Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and they perceive that they have changed their behaviour. The reported change in
perceived behaviour is not necessarily the same as actual change in behaviour. This
may be due to people not telling the truth, but often it is at least partly because
what people think they are doing isn't what they are actually doing. So, for example,
if we wished to assess whether conservation action had led to people hunting an
endangered species in a more sustainable way, we could ask how people now feel
about the species, or whether they have changed their hunting behaviour, or we
could observe whether hunting mortality has indeed declined. Only the last of
these is directly related to extinction risk (although even then there is still the ques-
tion of whether reduced hunting mortality is actually leading to species recovery;
the methods in Chapter 2 are needed to shed light on this). Holmes (2003) exam-
ined 18 studies of community attitudes towards conservation, and found only 2
that considered whether attitudinal changes had indeed led to behavioural
changes. The others either assumed, or stated explicitly, that attitudes were an ade-
quate proxy for behaviour. It is fine to measure community attitudes to conserva-
tion if that is your research question, but it is important to be aware that attitudes,
perceptions and action are not equivalent.
Studies of sustainability concern change over time. However, the past cannot be
measured directly. If there are no contemporary data available, then inevitably we
need to rely on people's recall of the past . Hence we might ask questions about
how the abundance of a species has changed over the last 10 years. However, the
past is filtered through people's perceptions, whether it is 1 day or 30 years ago.
Perceptions may or may not be an accurate reflection of actual events. There are
techniques that can help minimise biases when using recall data, which are dis-
cussed below. But it is worth thinking in advance about whether it is possible to get
data that are not based on recall.
Finally, human relationships with the environment take place on many scales . At
the smallest scale it is individuals who kill or collect animals or gather plants. But
they live within a social network, including the household, the immediate commu-
nity, trade networks, and the larger-scale institutions, such as national and local gov-
ernment and international treaties. Conservation action can occur at any of these
scales, and is often characterised as being 'top-down' (targeting governments and
other large-scale institutions) or 'bottom-up' (targeting individuals and communi-
ties). Although this characterisation is simplistic, it is important to consider early on
what the appropriate scale of investigation is for your research question.
3.2.2 Ethical issues
Research on the sustainability of wildlife use is an ethical minefield. It is particu-
larly so because unsustainable wildlife use is often illegal. There are a number of
codes of conduct that can help you to follow best practice (see the end of the chapter
for links). Here are some particularly relevant points:
It is important to avoid creating unrealistic expectations . Just by being in a
community carrying out research, you may lead people to expect benefits.
 
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