Unlocking Lethal Dingo Management in Australia

Adoption by livestock producers of preventive non-lethal innovations forms a critical pathway towards human and large carnivore coexistence. However, it is impeded by factors such as socio-cultural contexts, governing institutions, and ‘perverse’ economic incentives that result in a ‘lock-in’ of let...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDiversity (Basel) Vol. 15; no. 5; p. 642
Main Authors Boronyak, Louise, Jacobs, Brent, Smith, Bradley
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.05.2023
Subjects
Agricultural land
Agriculture
Animals
Carnivores
Cattle
Coexistence
conflict
Control
dingo
Economic incentives
Ecosystems
Environmental aspects
Grazing
human-wildlife coexistence
Incentives
Influence
Innovations
Livestock
Livestock grazing
livestock production
lock-in traps
Management
Prevention
Range ecology
Rangelands
Sheep
Social aspects
social-ecological systems
Wild dogs
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife management
Australia
United Kingdom
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Summary:Adoption by livestock producers of preventive non-lethal innovations forms a critical pathway towards human and large carnivore coexistence. However, it is impeded by factors such as socio-cultural contexts, governing institutions, and ‘perverse’ economic incentives that result in a ‘lock-in’ of lethal control of carnivores in grazing systems. In Australian rangelands, the dingo is the dominant predator in conflict with ‘graziers’ and is subjected to lethal control measures despite evidence indicating that its presence in agricultural landscapes can provide multiple benefits. Here we explore the barriers to the uptake of preventive innovations in livestock grazing through 21 in-depth interviews conducted with Australian graziers, researchers, and conservation and government representatives. Drawing on Donella Meadow’s leverage points for system change framework, we focus, primarily, on barriers in the ‘political sphere’ because they appear to form the greatest impediment to the adoption of non-lethal tools and practices. These barriers are then discussed in relation to characteristics of lock-in traps (self-reinforcement, persistence, path dependencies, and undesirability) to assess how they constrain the promotion of human–dingo coexistence.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d15050642