Urban wildlife communication and negotiation

Abstract

Effective communication shapes how urban audiences affect and are affected by wildlife, ranging from policy making and management to citizen science and conflict resolution. This chapter reviews the elements of communication: Sources, Encoding, Messages and Media, Decoding, Receivers, and Feedback. We describe the process for identifying communication objectives, targeting audiences, using mass media and social dialogues, and evaluating results. We present strategies for wildlife conflict negotiation among diverse urban audiences as an example of communications that impact the fate of our urban ecosystems.