Douglas A. Clark

Mainstreaming the social sciences in conservation

Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social sciences remain misunderstood and underutilized in practice. The conservation social sciences can provide unique and important contributions to societys understanding of the relationships between humans and nature and to improving conservation practice and outcomes. There are 4 barriers-ideological, institutional, knowledge, and capacity-to meaningful integration of the social sciences into conservation. We provide practical guidance on overcoming these barriers to mainstream the social sciences in conservation science, practice, and policy. Broadly, we recommend fostering knowledge on the scope and contributions of the social sciences to conservation, including social scientists from the inception of interdisciplinary research projects, incorporating social science research and insights during all stages of conservation planning and implementation, building social science capacity at all scales in conservation organizations and agencies, and promoting engagement with the social sciences in and through global conservation policy-influencing organizations. Conservation social scientists, too, need to be willing to engage with natural science knowledge and to communicate insights and recommendations clearly. We urge the conservation community to move beyond superficial engagement with the conservation social sciences. A more inclusive and integrative conservation science-one that includes the natural and social sciences-will enable more ecologically effective and socially just conservation. Better collaboration among social scientists, natural scientists, practitioners, and policy makers will facilitate a renewed and more robust conservation. Mainstreaming the conservation social sciences will facilitate the uptake of the full range of insights and contributions from these fields into conservation policy and practice.

College and University Environmental Programs as a Policy Problem (Part 1): Integrating Knowledge, Education, and Action for a Better World?

The environmental sciences/studies movement, with more than 1000 programs at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, is unified by a common interest—ameliorating environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. Unfortunately, environmental programs have struggled in their efforts to integrate knowledge across disciplines and educate students to become sound problem solvers and leaders. We examine the environmental program movement as a policy problem, looking at overall goals, mapping trends in relation to those goals, identifying the underlying factors contributing to trends, and projecting the future. We argue that despite its shared common interest, the environmental program movement is disparate and fragmented by goal ambiguity, positivistic disciplinary approaches, and poorly rationalized curricula, pedagogies, and educational philosophies. We discuss these challenges and the nature of the changes that are needed in order to overcome them. In a subsequent article (Part 2) we propose specific strategies for improvement.

College and University Environmental Programs as a Policy Problem (Part 2): Strategies for Improvement

Environmental studies and environmental sciences programs in American and Canadian colleges and universities seek to ameliorate environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. In a companion article (Part 1) we describe the environmental program movement (EPM) and discuss factors that have hindered its performance. Here, we complete our analysis by proposing strategies for improvement. We recommend that environmental programs re-organize around three principles. First, adopt as an overriding goal the concept of human dignity—defined as freedom and social justice in healthy, sustainable environments. This clear higher-order goal captures the human and environmental aspirations of the EPM and would provide a more coherent direction for the efforts of diverse participants. Second, employ an explicit, genuinely interdisciplinary analytical framework that facilitates the use of multiple methods to investigate and address environmental and social problems in context. Third, develop educational programs and applied experiences that provide students with the technical knowledge, powers of observation, critical thinking skills and management acumen required for them to become effective professionals and leaders. Organizing around these three principles would build unity in the EPM while at the same time capitalizing on the strengths of the many disciplines and diverse local conditions involved.

Divergent Perspectives on Water Security: Bridging the Policy Debate

Environmental policy discussion is replete with references to water security, food security, ecosystem health, community resilience, sustainable development, and sustainable urbanism. These terms are, by their very nature, ambiguous and difficult to define; they allow room, however, for a variety of actors to conceptualize water, food, ecological, economic, and urban problems in ways that allow them to move forward on contentious issues. This article focuses on the idea of water security and asks how it is conceptualized and used for regional policy debate in western Canada. We asked fifty-eight water stakeholders from the Saskatchewan River Basin to define water security, identify major barriers to security, and prioritize water problems. Responses showed there are myriad ways to think about water security, ranging from narrow conceptualizations, such as reliability, quality, and quantity, to broader sustainability perspectives about the nature of resource development and its social and economic consequences. The human dimensions of water security (governance, land use, and competing demands) were assigned higher priority than its biophysical aspects (flooding, droughts, and climate change). Framing water security to emphasize the human capacity to manage uncertain and rapid biophysical and societal change offers the opportunity to unite actors who otherwise would be separated by core environmental values, definitions of water security, provincial context (Alberta vs. Saskatchewan), and occupation.

Stakeholder Perspectives on Chronic Wasting Disease Risk and Management on the Canadian Prairies

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an infectious disease caused by a prion that results in neurodegeneration and death in cervids. This study uses Q methodology to characterize stakeholder perspectives about CWD risk and management on the Canadian prairies, and to understand the potential for CWD management using an adaptive governance framework. Workshops and individual interviews were conducted with 16 stakeholders in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Problem definitions framed CWD as a technical problem calling for technical solutions. All perspectives on solutions focused on the importance of education and the idea that management should fit within a national management strategy. A unique Aboriginal perspective also emerged and warrants further exploration. Results also indicated that although stakeholders wish to be involved with CWD management, they trust and expect government leadership, and are disinterested in adaptive governance. Challenges for stakeholder involvement in Canadian CWD management include a lack of sufficient leadership and general ambivalence.

Temporal aspects of polar bear (Ursus maritimus) occurrences at field camps in Wapusk National Park, Canada

Interaction between polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and people is a growing concern for both bear conservation and human safety in a warming Arctic climate. Consequently, the importance of monitoring temporal trends in the proximity of polar bears to people has become critical in managing human–polar bear conflicts. Such concerns are acute in Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada on the western Hudson Bay coast, where we deployed 18 camera traps at three remote field camps from 2010 to 2014 (~22,100 camera days) to monitor the frequency and timing of bears’ visits to those facilities. Following seasonal breakup of Hudson Bay’s sea-ice polar bear occurrences at these camps increased throughout the summer and into fall (low in May–July and increasing sharply through August–November and then approaching zero in December when Hudson Bay freezes). We quantified age and sex class and estimated body condition of bears visiting the camps: adult males were most prevalent at Nester One camp close to where adult males congregate at Cape Churchill, whereas the two camps farther south were visited more frequently by females with dependent young, likely traveling to and from a known maternal denning area. Few sub-adults were observed. As expected, body condition scores declined throughout the on-shore season. Our method of monitoring polar bear occurrence on shore is robust, cost-effective, and non-invasive, and so may provide an economical complement to data gathered through more conventional techniques.

Polar bear science: characterizing relationship patterns and identifying opportunities

ABSTRACT The polar bear science network is a relatively young knowledge domain that was originally dominated by natural scientists but has evolved to include social scientists. We used social network analysis (SNA) to examine the existing patterns of collaboration within the network, look for opportunities for collaboration between researchers, and describe the roles of natural and social scientists within the network. We analyzed articles published by polar bear scientists over a 40-year period (1973–2013) using SNA. The results show that the network has a low density, which indicates a sparely connected network. The network cannot be divided into factions according to disciplines, indicating cross-discipline collaboration. The network is also hierarchical and held together by 10 researchers – who, if removed, result in a fragmented network. We discuss the implications of the network structure for research and the opportunities it offers for collaboration amongst polar bear researchers.

Finding Dahshaa: self-government, social suffering, and Aboriginal policy in Canada

overview. The main addition to the fourth edition is a chapter on geopolitics, climate warming, and the Arctic Ocean, reflective of the growing interest in and importance of the Arctic region in international affairs. Bone does an admirable job introducing readers to the complex issues of melting sea ice, ‘climate warming’ and Canada’s sovereignty disputes (Hans Island, Northwest Passage, and the Beaufort Sea); however, he does not delve very far into international relations and their (growing) consequences for the region, true to the book’s exclusive focus on the Canadian North. Overall, the book is much more than the sum of its parts. Indeed, the main strength is the way in which Bone is able to weave the different chapters together as part of a larger, single narrative on the future of the North and how resource development will affect it: will the North of the tomorrow be like the South of today? Or will it break the prevailing mold and reflect a different culture and vision of development? Either way, Bone sees a need for a strong national leadership in closing the economic and social gap between southern and northern Canada a nation-building project for the twenty-first century. Northern Canada is a complex region physically, socially, and economically. Regardless of one’s professional or academic interest in the North, it is almost always necessary to have broad knowledge of the region, whether it is a political scientist needing to understand the hydrocarbon resources contained in the Arctic continental shelf; or a mining executive needing to understand the history of aboriginal peoples and their past experience with megaprojects. Bone’s fourth edition of The Canadian North: Issues and Challenges performs this task admirably. It can be highly recommended as a comprehensive reference book on the Canadian North as well as a textbook for upper-year or even graduate courses on Canadian, Northern, or Arctic courses.