Comprehensive Notes on Wildlife Management and Decision-Making Principles

Science+Values=Wildlife Management Decisions

Decision Making in Wildlife and Fisheries Management

  • Key Processes: Understanding effective decision-making is crucial for managers in wildlife and fisheries management.

    • Common Challenges: Human tendencies may complicate robust decision-making processes.

    • Adaptive Management: Employed to build a systematic approach to learn from management outcomes and adjust strategies accordingly.

Basic Decision-Making Principles (PrOACT)

  • Framework: The decision-making process follows a six-step framework: Problem, Objectives, Alternatives, Consequences, Tradeoffs.

  • Non-linear Decisions: Recognizes the urgency in emergency situations with limited time to decide.

Key Definitions

  • Adaptive Management: A structured process aimed at reducing uncertainty over time through monitoring and adjustment based on feedback.

  • Decision Trees: Tools to visualize decision options along with consequences and utilities.

  • Anchoring: The use of the initial piece of information upon which to make judgments

  • Complexity (system): Interconnecting parts or elements

  • Decision Support System (DSS): Process and data required to assist with analytical decision making
    within an organization

  • Expert System: A process that makes use of expert knowledge to select a decision action

  • Heuristic: Methods that help with learning and decision-making through simplified processes.

  • Management: Process of setting strategies to deal with or control things or people

  • Predictive Models: Mathematical representation of the most important features of an ecological system that may be used (with some reliability) to predict ecological states in the future

  • Satisficing: A decision making strategy in which available alternatives are researched until and acceptability threshold is met

  • Stakeholder (management): A party that has an interest in the decision process

  • Stereotyping: Using a categorization system to help simply and systemize information

  • Stochastic: Randomly determined process

  • Structured Decision-Making: An approach to identifying alternatives, evaluating tradeoffs, and making decisions in complicated situations

  • Tradeoffs (management): Qualities that increase or decrease depending on the selected management action

  • Utility Value: Relative satisfaction received from a given management outcome, symbolized R.

Challenges in Natural Resource Decision-Making

  • Complexity and Uncertainty: Factors such as subjective value assessment and ecological unpredictability can complicate decision-making.

  • Examples of Poor Predictions: Historical examples like the introduction of invasive species and ineffective wildlife control measures that led to broader ecological impacts.

Human Tendencies in Decision-Making

  • Cognitive Biases: Examples include:

    • Confirmation Bias: Favoring information that aligns with pre-existing beliefs.

    • Sunk Cost Effect: Continuing a venture because prior investments have been made, regardless of future viability.

Structure of Decision-Making

  • Descriptive Frameworks: Two forms of decision-making structures exist:

    • Structured Decision Making (SDM): Appropriate for complex decisions with known objectives, stable contexts, and singular decision makers.

      • 1% of decision making

    • Adaptive Structured Decision Making: Where uncertainty is high, allowing for flexibility and learning through trial and error.

Decision Selection and Evaluation

  • Implementing Decisions: After selecting alternatives through PrOACT, monitoring is crucial to assess the efficacy of management strategies.

  • Adaptive Management: A cyclic process involving trial and error to refine management decisions based on outcomes.

Summary of Key Concepts

  • Importance of Structure: Both wildlife and fisheries management require structured approaches to navigate complex decision landscapes.

  • Balancing Objectives: Decisions need to weigh environmental health against socio-economic values.

  • Use of Analytical Tools: Predictive models, decision trees, and influence diagrams support the process of evaluating potential actions and their consequences.