Ecology, Economics and Ethics: The Three Es Required for the Sustainable Management of Wild Sentient Species

Abstract

Wild sentient species (primarily vertebrates), both introduced and indigenous, are managed for a range of reasons and often using lethal methods. Use of these tools often raises ethical challenges and uncertainty for wildlife managers, and when combined with ecological and economic uncertainties, pest control programs can fail because these uncertainties are not fully evaluated or accounted for in program plans. Bryan Norton has frequently stated that environmental management problems are often “wicked” problems, and participants in the debate bring with them a wide range of values and vocabularies. He and others have suggested that such problems might best be solved within a framework of pragmatism implemented through an empirically based, multi-criteria adaptive management system. In this chapter, we propose the adoption of a probabilistic modelling approach that could help wildlife managers frame and formalize an adaptive management approach that integrates the 3Es: ecology, economics, and ethics, one that maximizes the probability of achieving sustainable and effective wildlife management outcomes.