AvH - Feodor Lynen - Soofi

Modelling root causes of conservation conflicts in protected areas

Protected areas (PAs) are the backbone for saving biodiversity and ecosystem functions that contribute to the livelihoods of local communities, reinforcing national economies, and mitigating climate change. One of the most important challenges that PA face is ‘conservation conflicts’, i.e., when conservation objectives collide with the needs, wants, or activities of local people. PA rangers in Asia and Africa are mainly responsible for monitoring non-compliances and predefine environmental sanctions on rule breakers (e.g., illegal hunters) but their activities often collide with the interests of local people (e.g., illegal hunters), leading to death or violent encounters. Such interactions are complex and can damage both conservation outcomes and the well-being of the people involved. This suggests that the success of conservation management in many contexts is closely tied to the performance of rangers. Despite this, rangers’ attitudes toward illegal hunters have rarely been investigated in biodiversity conservation and the possibility that this knowledge can be used to lower tensions between rangers and illegal hunters has not been explored. The behavior of rangers can be influenced by changes in enforcement interventions (e.g., increased penalties) and or socio-economic conditions. The key social factors influencing individuals’ compliance with rules include both internal (e.g., attitude, moral obligation, the perceived legitimacy of rules) and external (e.g., economic situation, social pressure) factors. It is important to understand the process by which conservation interventions influence the behaviors of individuals so that to find better ways of managing negative interactions between conservation authorities and illegal hunters in PA management. However, there is scant empirical evidence on the underlying assumptions of conservation law enforcement, especially in the contexts of socioeconomic and ecological conditions. Therefore, there is an urgent need for scientifically robust and evidence-based research to understand the drivers of negative interactions (i.e., misalignment of interests related to natural resources that result in violent encounters) and ultimately transform conservation conflict outcomes. Models from sociopsychology (e.g., ‘Theory of Planned Behavior’, TBP) can provide opportunities to better understand such relationships. Using ‘TPB’ constructs (i.e., attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioural control) I will fit a structural equation model to evaluate causal relationships between factors influencing rangers’ intentions regarding cooperation with illegal hunters. This study further seeks to evaluate the efficacy of law enforcement measures in reducing non-compliances (e.g., illegal hunting of ungulates, birds) in socio-economic conditions across Iran using hierarchical models.