Social Preferences for Adaptation Measures to Conserve Australian Birds Threatened by Climate Change

Social preferences for adaptation measures to conserve Australian birds threatened by climate change S TEPHEN T. GARNETT,KERSTIN K. ZANDER,SHANNON H AGERMAN T ERRE A. SATTERFIELD and J ÜRGEN M EYERHOFF Abstract Debate about climate change adaptation for bio- McDaniels, ), with solutions as much values-based as diversity, and the ethics and consequences of assisted colon- technical (Hewitt et al., ) and with pros and cons evident ization in particular, has polarized professional opinion but in all options. Assisted colonization (also called assisted mi- the views of the wider community are unknown. We tested gration; Hewitt et al., ), in which climate-challenged four hypotheses about the acceptability of adaptation strat- taxa are moved to places where the climate is predicted to egies among a sample of the Australian general public using be more suitable, may also provide opportunities for inva- a combination of direct questions and a choice experiment. sive species (Ricciardi & Simberloff, ). Adaptive intro- We found that () among the % who wanted extinction gression, where new genes that could aid adaptation are avoided, increased in situ management of wild populations introduced to climate-affected populations (Hamilton & was preferred to captive breeding or assisted colonization, Miller, ), can compromise species integrity (Gómez () preferences for adaptation strategies were not explained et al., ). Captive breeding will inevitably cause loss of by gender, income, education or knowledge about birds, () genetic variability (Araki et al., ) even if current cap- genetically distinctive taxa were not actively preferred, () acity constraints (Alroy, ) can be overcome. Less intru- . % of respondents were content for conservation man- sive approaches, such as intensified in-situ management of agers to make decisions about strategies rather than local sensitive species, are potentially only short-term invest- communities or the general public. The results provide ments given the inevitability of climate change (West Australian policy makers with a mandate to bolster efforts et al., ). Landscape corridors can aid the spread of in- to retain existing populations but suggest that assisted col- vasive species (Resasco et al., ). onization and captive breeding could be accepted if This uncertainty about outcomes means policy makers essential. have little clear direction regarding how best to allocate adaptation investment, or whether to invest at all. This is be- Keywords Assisted colonization, biodiversity, captive cause it is unclear which, if any, potential adaptation action breeding, choice experiment, climate change, threatened has the strongest social licence to proceed (Klenk & Larson, species ). As is evident from the broader climate change debate, The supplementary material for this article can be found at technical disagreements potentially create space for oppo- https://doi.org/./S nents of potential adaptation actions to delay changes by in- creasing political risk (Ceccarelli, ). Thus, actions lacking a social licence are unlikely to receive either author- ization from the State or the public funding that will in most Introduction cases be required to put them into effect (Burbidge et al., ). Social responses to climate change adaptation are any potential approaches to helping biodiversity both culturally contingent and malleable (Adger et al., adapt to climate change are controversial (Tam & M ); nonetheless, establishing the strength of public opinion before any actions are decided can both inform policy STEPHEN T. GARNETT Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, and enhance political confidence in the face of potential Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia opposition. KERSTIN K. ZANDER (Corresponding author) Northern Institute, Charles Darwin Some studies have gauged the opinion of conservation University, Darwin, Australia. E-mail [email protected] scientists on climate change adaptation (Hagerman et al., SHANNON HAGERMAN Department of Forest Resources Management, University ; Hagerman & Satterfield, ; Hancock & Gallagher, of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada ). Scientific knowledge is certainly essential to TERRE A. SATTERFIELD Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Prince George, Canada understanding the technical feasibility of management. However, in a democracy, the opinions of scientists about JÜRGEN MEYERHOFF Institute of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Technische Univerität Berlin, Germany public policy have no more legitimacy than those of lay Received May . Revision requested August . members of the public. There are many examples of envir- Accepted September . First published online January . onmental legislation that protects even obscure species, Oryx, 2018, 52(2), 325–335 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316001058 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.126, on 27 Sep 2021 at 14:29:08, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001058 326 Stephen T. Garnett et al. about which the public has little knowledge, including some The first section of the questionnaire described the four with substantial economic, social and political conse- case study birds and potential adaptation strategies for se- quences. Thus, policy makers need to understand public curing their future (Supplementary Material ). The bird opinion even where there is likely to be little understanding taxa were the rufous scrub-bird Atrichornis rufescens, one of the positions held by conservation scientists or of the of only two members of an ancient Australian passerine technical matters relating to those positions. bird family, the Atrichornithidae; the scrubtit Acanthornis Our main aim is to ascertain the current level of accept- magna, one of two endemic monotypic Tasmanian species ance by the Australian public of proposed conservation ac- but a member of a widespread family, the Acanthizidae; and tions that would help birds adapt to climate change. These two subspecies of another member of the Acanthizidae, are based on realistic scenarios and associated actions that the relatively common and widespread brown thornbill emerged from an analysis of the effects of climate on all Acanthiza pusilla, one from mainland Australia (A. pusilla Australian birds, which showed that for c. bird taxa pusilla) and one from Tasmania (A. pusilla tasmanicus). By the climate where they currently live will be quite different areas in Tasmania will potentially have suitable climat- in years (Garnett et al., ). The proposed conservation ic characteristics for the scrub-bird and mainland subspe- management actions were increased in situ conservation, cies of thornbill, similar to where they currently occur, assisted colonization and the establishment of captive and to which they could be moved. The scrub-bird has no populations (e.g. in zoos). Experts favour greater investment close relatives in Tasmania. The mainland subspecies of in reducing threats in situ over assisted colonization brown thornbill would probably interbreed with individuals (Hancock & Gallagher, ), but no survey had been con- of the Tasmanian subspecies, meaning neither population ducted among the general public in Australia or elsewhere would be the pure form. The scrubtit and the Tasmanian to investigate whether they knew or cared about proposed thornbill subspecies have no prospective climate space in actions at this stage in the debate. Australia but adaptation options offered for all four taxa in- Also, because choices about which birds to conserve are cluded both intensive management within their current likely to be compounded by the attractiveness of the taxa range to help birds cope with climate change, and keeping concerned, we tried to choose birds with a relatively low populations in zoos indefinitely. The status quo was to do public profile. We also chose a mixture of species and sub- nothing, with the most likely consequence being eventual species with various levels of taxonomic distinctiveness (i.e. extinction. the level of genetic relatedness to other bird taxa). Although The background information was written in a way that taxonomic distinctiveness was first suggested as the basis for would avoid bias. For example, because we aimed to estab- prioritizing the conservation of threatened birds . years lish general principles for conservation preferences, rather ago (Faith, , ; Garnett, ; Weitzman, ) and than specific advice on the case study birds, we described has been used to choose between species for investment in the four taxa in bland descriptive language to reduce the New Zealand (Joseph et al., ), no distinction is made in chances of charisma bias (Brambilla et al., ), providing legislation designed to conserve species in any nation exam- enough information for respondents to understand the like- ined (Garnett & Christidis, ). Also, there is no informa- ly consequences of climate change but with no attempt to tion on whether taxonomic distinctiveness is understood or emphasize their conservation merit. Thus we noted only used by the public in choosing among taxa to conserve. that two of the bird taxa were subspecies of the same species, We therefore endeavoured to understand the current even though the scub-bird and scrubtit are more distinct preferences of the Australian public in three states where ac- than the

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