accions especials d’ R+D Conselleria d’Innovació, Recerca I Turisme, Govern Balear. © 2021. The Author(s).

PY - 2022/4/1

Y1 - 2022/4/1

N2 - In the current Anthropocene Era, with numerous escalating challenges for biodiversity conservation, the inclusion of the social dimension into management decisions regarding wildlife and protected areas is critical to their success. By conducting 354 questionnaires in a Mediterranean protected area (the Biosphere Reserve of Bardenas Reales, Northern Spain), we aim to determine sociodemographic factors influencing knowledge levels and perceptions of species and functional groups as, emblematic and threatened. We found that hunters and animal husbandry workers knew more species than other social actors. Additionally, the perception of functional groups as threatened or emblematic differed between social actor groups, with statistically significant associations between perceptions and the characteristics of respondents. Interestingly, we found that although elusive steppe species are globally considered as endangered, these species were the least known by all social actor groups and rarely perceived as emblematic. This research is a novel approach and provides a better understanding of how perceptions can facilitate conservation decisions, particularly regarding endangered species.

AB - In the current Anthropocene Era, with numerous escalating challenges for biodiversity conservation, the inclusion of the social dimension into management decisions regarding wildlife and protected areas is critical to their success. By conducting 354 questionnaires in a Mediterranean protected area (the Biosphere Reserve of Bardenas Reales, Northern Spain), we aim to determine sociodemographic factors influencing knowledge levels and perceptions of species and functional groups as, emblematic and threatened. We found that hunters and animal husbandry workers knew more species than other social actors. Additionally, the perception of functional groups as threatened or emblematic differed between social actor groups, with statistically significant associations between perceptions and the characteristics of respondents. Interestingly, we found that although elusive steppe species are globally considered as endangered, these species were the least known by all social actor groups and rarely perceived as emblematic. This research is a novel approach and provides a better understanding of how perceptions can facilitate conservation decisions, particularly regarding endangered species.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - Environmental knowledge

KW - Game species

KW - Pedators

KW - Protected area

KW - Scavengers

KW - Steppe birds

KW - Environmental knowledge

KW - Game species

KW - Predators

KW - Protected area

KW - Scavengers

KW - Steppe birds

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110878317&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/6460479b-8b99-3f85-9928-e668365c58e2/

U2 - 10.1007/s13280-021-01546-6

DO - 10.1007/s13280-021-01546-6

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 34251598

VL - 51

SP - 990

EP - 1000

JO - Ambio

JF - Ambio

SN - 0044-7447

IS - 4

ER -