Managerial implications of the enduring WVO concept

We initiated research on wildlife value orientations (WVO) to assist in developing long-range planning for fish and wildlife resources. Planning and management requires an integration of descriptive and normative information... [ view full abstract ]

We initiated research on wildlife value orientations (WVO) to assist in developing long-range planning for fish and wildlife resources. Planning and management requires an integration of descriptive and normative information to establish goals and objective to direct action. From a normative planning perspective, goals and objectives are a restatement of human values addressing what future conditions should be and how these conditions should be achieved.  For this reason, WVO are a crucial concept in fisheries and wildlife planning and management.  Research findings using the WVO concept provide relevant implications for fish and wildlife planning and decision-making.   Research findings demonstrate the WVO are closely correlate to preference for management policies, outcomes, and actions.  Such information could be used by agencies to help craft policies that have broad support. A detectable shift in WVO from domination-oriented to mutualistic is occurring within the U.S. and possibly in other countries.  But, the shift is slow and values and related WVO are maintained across generations.  For this reason, a plurality of WVO is likely to persist during the next several decades.  Diverse segments of the general public and stakeholders with contrasting WVO will be present in the broader society and management environment.  Conflicts based in differences in WVO among these diverse segments will define fisheries and wildlife conservation issues.  In addition, the gaps in WVO between the institutions with formal responsibility for fish and wildlife management and the general public and key stakeholder groups will likely intensify.  Agreement on the goals and objectives for fish and wildlife conservation and management across these diverse segments of society will be increasingly difficult to achieve.  In addition, contrasting WVO in different geographic regions of states, regions and nations and across different levels of social organization will exacerbate land-scape level planning efforts such as those involving migratory species. Developing collaborative decision processes and goverance structures that help enhance trust in the agencies and across the diverse segments of society could assist managers navigate the complexities of managing conflict inherent with conflicting WVO.  A program of applied research that focuses on increasing our understanding of multi-level WVO within social-ecological systems could prove invaluable to fish and wildlife managers in the task of improving decision-processes and enhancing trust in the next few decades.  Currently, most agencies do not have the capabilities to incorporate such basic social science information into their decision-processes.  To do so might require fundamental changes in organizational structures.