Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamen... more Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamental in achieving global conservation goals. Despite this objective, wildlife abundance changes in PAs are patchily documented and poorly understood. Here, we use linear mixed effect models to explore correlates of population change in 1,902 populations of birds and mammals from 447 PAs globally. On an average, we find PAs are maintaining populations of monitored birds and mammals within their boundaries. Wildlife population trends are more positive in PAs located in countries with higher development scores, and for larger-bodied species. These results suggest that active management can consistently overcome disadvantages of lower reproductive rates and more severe threats experienced by larger species of birds and mammals. The link between wildlife trends and national development shows that the social and economic conditions supporting PAs are critical for the successful maintenance of their wildlife populations.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Jan 2, 2016
Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features ... more Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features to meet global biodiversity conservation goals. However, PAs have had variable success, with many failing to fully maintain their biodiversity features. The current literature concerning what drives variability in PA performance is rapidly expanding but unclear, sometimes contradictory, and spread across multiple disciplines. A clear understanding of the drivers of successful biodiversity conservation in PAs is necessary to make them fully effective. Here, we conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current state of knowledge concerning the drivers of biological outcomes within PAs, focusing on those that can be addressed at local scales. We evaluate evidence in support of potential drivers to identify those that enable more successful outcomes and those that impede success and provide a synthetic review. Interactions are discussed where they are known, and we highlight gaps in understa...
Conservation practice reportedly suffers from
low use of technical information. Understanding of ... more Conservation practice reportedly suffers from low use of technical information. Understanding of factors that affect the influence of technical information on management decision-making is limited. We sought to identify leverage points for improved technical information dissemination in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors affecting the influence of different information types on management decisions. Results indicate that managers have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given they operate in an information poor environment. The most influential types of information were those that enabled interaction between information provider and recipient (e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the concordance in individuals’ responses for different information types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational expectation of use was aligned with influence on decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or increasing access to particular types of information is therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on management decision-making. Rather than focussing on matching accessibility and expected use of particular information types, our results indicate that technical information uptake is best supported through existing peer networks tailored to specific work areas.
Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephan... more Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus. We studied the nature and extent of human–elephant interactions in the buffer zones of Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, through household questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews, site observations, and analysis of the reported cases of damage during January 2008–December 2012. During this 5-year period 290 incidents of damage by elephants were reported, with a high concentration of incidents in a few locations. Property damage (53%) was the most common type of damage reported. Crop damage was reported less often but household surveys revealed it to be the most frequent form of conflict. There were also human casualties, including 21 deaths and four serious injuries. More than 90% of the human casualties occurred during 2010–2012. More than two thirds of the respondents (70%) perceived that human–elephant conflict had increased substantially during the previous 5 years. Despite the increase in incidents of human–elephant conflict in the area, 37% of respondents had positive attitudes towards elephant conservation. Our findings suggest that public awareness and compensation for losses could reduce conflict and contribute to ensuring coexistence of people and elephants in this human-dominated landscape.
10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation ... more 10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation and livelihoods in Latin America
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jan 5, 2015
Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable ... more Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable progress towards the global target of having 17% of the world's land area within protected areas by 2020, biodiversity continues to decline. The discrepancy between increasing PA coverage and negative biodiversity trends has resulted in renewed efforts to enhance PA effectiveness. The global conservation community has conducted thousands of assessments of protected area management effectiveness (PAME), and interest in the use of these data to help measure the conservation impact of PA management interventions is high. Here, we summarize the status of PAME assessment, review the published evidence for a link between PAME assessment results and the conservation impacts of PAs, and discuss the limitations and future use of PAME data in measuring the impact of PA management interventions on conservation outcomes. We conclude that PAME data, while designed as a tool for local adaptive man...
Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its rep... more Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its reputation as the best shallow-water reef in Thailand attracted more than 30000 visitors per year to the 8km2 of fringing reef. Visitor management included fees, permits, specific activities management, a zoning plan and an information centre. Zoning plan exclusion areas included the area of highest
Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected... more Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected to achieve an increasingly diverse set of conservation, social and economic objectives. The amount of land and sea designated as formally protected has markedly increased over the past century, but there is still a major shortfall in political commitments to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of protected areas. Financial support for protected areas is dwarfed by the benefits that they provide, but these returns depend on effective management. A step change involving increased recognition, funding, planning and enforcement is urgently needed if protected areas are going to fulfil their potential.
Wild harvesting has taken place over millennia in Africa. However urbanization and cash economies... more Wild harvesting has taken place over millennia in Africa. However urbanization and cash economies have effectively altered harvesting from being cultural, traditional, and subsistence activities that are part of a rural norm, to being a subculture of commonly illicit activities located primarily within the urban, cash-based, informal economy. This paper focuses on Cape Town, South Africa where high levels of poverty and extensive population growth have led to a rapidly growing informal industry based on the cultural, subsistence, and entrepreneurial harvesting and consumption of products obtained from the local natural environment. Through a process of literature reviews, database analysis, and key informant interviews, a compendium of harvested species was developed, illustrating the breadth of illicit harvesting of products from nature reserves, public open space, and other commonage within the City. The compendium records 448 locally occurring species (198 animals and 250 plants) that are extracted for medicinal, energy, ornamental, sustenance, nursery, and other uses. The sustainability of harvesting is questionable; nearly 70% of all harvested flora and 100% of all collected fauna are either killed or reproductively harmed through the harvesting processes. Furthermore, for the 183 indigenous flora species currently recorded on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, 28% (51) hold assessments ranging from Declining through to Critically Endangered. With respect to the more poorly assessed fauna (46 spp.), approximately 24% (11) have Declining or Threatened status.
Management effectiveness evaluations are an increasingly common approach to measuring conservatio... more Management effectiveness evaluations are an increasingly common approach to measuring conservation outcomes within protected areas. While these evaluations have the potential to provide valuable data to guide management, the accuracy of evaluation data is not reported. We investigated how evaluation data are collected and used, the criticisms made of evaluation methods, and the processes employed to address criticisms or ensure accuracy. We found that most evaluation tools use qualitative indicators of management success and rely heavily on the knowledge of protected area managers. Criticisms of the evaluation methods have led to improvements to the data collection process, but the precision and accuracy of these data are almost never measured. We believe that measuring the accuracy of evaluation data will provide important opportunities to improve the rigor of future evaluations and build confidence in the use of these data for adapting protected area management.
This analysis of papers in tourism journals found that tourism research is expanding in volume bu... more This analysis of papers in tourism journals found that tourism research is expanding in volume but is static in content; non-responsive to contemporary issues; dominated by academics; disinterested in resource, host community and cultural issues; oriented towards supply and descriptive rather than directed towards methodology and theory development. Despite concern for sustainability, the absence of resource management in tourism discourse is highlighted. While others have attributed this situation to the evolutionary development of tourism inquiry, this paper suggests that this is symptomatic of a discipline that lacks direction, and which is not moving towards maturity. This situation contrasts with other disciplines where a clear evolutionary development is evident. Our diagnosis is that tourism researchcan and will develop and mature only when it explicitly considers the nature of the tourism resource, and the interaction of the industry with it, thereby finding a place in the spectrum of resource management sciences.
have been utilizing captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) for centuries. The elephant handler... more have been utilizing captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) for centuries. The elephant handler (mahout) profession has remained fundamentally unchanged. Captive elephants, however, are no longer necessary in roles where they were once considered vital, particularly the logging industry. To gauge mahout demographics and assess problems associated with elephant industries, we surveyed 133 mahouts in the Lao PDR. We found that mahoutship is an aging industry with a vanishing family association. Contrasts between logging and tourism mahouts were apparent when observing family tradition, finances, and industry-related experiences. Logging mahouts rely on tourism to provide them with future employment; however, tourism cannot currently employ elephants on a scale similar to that of logging operations. The need for the traditional mahout and a large population of captive elephants may have reached its finality in Laos.
Recovery plans are the main documents supporting management decision-making for threatened specie... more Recovery plans are the main documents supporting management decision-making for threatened species. We evaluated Australian recovery plans to assess their appropriateness as conservation and management planning instruments. Six legislative requirements (species information and general requirements, species distribution and location, known and potential threats, objectives, performance criteria and actions, duration of the plan, and estimated costs of plan implementation) were used to assess the degree of compliance of recovery plans with the relevant legislation. We assessed all 236 official recovery plans which had been adopted as at January 2006. The results showed that plans were most compliant regarding the setting of objectives, performance criteria, recovery actions, and duration of plan. Most plans included a single performance criterion that was generally related to the population status of target species. Improvement is required in relation to identification of current threats and critical habitats, and the establishment of basic elements of monitoring and evaluation for measuring recovery progress. Gaps in ecological information are the main factors affecting adequate compliance with legislative requirements as opposed to managerial information (e.g. clarity in establishing the implementation schedule, costs and resource allocation). Planning deficiencies could be addressed by improving the recovery planning guidelines and more carefully reviewing the drafting and adoption of new plans.
With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of t... more With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of the continental land mass, it is essential that these areas are managed in a sustainable manner so that they can continue to be enjoyed by future generations. Protected areas in Australia and elsewhere are being subject to increasing visitor numbers leading to escalating concerns regarding the impacts that visitors may have on the natural resources of these areas. Protected area managers have the dual obligation of ensuring the ...
While dive tourism enjoys continued growth worldwide, concern exists that it is contributing to t... more While dive tourism enjoys continued growth worldwide, concern exists that it is contributing to the degradation of coral communities, biologically and aesthetically. This study examined the effect of SCUBA diver contacts with coral and other substrates. Ninety-three percent of divers made contact with substrata during a 10-minute observation period with an average of 97 contacts per hour of diving. Two-thirds of the divers caused some coral damage by breaking fragments from fragile coral forms with an average of 19 breakages per hour of diving. Fin damage was the major type of damage. Underwater photographers caused less damage per contact than non-photographers; as did male divers, compared with females. Diver-induced damage decreases with increasing number of logged dives and attendance at pre-dive briefings. Park managers can help reduce impact by identifying and directing use to sites that are resistant to damage, matching diver competence and site preferences, and alerting operators to dive conditions. Minimising impact requires dive operators to be proactive in promoting minimal impact diving behaviour. This includes selecting sites that match diver expectations and experience, and providing pre-dive briefings in the context of diver activities and physical capacity, and site susceptibility to impact and current strength.
Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamen... more Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamental in achieving global conservation goals. Despite this objective, wildlife abundance changes in PAs are patchily documented and poorly understood. Here, we use linear mixed effect models to explore correlates of population change in 1,902 populations of birds and mammals from 447 PAs globally. On an average, we find PAs are maintaining populations of monitored birds and mammals within their boundaries. Wildlife population trends are more positive in PAs located in countries with higher development scores, and for larger-bodied species. These results suggest that active management can consistently overcome disadvantages of lower reproductive rates and more severe threats experienced by larger species of birds and mammals. The link between wildlife trends and national development shows that the social and economic conditions supporting PAs are critical for the successful maintenance of their wildlife populations.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Jan 2, 2016
Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features ... more Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features to meet global biodiversity conservation goals. However, PAs have had variable success, with many failing to fully maintain their biodiversity features. The current literature concerning what drives variability in PA performance is rapidly expanding but unclear, sometimes contradictory, and spread across multiple disciplines. A clear understanding of the drivers of successful biodiversity conservation in PAs is necessary to make them fully effective. Here, we conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current state of knowledge concerning the drivers of biological outcomes within PAs, focusing on those that can be addressed at local scales. We evaluate evidence in support of potential drivers to identify those that enable more successful outcomes and those that impede success and provide a synthetic review. Interactions are discussed where they are known, and we highlight gaps in understa...
Conservation practice reportedly suffers from
low use of technical information. Understanding of ... more Conservation practice reportedly suffers from low use of technical information. Understanding of factors that affect the influence of technical information on management decision-making is limited. We sought to identify leverage points for improved technical information dissemination in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors affecting the influence of different information types on management decisions. Results indicate that managers have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given they operate in an information poor environment. The most influential types of information were those that enabled interaction between information provider and recipient (e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the concordance in individuals’ responses for different information types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational expectation of use was aligned with influence on decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or increasing access to particular types of information is therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on management decision-making. Rather than focussing on matching accessibility and expected use of particular information types, our results indicate that technical information uptake is best supported through existing peer networks tailored to specific work areas.
Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephan... more Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus. We studied the nature and extent of human–elephant interactions in the buffer zones of Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, through household questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews, site observations, and analysis of the reported cases of damage during January 2008–December 2012. During this 5-year period 290 incidents of damage by elephants were reported, with a high concentration of incidents in a few locations. Property damage (53%) was the most common type of damage reported. Crop damage was reported less often but household surveys revealed it to be the most frequent form of conflict. There were also human casualties, including 21 deaths and four serious injuries. More than 90% of the human casualties occurred during 2010–2012. More than two thirds of the respondents (70%) perceived that human–elephant conflict had increased substantially during the previous 5 years. Despite the increase in incidents of human–elephant conflict in the area, 37% of respondents had positive attitudes towards elephant conservation. Our findings suggest that public awareness and compensation for losses could reduce conflict and contribute to ensuring coexistence of people and elephants in this human-dominated landscape.
10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation ... more 10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation and livelihoods in Latin America
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jan 5, 2015
Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable ... more Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable progress towards the global target of having 17% of the world's land area within protected areas by 2020, biodiversity continues to decline. The discrepancy between increasing PA coverage and negative biodiversity trends has resulted in renewed efforts to enhance PA effectiveness. The global conservation community has conducted thousands of assessments of protected area management effectiveness (PAME), and interest in the use of these data to help measure the conservation impact of PA management interventions is high. Here, we summarize the status of PAME assessment, review the published evidence for a link between PAME assessment results and the conservation impacts of PAs, and discuss the limitations and future use of PAME data in measuring the impact of PA management interventions on conservation outcomes. We conclude that PAME data, while designed as a tool for local adaptive man...
Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its rep... more Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its reputation as the best shallow-water reef in Thailand attracted more than 30000 visitors per year to the 8km2 of fringing reef. Visitor management included fees, permits, specific activities management, a zoning plan and an information centre. Zoning plan exclusion areas included the area of highest
Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected... more Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected to achieve an increasingly diverse set of conservation, social and economic objectives. The amount of land and sea designated as formally protected has markedly increased over the past century, but there is still a major shortfall in political commitments to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of protected areas. Financial support for protected areas is dwarfed by the benefits that they provide, but these returns depend on effective management. A step change involving increased recognition, funding, planning and enforcement is urgently needed if protected areas are going to fulfil their potential.
Wild harvesting has taken place over millennia in Africa. However urbanization and cash economies... more Wild harvesting has taken place over millennia in Africa. However urbanization and cash economies have effectively altered harvesting from being cultural, traditional, and subsistence activities that are part of a rural norm, to being a subculture of commonly illicit activities located primarily within the urban, cash-based, informal economy. This paper focuses on Cape Town, South Africa where high levels of poverty and extensive population growth have led to a rapidly growing informal industry based on the cultural, subsistence, and entrepreneurial harvesting and consumption of products obtained from the local natural environment. Through a process of literature reviews, database analysis, and key informant interviews, a compendium of harvested species was developed, illustrating the breadth of illicit harvesting of products from nature reserves, public open space, and other commonage within the City. The compendium records 448 locally occurring species (198 animals and 250 plants) that are extracted for medicinal, energy, ornamental, sustenance, nursery, and other uses. The sustainability of harvesting is questionable; nearly 70% of all harvested flora and 100% of all collected fauna are either killed or reproductively harmed through the harvesting processes. Furthermore, for the 183 indigenous flora species currently recorded on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, 28% (51) hold assessments ranging from Declining through to Critically Endangered. With respect to the more poorly assessed fauna (46 spp.), approximately 24% (11) have Declining or Threatened status.
Management effectiveness evaluations are an increasingly common approach to measuring conservatio... more Management effectiveness evaluations are an increasingly common approach to measuring conservation outcomes within protected areas. While these evaluations have the potential to provide valuable data to guide management, the accuracy of evaluation data is not reported. We investigated how evaluation data are collected and used, the criticisms made of evaluation methods, and the processes employed to address criticisms or ensure accuracy. We found that most evaluation tools use qualitative indicators of management success and rely heavily on the knowledge of protected area managers. Criticisms of the evaluation methods have led to improvements to the data collection process, but the precision and accuracy of these data are almost never measured. We believe that measuring the accuracy of evaluation data will provide important opportunities to improve the rigor of future evaluations and build confidence in the use of these data for adapting protected area management.
This analysis of papers in tourism journals found that tourism research is expanding in volume bu... more This analysis of papers in tourism journals found that tourism research is expanding in volume but is static in content; non-responsive to contemporary issues; dominated by academics; disinterested in resource, host community and cultural issues; oriented towards supply and descriptive rather than directed towards methodology and theory development. Despite concern for sustainability, the absence of resource management in tourism discourse is highlighted. While others have attributed this situation to the evolutionary development of tourism inquiry, this paper suggests that this is symptomatic of a discipline that lacks direction, and which is not moving towards maturity. This situation contrasts with other disciplines where a clear evolutionary development is evident. Our diagnosis is that tourism researchcan and will develop and mature only when it explicitly considers the nature of the tourism resource, and the interaction of the industry with it, thereby finding a place in the spectrum of resource management sciences.
have been utilizing captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) for centuries. The elephant handler... more have been utilizing captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) for centuries. The elephant handler (mahout) profession has remained fundamentally unchanged. Captive elephants, however, are no longer necessary in roles where they were once considered vital, particularly the logging industry. To gauge mahout demographics and assess problems associated with elephant industries, we surveyed 133 mahouts in the Lao PDR. We found that mahoutship is an aging industry with a vanishing family association. Contrasts between logging and tourism mahouts were apparent when observing family tradition, finances, and industry-related experiences. Logging mahouts rely on tourism to provide them with future employment; however, tourism cannot currently employ elephants on a scale similar to that of logging operations. The need for the traditional mahout and a large population of captive elephants may have reached its finality in Laos.
Recovery plans are the main documents supporting management decision-making for threatened specie... more Recovery plans are the main documents supporting management decision-making for threatened species. We evaluated Australian recovery plans to assess their appropriateness as conservation and management planning instruments. Six legislative requirements (species information and general requirements, species distribution and location, known and potential threats, objectives, performance criteria and actions, duration of the plan, and estimated costs of plan implementation) were used to assess the degree of compliance of recovery plans with the relevant legislation. We assessed all 236 official recovery plans which had been adopted as at January 2006. The results showed that plans were most compliant regarding the setting of objectives, performance criteria, recovery actions, and duration of plan. Most plans included a single performance criterion that was generally related to the population status of target species. Improvement is required in relation to identification of current threats and critical habitats, and the establishment of basic elements of monitoring and evaluation for measuring recovery progress. Gaps in ecological information are the main factors affecting adequate compliance with legislative requirements as opposed to managerial information (e.g. clarity in establishing the implementation schedule, costs and resource allocation). Planning deficiencies could be addressed by improving the recovery planning guidelines and more carefully reviewing the drafting and adoption of new plans.
With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of t... more With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of the continental land mass, it is essential that these areas are managed in a sustainable manner so that they can continue to be enjoyed by future generations. Protected areas in Australia and elsewhere are being subject to increasing visitor numbers leading to escalating concerns regarding the impacts that visitors may have on the natural resources of these areas. Protected area managers have the dual obligation of ensuring the ...
While dive tourism enjoys continued growth worldwide, concern exists that it is contributing to t... more While dive tourism enjoys continued growth worldwide, concern exists that it is contributing to the degradation of coral communities, biologically and aesthetically. This study examined the effect of SCUBA diver contacts with coral and other substrates. Ninety-three percent of divers made contact with substrata during a 10-minute observation period with an average of 97 contacts per hour of diving. Two-thirds of the divers caused some coral damage by breaking fragments from fragile coral forms with an average of 19 breakages per hour of diving. Fin damage was the major type of damage. Underwater photographers caused less damage per contact than non-photographers; as did male divers, compared with females. Diver-induced damage decreases with increasing number of logged dives and attendance at pre-dive briefings. Park managers can help reduce impact by identifying and directing use to sites that are resistant to damage, matching diver competence and site preferences, and alerting operators to dive conditions. Minimising impact requires dive operators to be proactive in promoting minimal impact diving behaviour. This includes selecting sites that match diver expectations and experience, and providing pre-dive briefings in the context of diver activities and physical capacity, and site susceptibility to impact and current strength.
In this editorial essay, members of the Editorial Board of PARKS review the status of conservatio... more In this editorial essay, members of the Editorial Board of PARKS review the status of conservation literature. Three problems are identified: 1) the growing gap between the formal conservation literature and the so-called ‘grey literature’ of project reports, studies and working papers;; 2) the effectiveness of the majority of conservation literature in promoting good conservation; and 3) the lack of open access to much of the conservation literature currently available. The article sets out the vision of this journal: PARKS, the International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) expert World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). PARKS aims to encourage new writers, including younger researchers, conservation professionals who do not generally write for peer-reviewed publications and people from developing countries, including indigenous and local people, to share their best practices in protected area management. PARKS is published twice a year as an online, open-access and peer reviewed journal and welcomes submissions of papers from all protected area professionals worldwide.
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Papers by Marc Hockings
low use of technical information. Understanding of factors
that affect the influence of technical information on management
decision-making is limited. We sought to identify
leverage points for improved technical information dissemination
in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife
Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments
in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did
so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors
affecting the influence of different information types on
management decisions. Results indicate that managers
have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given
they operate in an information poor environment. The most
influential types of information were those that enabled
interaction between information provider and recipient
(e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the
concordance in individuals’ responses for different information
types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational
expectation of use was aligned with influence on
decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or
increasing access to particular types of information is
therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on
management decision-making. Rather than focussing on
matching accessibility and expected use of particular
information types, our results indicate that technical
information uptake is best supported through existing peer
networks tailored to specific work areas.
low use of technical information. Understanding of factors
that affect the influence of technical information on management
decision-making is limited. We sought to identify
leverage points for improved technical information dissemination
in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife
Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments
in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did
so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors
affecting the influence of different information types on
management decisions. Results indicate that managers
have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given
they operate in an information poor environment. The most
influential types of information were those that enabled
interaction between information provider and recipient
(e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the
concordance in individuals’ responses for different information
types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational
expectation of use was aligned with influence on
decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or
increasing access to particular types of information is
therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on
management decision-making. Rather than focussing on
matching accessibility and expected use of particular
information types, our results indicate that technical
information uptake is best supported through existing peer
networks tailored to specific work areas.