COS 172-3 - Conservation, conflict, and core beliefs: examining conflict and opportunities towards transformation in an orca-salmon-human system

Background/Question/Methods

Human activities have resulted in unprecedented environmental degradation. Conservation interventions intended to protect ecosystems increasingly conflict with other human activities, often resulting in tense conflict among people, communities, and wildlife. These ‘conservation conflicts’ can result from clashes in goals, objectives, and deeply-rooted beliefs, and often seem intractable due to their complexity and resistance to solutions. A first step in overcoming conflicts is examining their roots in people’s identities and beliefs - rather than focusing solely on the visible conflicts at hand (e.g. disagreements regarding management). In the Salish Sea region of British Columbia, Canada, conflict has emerged surrounding Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW) (Orcinus orca) and Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). SRKW are critically endangered due to intersecting stressors – among them depletion of Chinook. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has passed measures that restrict recreational fishing of Chinook to protect SRKW. Public response to protection measures has been conflict-laden and is especially tense between so-called angler and conservation-oriented communities – two stakeholder groups assumed to be distinct and at opposite sides of conflict. Employing social science methods, we used online surveys to examine the social identity, environmental identity, beliefs, and opinions of those involved in this conflict.

Results/Conclusions

Most survey participants (n = 816) self-identified as either conservation-supporters (49%) or anglers (33%). Our analyses revealed demographic differences, with anglers generally overrepresented by men, those with higher incomes, and those with 2-year terminal degrees (opposed to 4-year degrees). Both groups scored similarly high in environmental identity and stakeholder identify affiliation scores, also showing positive correlations between the intensity of environmental identity and stakeholder affiliation with participation in public discourse. Stakeholder groups differed strongly in management opinions and beliefs – with conservation-supporters almost united in valuing conservation as a core management priority (83%), whereas anglers were divided in whether to prioritize protection of economically-valuable natural resources (33%), conservation (35%), or take a balanced approach (32%). Conservation-supporters were more likely to assert that the loss of SRKW would have a negative impact on them, and that SRKW were important to British Columbia, than were anglers. Ultimately, our results identify conflicts between Salish Sea stakeholder groups as deeply-embedded. Commonalities (especially in beliefs regarding Chinook salmon), however, identify a path forward that draws on conflict transformation theory. More broadly, our approach offers new generalizable insight into the levels-of-conflict framework within conservation conflict transformation theory to inform scholarly and practical endeavours.