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Breaking the deadlock on ivory

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 18:53 authored by Biggs, D, Holden, MH, Braczkowski, A, Cook, CN, Milner-Gulland, EJ, Phelps, J, Scholes, RJ, Smith, RJ, Underwood, FM, Vanessa AdamsVanessa Adams, Allan, J, Brink, H, Cooney, R, Gao, Y, Hutton, J, Macdonald-Madden, E, Maron, M, Redford, KH, Sutherland, WJ, Possingham, HP
Poaching for ivory has caused a steep decline in African elephant (Loxodonta africana, see the photo) populations over the past decade (1). This crisis has fueled a contentious global debate over which ivory policy would best protect elephants: banning all ivory trade or enabling regulated trade to incentivize and fund elephant conservation (2). The deep-seated deadlock on ivory policy consumes valuable resources and creates an antagonistic environment among elephant conservationists. Successful solutions must begin by recognizing the different values that influence stakeholder cognitive frameworks of how actions lead to outcomes (“mental models”) (3), and therefore their diverging positions on ivory trade (4). Based on successful conflict resolution in other areas, we propose an iterative process through which countries with wild elephant populations may be able to understand their differences and develop workable solutions in a less confrontational manner.

History

Publication title

Science

Volume

358

Issue

6369

Pagination

1378-1381

ISSN

0036-8075

Department/School

School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences

Publisher

Amer Assoc Advancement Science

Place of publication

1200 New York Ave, Nw, Washington, USA, Dc, 20005

Rights statement

Copyright 2017 the authors

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences

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