Selection and Implementation of a Flagship Fleet in a Locally Undervalued Region of High Endemicity

Root‐Bernstein, Meredith; Armestó, Juan J.

doi:10.1007/s13280-013-0385-7

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…) and action efficacy, which mediate the relationship between anthropomorphism and self‐reported conservation behavior (Tam ). Numerous authors suggest the use of anthropomorphized narratives as a conservation tool to increase the charismatic representation and empathy for individual species (Chan ; Root‐Bernstein & Armesto ; Root‐Bernstein et al. ), but we found little evidence that anthropomorphism is used to promote plant conservation.…”

Section: Appropriate Anthropomorphization Of Plantscontrasting

confidence: 71%

Plant blindness and the implications for plant conservation

Balding

Williams

2016

Conservation Biology

205

146

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Plant conservation initiatives lag behind and receive considerably less funding than animal conservation projects. We explored a potential reason for this bias: a tendency among humans to neither notice nor value plants in the environment. Experimental research and surveys have demonstrated higher preference for, superior recall of, and better visual detection of animals compared with plants. This bias has been attributed to perceptual factors such as lack of motion by plants and the tendency of plants to visually blend together but also to cultural factors such as a greater focus on animals in formal biological education. In contrast, ethnographic research reveals that many social groups have strong bonds with plants, including nonhierarchical kinship relationships. We argue that plant blindness is common, but not inevitable. If immersed in a plant-affiliated culture, the individual will experience language and practices that enhance capacity to detect, recall, and value plants, something less likely to occur in zoocentric societies. Therefore, conservation programs can contribute to reducing this bias. We considered strategies that might reduce this bias and encourage plant conservation behavior. Psychological research demonstrates that people are more likely to support conservation of species that have human-like characteristics and that support for conservation can be increased by encouraging people to practice empathy and anthropomorphism of nonhuman species. We argue that support for plant conservation may be garnered through strategies that promote identification and empathy with plants.

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Section: Appropriate Anthropomorphization Of Plantscontrasting

confidence: 71%

Plant blindness and the implications for plant conservation

Balding

Williams

2016

Conservation Biology

205

146

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“…Human-wildlife conflicts, at least with tourists and highly educated groups interested in nature, should be low-but the views of locals also need to be studied. Confirming previous studies, we find that the comparative and baseline landscape appreciation of central Chile is currently low (Fuentes et al 1984;de Val et al 2004;Root-Bernstein and Armesto 2013;Root-Bernstein 2014). People in our sample, as in other populations, are attracted by large, supposedly charismatic species, of which the guanaco was one (Leader-Williams and Dublin 2000).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…We used a sampling frame targeting middle-upper class dwellers of Santiago, with a variable engagement with nature-related topics, for which we have a comparative baseline of naturerelated attitudes (Root-Bernstein and Armesto 2013;RootBernstein 2014). This urban, higher-income, higher-education group also represents people with economic, social, and political influence over conservation and development issues in central Chile, through local tourism, investment, and access to centralized policy-making positions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Central Chile, the only mediterranean-like ecosystem of South America, has a high biodiversity and endemicity rate (Simonetti 1999;Myers et al 2000). However, compared to the scenic and natural resource-rich north and south of Chile, silvopastoral and other anthropogenic mediterranean-climate landscapes of central Chile are generally perceived as less important to economic development and less beautiful (Fuentes et al 1984;de Val et al 2004;Root-Bernstein and Armesto 2013). Central Chilean habitats range from sclerophyllous forests and shrub habitat (matorral) to savanna-like silvopastoral systems called 'espinal' (Armesto et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These factors might explain why central Chile has the lowest protected area coverage and conservation effort within Chile (Pauchard and Villarroel 2002). Root-Bernstein and Armesto (2013) propose a 'flagship fleet' to improve awareness of the conservation value of central Chile, composed of eight species, including small and medium sized mammals, birds, reptiles, invertebrates, and trees. The flagship fleet approach might overcome the absence of a large and unequivocally charismatic animal in the region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phoenix flagships: Conservation values and guanaco reintroduction in an anthropogenic landscape

Lindon

Root‐Bernstein

2014

Ambio

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Multiple forms of valuation contribute to public acceptance of conservation projects. Here, we consider how esthetic, intrinsic, and utilitarian values contribute to public attitudes toward a proposed reintroduction of guanaco (Lama guanicoe) in a silvopastoral system of central Chile. The nexus among landscape perceptions and valuations, support for reintroductions, and management of anthropogenic habitats is of increasing interest due to the proliferation of conservation approaches combining some or all of these elements, including rewilding and reconciliation ecology, for example. We assessed attitudes and values through an online questionnaire for residents of Santiago, Chile, using multiple methods including photo-montages and Likert scale assessments of value-based statements. We also combined the questionnaire approach with key informant interviews. We find strong support for the reintroduction of guanacos into the Chilean silvopastoral system ('espinal') in terms of esthetic and intrinsic values but less in terms of utilitarian values. Respondents preferred a scenario of espinal with guanacos and expressed interest in visiting it, as well as support for the reintroduction project on the basis that guanacos are native to central Chile. We suggest that reintroduced guanacos could serve as a 'phoenix flagship species' for espinal conservation, that is, a flagship species that has gone regionally extinct and is known but not associated with the region in the cultural memory. We consider how the lack of local cultural identity can both help and weaken phoenix flagships, which we expect to become more common.

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Anthropomorphized species as tools for conservation: utility beyond prosocial, intelligent and suffering species

et al. 2013

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Anthropomorphism has recently emerged in the literature as a useful tool for conservation. Within the current conservation literature, description of the development of anthropomorphisms and the range of species that can be anthropomorphized overlooks established and emerging evidence from anthropological and other social science studies of human-animal relationships. This research shows that people anthropomorphize a very broad range of species, including plants. We discuss how people construct anthropomorphic meanings around species, through a diversity of mechanisms and with both positive and negative effects. We then review the many gradations and forms of anthropomorphism, and some related conceptions in non-Western cultures, which have different types of utility for conservation. Finally we discuss cases where animals are anthropomorphized but with negative outcomes for human-animal interactions and conservation. Limiting the use of anthropomorphism in conservation to prosocial, intelligent, suffering animals risks suggesting that other species are not worthy of conservation because they are not like humans in the ''right'' ways. It would also mean overlooking the application of a powerful tool to the promotion of low-profile species with high biological conservation value. We emphasize that negative outcomes and conflicts with ecosystem-level conservation actions are also possible and need to be carefully managed. Use of anthropomorphism in 123Biodivers Conserv (2013( ) 22:1577( -1589( DOI 10.1007 conservation must take into account how people engage with species and attribute value to their characteristics.

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Selection and Implementation of a Flagship Fleet in a Locally Undervalued Region of High Endemicity

Cited by 16 publications

References 27 publications

Plant blindness and the implications for plant conservation

Plant blindness and the implications for plant conservation

Phoenix flagships: Conservation values and guanaco reintroduction in an anthropogenic landscape

Anthropomorphized species as tools for conservation: utility beyond prosocial, intelligent and suffering species

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