Browsing by Author "Milner-Gulland, E. J."

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    A dynamic simulation model to support reduction in illegal trade within legal wildlife markets
    (2022) Oyanedel, Rodrigo; Gelcich, Stefan; Mathieu, Emile; Milner-Gulland, E. J.
    Sustainable wildlife trade is critical for biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, and food security. Regulatory frameworks are needed to secure these diverse benefits of sustainable wildlife trade. However, regulations limiting trade can backfire, sparking illegal trade if demand is not met by legal trade alone. Assessing how regulations affect wildlife market participants' incentives is key to controlling illegal trade. Although much research has assessed how incentives at both the harvester and consumer ends of markets are affected by regulations, little has been done to understand the incentives of traders (i.e., intermediaries). We built a dynamic simulation model to support reduction in illegal wildlife trade within legal markets by focusing on incentives traders face to trade legal or illegal products. We used an Approximate Bayesian Computation approach to infer illegal trading dynamics and parameters that might be unknown (e.g., price of illegal products). We showcased the utility of the approach with a small-scale fishery case study in Chile, where we disentangled within-year dynamics of legal and illegal trading and found that the majority (similar to 77%) of traded fish is illegal. We utilized the model to assess the effect of policy interventions to improve the fishery's sustainability and explore the trade-offs between ecological, economic, and social goals. Scenario simulations showed that even significant increases (over 200%) in parameters proxying for policy interventions enabled only moderate improvements in ecological and social sustainability of the fishery at substantial economic cost. These results expose how unbalanced trader incentives are toward trading illegal over legal products in this fishery. Our model provides a novel tool for promoting sustainable wildlife trade in data-limited settings, which explicitly considers traders as critical players in wildlife markets. Sustainable wildlife trade requires incentivizing legal over illegal wildlife trade and consideration of the social, ecological, and economic impacts of interventions.
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    A framework for assessing and intervening in markets driving unsustainable wildlife use
    (2021) Oyanedel, Rodrigo; Gelcich, Stefan; Milner-Gulland, E. J.
    Understanding how markets drive unsustainable wildlife use is key for biodiversity conservation. Yet most approaches to date look at isolated components of wildlife markets, hindering our ability to intervene effectively to improve sustainability. To better assess and intervene in wildlife markets, we propose a framework that integrates three analytical levels. The first level, "actor", assesses the underlying motivations and mechanisms that allow or constrain how actors benefit from wildlife markets. The second level, "inter-actor", assesses the config-uration of wildlife product supply-chains and the type of competition between actors participating in wildlife markets. The third level, "market", evaluates supply-demand dynamics, quantity and price determinants, and the presence and effect of illegal products flowing into markets. We showcase the utility of the framework in a data-limited small-scale fishery case study (common hake, Merluccius gayi gayi in Chile); our mixed-method analysis provided relevant, tailored management recommendations for improving sustainability. Tackling markets driving unsustainable wildlife use needs integrated approaches that bring together the diversity of factors affecting wildlife market dynamics. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    Local disconnects in global discourses-The unintended consequences of marine mammal protection on small-scale fishers
    (2021) Davis, Katrina J.; Alfaro-Shigueto, Joanna; Arlidge, William N. S.; Burton, Michael; Mangel, Jeffrey C.; Mills, Morena; Milner-Gulland, E. J.; Palma-Duque, Jose; Romero-de-Diego, Cristina; Gelcich, Stefan
    Global commitments prioritize protection of wildlife and improvements to human wellbeing. Local disconnects in these commitments are rarely acknowledged-or their implications assessed-preventing the development of effective solutions. National and international efforts to protect marine mammals along South America's west coast have contributed to species recovery, but also to conflict between sea lions and small-scale fisheries. To understand the concerns ultimately motivating this conflict, we assessed how 301 coastal small-scale fishers perceive their interactions with South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens). We then reviewed the terrestrial human-wildlife literature to identify potential management solutions to resolve the conflict. We find that fishers are chiefly concerned with increases in sea lion populations, perceive that sea lion interactions have significantly increased over the past 80 years, and report sea lion-driven catch and income losses of >= 26%. We propose solutions to manage conflict that are sensitive to heterogeneity among fisher groups.