Human geographers investigating socio-environmental change in resource frontiers often encounter ... more Human geographers investigating socio-environmental change in resource frontiers often encounter illicit activities occurring alongside the licit processes they study. These encounters pose logistical challenges to conducting research and moral and analytical dilemmas for researchers. Illicit activities produce what we refer to as spheres of ambiguity, which obscure certain information, relationships, and phenomena surrounding them. We address the dearth of analytical tools for approaching the uncertainty this generates by bringing concepts from agnotology—the study of ignorance—to bear on research conducted amidst illicit activity, offering a framework for systematically evaluating ambiguous field data that is incompletely observed or reported.
The discomfort expressed by Masuda and Scharks in linking wildlife declines to social conflict an... more The discomfort expressed by Masuda and Scharks in linking wildlife declines to social conflict and Smith's concern about harvest effort increasing when wildlife declines reinforce the central message of our Policy Forum: Despite growing evidence of the importance of wildlife-society linkages, these
This dataset consists of 38 semi-structured interviews that we conducted with Kadazandusun-Murut ... more This dataset consists of 38 semi-structured interviews that we conducted with Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) hunters in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The dataset is based on information shared during over 50 hours of time with the hunters. The data cover a variety of topics about the relationships between KDM hunters and bearded pigs, the favored game animal for this hunting group. We asked the hunters about their hunting and dietary practices, changes in hunting practices, and perceived changes in bearded pig behavior over time. These data were collected prior to the 2020/2021 outbreak in Sabah of African Swine Fever, which caused the collapse of a number of bearded pig populations throughout the state.
Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights... more Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights, resources and access they need to sustain and benefit from ecosystems, governments and markets. Development experience provides important lessons for fostering such enabling environments, including principles of good governance that provide the rural poor with control of the ecosystems on which they depend. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The livelihoods of the rural poor are rooted in the productivity of ecosystems. Climate change, however, is already altering the functioning of these ecosystems in profound—and often negative—ways. Over 2 billion rural inhabitants live on less than $2 per day. Helping these people to build their assets and incomes will bolster their resilience and adaptive capacity, enabling them to meet the challenges of climate change and ecosystem degradation without sinking deeper into poverty. But how?
Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights... more Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights, resources and access they need to sustain and benefi t from ecosystems, governments and markets. Development experience provides important lessons for fostering such enabling environments, including principles of good governance that provide the rural poor with control of the ecosystems on which they depend.
Land‐use change and political–economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as trad... more Land‐use change and political–economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as traditional hunting practices endure across many local socio‐cultural contexts. The widespread expansion of oil palm cultivation, and associated urbanization, alters land‐use patterns, ecological processes, economic relationships, access to land and social practices.In particular, we focus on the socio‐ecological dynamics between Kadazandusun‐Murut (KDM) hunters in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and bearded pigs (Sus barbatus;Malay: ‘babi hutan’), the favoured game animal for non‐Muslim communities throughout much of Borneo. We conducted 38 semi‐structured interviews spanning over 50 hr with bearded pig hunters, asking them about contemporary hunting practices and motivations, changes in hunting practices, changes in pig behaviour, and patterns of animal protein consumption in village and urban contexts.Amidst widespread land‐use change, primarily driven by oil palm expansion, respondents reported substantially different characteristics of hunting in oil palm plantations as compared to hunting in forests. Additionally, 17 of 38 hunters—including 71% (10/14) of hunters who started hunting before 1985, compared to 26% (6/23) of hunters who started hunting in 1985 or later—mentioned that bearded pigs are behaving in a more skittish or fearful way as compared to the past. Our respondents also reported reductions in hunting frequency and wild meat consumption in urban contexts as compared to rural contexts.However, despite these substantial changes in hunting and dietary practices, numerous KDM hunting motivations, hunting techniques and socio‐cultural traditions have endured over the last several decades. For some, bearded pig meat remains deeply tied to food provision, gifting and sharing customs, and cultural components of celebrations and feasts.Oil palm has cultivated new hunting practices that differ from those in forests, and has potentially contributed to altered bearded pig behaviour due to increased hunting accessibility. Together, oil palm and urbanization are helping reshape the KDM‐bearded pig socio‐ecological system. In light of these reshaped connections, we recommend location‐specific management approaches that ensure fair access to the dietary and social benefits of bearded pig hunting while preserving the critical conservation needs of bearded pig populations and habitat. These twin goals are particularly urgent given the confirmed outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF), and mass deaths of domestic pigs and wild bearded pigs, in Sabah and Kalimantan in 2021.A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
1. Land-use change and political-economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as t... more 1. Land-use change and political-economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as traditional hunting practices endure across many local socio-cultural contexts. The widespread expansion of oil palm cultivation, and associated urbanization, alters land-use patterns, ecological processes, economic relationships, access to land, and social practices. 2. In particular, we focus on the socio-ecological dynamics between Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) hunters in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and native bearded pigs (Sus babatus; Malay: “babi hutan”), the favored game animal for non-Muslim communities throughout much of Borneo. We conducted 38 semi-structured interviews spanning over 50 hours with bearded pig hunters, asking them about contemporary hunting practices, changes in hunting practices, and patterns of meat consumption.3. Amidst widespread land use change, primarily driven by oil palm expansion, respondents reported substantially different characteristics of hunting in oil pal...
Nearly three-fourths of U.S. citizens support strong environmental protection, yet the U.S. Congr... more Nearly three-fourths of U.S. citizens support strong environmental protection, yet the U.S. Congress has passed little momentous environmental legislation since 1980. This dearth of new bipartisan environmental policy has coincided with increasing political polarization, which has risen to historic levels in the United States. Though broadly supported by the U.S. public, environmental protection has wavered as the Trump administration has left the Paris Climate Agreement, lifted oil and gas regulations, and deprioritized endangered species conservation. This discordance between U.S. public opinion and policy action leads us to ask: How did environmental conservation become so polarized, and how can the U.S. environmental movement recover broad bipartisan support? As conservation scientists in academia, we believe our community has contributed to the partisan breakdown over the environment. We also believe that scientists have a critical role to play in bridging this divide. In this ...
Armed conflict throughout the world's biodiversity hotspots poses a critical threat to conser... more Armed conflict throughout the world's biodiversity hotspots poses a critical threat to conservation efforts. To date, research and policy have focused more on the ultimate outcomes of conflict for wildlife rather than on the ecological, social, and economic processes that create those outcomes. Yet the militarization that accompanies armed conflict, as well as consequent changes in governance, economies, and human settlement, has diverse influences on wildlife populations and habitats. To better understand these complex dynamics, we summarized 144 case studies from around the world and identified 24 distinct pathways linking armed conflict to wildlife outcomes. The most commonly cited pathways reflect changes to institutional and socioeconomic factors, rather than tactical aspects of conflict. Marked differences in the most salient pathways emerge across geographic regions and wildlife taxa. Our review demonstrates that mitigating the negative effects of conflict on biodiversity conservation requires a nuanced understanding of the ways in which conflict affects wildlife populations and communities.
Human geographers investigating socio-environmental change in resource frontiers often encounter ... more Human geographers investigating socio-environmental change in resource frontiers often encounter illicit activities occurring alongside the licit processes they study. These encounters pose logistical challenges to conducting research and moral and analytical dilemmas for researchers. Illicit activities produce what we refer to as spheres of ambiguity, which obscure certain information, relationships, and phenomena surrounding them. We address the dearth of analytical tools for approaching the uncertainty this generates by bringing concepts from agnotology—the study of ignorance—to bear on research conducted amidst illicit activity, offering a framework for systematically evaluating ambiguous field data that is incompletely observed or reported.
The discomfort expressed by Masuda and Scharks in linking wildlife declines to social conflict an... more The discomfort expressed by Masuda and Scharks in linking wildlife declines to social conflict and Smith's concern about harvest effort increasing when wildlife declines reinforce the central message of our Policy Forum: Despite growing evidence of the importance of wildlife-society linkages, these
This dataset consists of 38 semi-structured interviews that we conducted with Kadazandusun-Murut ... more This dataset consists of 38 semi-structured interviews that we conducted with Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) hunters in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The dataset is based on information shared during over 50 hours of time with the hunters. The data cover a variety of topics about the relationships between KDM hunters and bearded pigs, the favored game animal for this hunting group. We asked the hunters about their hunting and dietary practices, changes in hunting practices, and perceived changes in bearded pig behavior over time. These data were collected prior to the 2020/2021 outbreak in Sabah of African Swine Fever, which caused the collapse of a number of bearded pig populations throughout the state.
Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights... more Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights, resources and access they need to sustain and benefit from ecosystems, governments and markets. Development experience provides important lessons for fostering such enabling environments, including principles of good governance that provide the rural poor with control of the ecosystems on which they depend. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The livelihoods of the rural poor are rooted in the productivity of ecosystems. Climate change, however, is already altering the functioning of these ecosystems in profound—and often negative—ways. Over 2 billion rural inhabitants live on less than $2 per day. Helping these people to build their assets and incomes will bolster their resilience and adaptive capacity, enabling them to meet the challenges of climate change and ecosystem degradation without sinking deeper into poverty. But how?
Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights... more Effective climate adaptation requires an enabling environment—one that grants the poor the rights, resources and access they need to sustain and benefi t from ecosystems, governments and markets. Development experience provides important lessons for fostering such enabling environments, including principles of good governance that provide the rural poor with control of the ecosystems on which they depend.
Land‐use change and political–economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as trad... more Land‐use change and political–economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as traditional hunting practices endure across many local socio‐cultural contexts. The widespread expansion of oil palm cultivation, and associated urbanization, alters land‐use patterns, ecological processes, economic relationships, access to land and social practices.In particular, we focus on the socio‐ecological dynamics between Kadazandusun‐Murut (KDM) hunters in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and bearded pigs (Sus barbatus;Malay: ‘babi hutan’), the favoured game animal for non‐Muslim communities throughout much of Borneo. We conducted 38 semi‐structured interviews spanning over 50 hr with bearded pig hunters, asking them about contemporary hunting practices and motivations, changes in hunting practices, changes in pig behaviour, and patterns of animal protein consumption in village and urban contexts.Amidst widespread land‐use change, primarily driven by oil palm expansion, respondents reported substantially different characteristics of hunting in oil palm plantations as compared to hunting in forests. Additionally, 17 of 38 hunters—including 71% (10/14) of hunters who started hunting before 1985, compared to 26% (6/23) of hunters who started hunting in 1985 or later—mentioned that bearded pigs are behaving in a more skittish or fearful way as compared to the past. Our respondents also reported reductions in hunting frequency and wild meat consumption in urban contexts as compared to rural contexts.However, despite these substantial changes in hunting and dietary practices, numerous KDM hunting motivations, hunting techniques and socio‐cultural traditions have endured over the last several decades. For some, bearded pig meat remains deeply tied to food provision, gifting and sharing customs, and cultural components of celebrations and feasts.Oil palm has cultivated new hunting practices that differ from those in forests, and has potentially contributed to altered bearded pig behaviour due to increased hunting accessibility. Together, oil palm and urbanization are helping reshape the KDM‐bearded pig socio‐ecological system. In light of these reshaped connections, we recommend location‐specific management approaches that ensure fair access to the dietary and social benefits of bearded pig hunting while preserving the critical conservation needs of bearded pig populations and habitat. These twin goals are particularly urgent given the confirmed outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF), and mass deaths of domestic pigs and wild bearded pigs, in Sabah and Kalimantan in 2021.A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
1. Land-use change and political-economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as t... more 1. Land-use change and political-economic shifts have shaped hunting patterns globally, even as traditional hunting practices endure across many local socio-cultural contexts. The widespread expansion of oil palm cultivation, and associated urbanization, alters land-use patterns, ecological processes, economic relationships, access to land, and social practices. 2. In particular, we focus on the socio-ecological dynamics between Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) hunters in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, and native bearded pigs (Sus babatus; Malay: “babi hutan”), the favored game animal for non-Muslim communities throughout much of Borneo. We conducted 38 semi-structured interviews spanning over 50 hours with bearded pig hunters, asking them about contemporary hunting practices, changes in hunting practices, and patterns of meat consumption.3. Amidst widespread land use change, primarily driven by oil palm expansion, respondents reported substantially different characteristics of hunting in oil pal...
Nearly three-fourths of U.S. citizens support strong environmental protection, yet the U.S. Congr... more Nearly three-fourths of U.S. citizens support strong environmental protection, yet the U.S. Congress has passed little momentous environmental legislation since 1980. This dearth of new bipartisan environmental policy has coincided with increasing political polarization, which has risen to historic levels in the United States. Though broadly supported by the U.S. public, environmental protection has wavered as the Trump administration has left the Paris Climate Agreement, lifted oil and gas regulations, and deprioritized endangered species conservation. This discordance between U.S. public opinion and policy action leads us to ask: How did environmental conservation become so polarized, and how can the U.S. environmental movement recover broad bipartisan support? As conservation scientists in academia, we believe our community has contributed to the partisan breakdown over the environment. We also believe that scientists have a critical role to play in bridging this divide. In this ...
Armed conflict throughout the world's biodiversity hotspots poses a critical threat to conser... more Armed conflict throughout the world's biodiversity hotspots poses a critical threat to conservation efforts. To date, research and policy have focused more on the ultimate outcomes of conflict for wildlife rather than on the ecological, social, and economic processes that create those outcomes. Yet the militarization that accompanies armed conflict, as well as consequent changes in governance, economies, and human settlement, has diverse influences on wildlife populations and habitats. To better understand these complex dynamics, we summarized 144 case studies from around the world and identified 24 distinct pathways linking armed conflict to wildlife outcomes. The most commonly cited pathways reflect changes to institutional and socioeconomic factors, rather than tactical aspects of conflict. Marked differences in the most salient pathways emerge across geographic regions and wildlife taxa. Our review demonstrates that mitigating the negative effects of conflict on biodiversity conservation requires a nuanced understanding of the ways in which conflict affects wildlife populations and communities.
Uploads
Papers by Lauren Withey