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To trade or not to trade? Breaking the ivory deadlock

Date:
December 14, 2017
Source:
University of Queensland
Summary:
The debate over whether legal trading of ivory should be allowed to fund elephant conservation, or banned altogether to stop poaching has raged for decades without an end in sight. Now, an international team is working to break the policy stalemate.
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The debate over whether legal trading of ivory should be allowed to fund elephant conservation, or banned altogether to stop poaching has raged for decades without an end in sight.

Now, an international team including researchers from The University of Queensland and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) is working to break the policy stalemate.

UQ CEED postdoctoral researcher Dr Matthew Holden said the team identified a process aimed to overcome the deadlock on ivory.

"We believe there hasn't been a resolution because each side of the debate has failed to recognise the other's moral perspectives," Dr Holden said.

"People are more likely to unconsciously challenge information coming from someone with a different moral view, like we see with climate change," he said.

"Drawing on what we've learned from other polarised debates, we developed a structured process aimed to help stakeholders better understand each other's perspective, and make informed policy decisions."

The researchers recognise the politics around ivory policy are challenging, but urge countries and organisations committed to elephant conservation to initiate such a process.

Lead author Dr Duan Biggs, who began the research as a UQ CEED postdoc researcher, said the policy impasse was wasting valuable conservation resources.

"Scientific information alone will not solve contentious issues like ivory trade," Dr Biggs said.

"Identifying people's beliefs, values and perspectives on ivory trade can help overcome the deadlock on ivory policy."

The researchers say the continued policy deadlock on the trade of products from iconic species like elephant and rhino is harming the conservation of these animals.

The research is published in Science doi 10.1126/science.aan5215


Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Queensland. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Duan Biggs, Matthew H. Holden, Alex Braczkowski, Carly N. Cook, E. J. Milner-Gulland, Jacob Phelps, Robert J. Scholes, Robert J. Smith, Fiona M. Underwood, Vanessa M. Adams, James Allan, Henry Brink, Rosie Cooney, Yufang Gao, Jon Hutton, Eve Macdonald-Madden, Martine Maron, Kent H. Redford, William J. Sutherland, Hugh P. Possingham. Breaking the deadlock on ivory. Science, 2017; 358 (6369): 1378 DOI: 10.1126/science.aan5215

Cite This Page:

University of Queensland. "To trade or not to trade? Breaking the ivory deadlock." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 December 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214144546.htm>.
University of Queensland. (2017, December 14). To trade or not to trade? Breaking the ivory deadlock. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214144546.htm
University of Queensland. "To trade or not to trade? Breaking the ivory deadlock." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171214144546.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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