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Breaking the deadlock on ivory
Poaching for ivory has caused a steep decline in African elephant (Loxodonta africana) populations over the past decade. This crisis has fueled a contentious global debate over which ivory policy would best protect elephants: banning all ivory trade or enabling regulated trade to incentivize and fund elephant conservation. The deep-seated deadlock on ivory policy consumes valuable resources and creates an antagonistic environment among elephant conservationists. Successful solutions must begin by recognizing the different values that influence stakeholder cognitive frameworks of how actions lead to outcomes (“mental models”), and therefore their diverging positions on ivory trade.
Duan Biggs, Matthew H. Holden, Alex Braczkowski, Carly N. Cook, E. J. Milner-Gulland, Jacob Phelps, Robert J. Scholes, Robert J. Smith, Fiona M. Underwood, Vanessa M. Adams, James Allan, Henry Brink, Rosie Cooney, Yufang Gao, Jon Hutton, Eve Macdonald-Madden, Martine Maron, Kent H. Redford, William J. Sutherland and Hugh P. Possingham. Breaking the deadlock on ivory. Science 358 (6369), 1378-1381. DOI: 10.1126/science.aan5215
Published: Dec 2017 | Categories: Research Articles