A typology of time-scale mismatches and behavioral interventions to diagnose and solve conservation problems.
Abstract
Ecological systems often operate on time scales significantly longer or shorter than
the time scales typical of human decision making, which causes substantial difficulty
for conservation and management in socioecological systems. For example, invasive
species may move faster than humans can diagnose problems and initiate solutions,
and climate systems may exhibit long-term inertia and short-term fluctuations that
obscure learning about the efficacy of management efforts in many ecological systems.
We adopted a management-decision framework that distinguishes decision makers within
public institutions from individual actors within the social system, calls attention
to the ways socioecological systems respond to decision makers' actions, and notes
institutional learning that accrues from observing these responses. We used this framework,
along with insights from bedeviling conservation problems, to create a typology that
identifies problematic time-scale mismatches occurring between individual decision
makers in public institutions and between individual actors in the social or ecological
system. We also considered solutions that involve modifying human perception and behavior
at the individual level as a means of resolving these problematic mismatches. The
potential solutions are derived from the behavioral economics and psychology literature
on temporal challenges in decision making, such as the human tendency to discount
future outcomes at irrationally high rates. These solutions range from framing environmental
decisions to enhance the salience of long-term consequences, to using structured decision
processes that make time scales of actions and consequences more explicit, to structural
solutions aimed at altering the consequences of short-sighted behavior to make it
less appealing. Additional application of these tools and long-term evaluation measures
that assess not just behavioral changes but also associated changes in ecological
systems are needed.
Type
Journal articleSubject
decision theorydisminuciones temporales
economics
economía
psicología
psychology
sistemas socio-ecológicos
socioecological systems
temporal lags
teoría de decisión
Conservation of Natural Resources
Decision Making
Environmental Policy
Time Factors
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15183Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1111/cobi.12632Publication Info
Wilson, Robyn S; Hardisty, David J; Epanchin-Niell, Rebecca S; Runge, Michael C; Cottingham,
Kathryn L; Urban, Dean L; ... Peters, Debra PC (2016). A typology of time-scale mismatches and behavioral interventions to diagnose and solve
conservation problems. Conserv Biol, 30(1). pp. 42-49. 10.1111/cobi.12632. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15183.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Lynn A. Maguire
Professor of the Practice Emeritus
Dr. Maguire's current research uses a combination of methods from decision analysis,
environmental conflict resolution and social psychology to study environmental decision
making. She focuses on collaborative decision processes where values important to
the general public and stakeholders must be combined with technical analysis to determine
management strategies. Her recent applications of decision analysis include the management
of rare species, invasive species, and wildfire risk. Dr. Maguir
Dean L. Urban
Professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy
My interest in landscape ecology focuses on the agents and implications of pattern
in forested landscapes. Increasingly, my research is in what has been termed "theoretical
applied ecology," developing new analytic approaches to applications of immediate
practical concern such as conservation planning. A hallmark of my Lab is the integration
of field studies, spatial analysis, and simulation modeling in extrapolating our fine-scale
empirical understanding of environmental issues to the
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