Understanding managers’ and scientists’ perspectives on opportunities to achieve more evolutionarily enlightened management in conservation

Abstract

Despite wide acceptance that conservation could benefit from greater attention to principles and processes from evolutionary biology, little attention has been given to quantifying the degree to which relevant evolutionary concepts are being integrated into management practices. There has also been increasing discussion of the potential reasons for a lack of evolutionarily enlightened management, but no attempts to understand the challenges from the perspective of those making management decisions. In this study, we asked conservation managers and scientists for their views on the importance of a range of key evolutionary concepts, the degree to which these concepts are being integrated into management, and what would need to change to support better integration into management practices. We found that while managers recognize the importance of a wide range of evolutionary concepts for conservation outcomes, they acknowledge these concepts are rarely incorporated into management. Managers and scientists were in strong agreement about the range of barriers that need to be overcome, with a lack of knowledge reported as the most important barrier to better integration of evolutionary biology into conservation decision‐making. Although managers tended to be more focused on the need for more training in evolutionary biology, scientists reported greater engagement between managers and evolutionary biologists as most important to achieve the necessary change. Nevertheless, the challenges appear to be multifaceted, and several are outside the control of managers, suggesting solutions will need to be multidimensional.

Conservation practitioners’ understanding of how to manage evolutionary processes

“…Nevertheless, limited understanding is not the only barrier to better integration of evolutionary theory (Taylor et al. ; Cook & Sgrò ). Practitioners often report a lack of resources as a significant impediment to greater integration of evolutionary theory into management (Taylor et al.…”

“…Another challenge practitioners cite to changing practice is the focus on short‐term rather than long‐term management outcomes (Cook & Sgrò ). Concerns about initial mortality rates when using mixed provenance in restoration support this pattern (Fig.…”

“…Although practitioners (on‐the‐ground managers and policy makers) recognize the importance of using evolutionary theory to inform management practices (Taylor et al. ), this has yet to be translated into management practice (Cook & Sgrò ).…”

“…Several barriers to better integration of evolutionary theory into conservation practices have been suggested, including limited engagement between practitioners and scientists (Mace & Purvis ; Taylor et al. ), a lack of resources (Cook & Sgrò ), and inadequate knowledge about relevant evolutionary concepts (Ashley et al. ; Frankham ; Cook & Sgrò ).…”

“…), a lack of resources (Cook & Sgrò ), and inadequate knowledge about relevant evolutionary concepts (Ashley et al. ; Frankham ; Cook & Sgrò ). There are concerns that a poor understanding of evolutionary theory among practitioners could lead to misconceptions that overstate the risks of changing practices (Kinnison et al.…”