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Seeing the Elephant: Holistic Intelligence for Solving Wildlife-Related Problems
David Mattson |
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Wildlife-related problems in mountain areas are rooted
in not only biophysical conditions, but also in human
practices, decision-making, perspectives,
value-orientations, and nature myths. The fact that many
human participants have different definitions of “the
problem” also means that governance itself can be
problematic. For that reason, enduring solutions to
wildlife-related problems often need to deal with most
or all of these elements. “Integration” is a natural
by-product of policy processes that focus on solving
problems, and is emblematic of seeking out, creating,
and employing relevant information about humans and
biophysical systems, organized in maximally useful ways.
Broadly speaking, the provision and organization of
information and insight needed to solve wildlife-related
problems can be labeled “intelligence activities.”
Intelligence activities encompass both science and
analysis, and are judged by sufficiency; i.e., is the
provided insight sufficient to solve the identified
problem(s)? Sufficient intelligence almost always
derives from a holistic problem-solving view of human
and biophysical systems. This paradigm is in contrast to
conventional disciplinary approaches to management or
conservation that define problems in terms of
biophysical conditions and under-attend to human
elements. Available resources are often allocated to
collecting information about biophysical elements and to
understanding biophysical systems. This neglect of human
dimensions in problem definition and intelligence
activities often contributes to conflict, respect
deprivations, and the service of special rather than
common interests as an outcome of wildlife-related
policy processes. Holistic context-sensitive approaches
to the solution of wildlife-related problems are
becoming more common. Even so, bounded disciplinary
approaches remain the norm.
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