Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making
Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in its...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46888/ |
| _version_ | 1848797419616075776 |
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| author | Law, Elizabeth A. Bennett, Nathan J. Ives, Christopher D. Friedman, Rachel Davis, Katrina J. Archibald, Carla Wilson, Kerrie A. |
| author_facet | Law, Elizabeth A. Bennett, Nathan J. Ives, Christopher D. Friedman, Rachel Davis, Katrina J. Archibald, Carla Wilson, Kerrie A. |
| author_sort | Law, Elizabeth A. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in itself. Despite its idealized importance in conservation policy, social equity is often highly simplified or ill-defined and is applied uncritically. What constitutes equitable outcomes and processes is highly normative and subject to ethical deliberation. Different ethical frameworks may lead to different conceptions of equity through alternative perspectives of what is good or right. This can lead to different and potentially conflicting equity objectives in practice. We promote a more transparent, nuanced, and pluralistic conceptualization of equity in conservation decision making that particularly recognizes where multidimensional equity objectives may conflict. To help identify and mitigate ethical conflicts and avoid cases of good intentions producing bad outcomes, we encourage a more analytical incorporation of equity into conservation decision making particularly during mechanistic integration of equity objectives. We recommend that in conservation planning motivations and objectives for equity be made explicit within the problem context, methods used to incorporate equity objectives be applied with respect to stated objectives, and, should objectives dictate, evaluation of equity outcomes and adaptation of strategies be employed during policy implementation. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:03:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-46888 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:03:35Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-468882020-05-04T19:03:24Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46888/ Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making Law, Elizabeth A. Bennett, Nathan J. Ives, Christopher D. Friedman, Rachel Davis, Katrina J. Archibald, Carla Wilson, Kerrie A. Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in itself. Despite its idealized importance in conservation policy, social equity is often highly simplified or ill-defined and is applied uncritically. What constitutes equitable outcomes and processes is highly normative and subject to ethical deliberation. Different ethical frameworks may lead to different conceptions of equity through alternative perspectives of what is good or right. This can lead to different and potentially conflicting equity objectives in practice. We promote a more transparent, nuanced, and pluralistic conceptualization of equity in conservation decision making that particularly recognizes where multidimensional equity objectives may conflict. To help identify and mitigate ethical conflicts and avoid cases of good intentions producing bad outcomes, we encourage a more analytical incorporation of equity into conservation decision making particularly during mechanistic integration of equity objectives. We recommend that in conservation planning motivations and objectives for equity be made explicit within the problem context, methods used to incorporate equity objectives be applied with respect to stated objectives, and, should objectives dictate, evaluation of equity outcomes and adaptation of strategies be employed during policy implementation. Wiley 2017-09-01 Article PeerReviewed Law, Elizabeth A., Bennett, Nathan J., Ives, Christopher D., Friedman, Rachel, Davis, Katrina J., Archibald, Carla and Wilson, Kerrie A. (2017) Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making. Conservation Biology . ISSN 1523-1739 (In Press) Environmental management ethical pluralism conservation planning conservation policy prioritization trade-offs. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13008/abstract? doi:10.1111/cobi.13008 doi:10.1111/cobi.13008 |
| spellingShingle | Environmental management ethical pluralism conservation planning conservation policy prioritization trade-offs. Law, Elizabeth A. Bennett, Nathan J. Ives, Christopher D. Friedman, Rachel Davis, Katrina J. Archibald, Carla Wilson, Kerrie A. Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making |
| title | Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making |
| title_full | Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making |
| title_fullStr | Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making |
| title_full_unstemmed | Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making |
| title_short | Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making |
| title_sort | equity trade-offs in conservation decision making |
| topic | Environmental management ethical pluralism conservation planning conservation policy prioritization trade-offs. |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46888/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46888/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46888/ |