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Please, Patricia
- PublicationUsing human behaviour change strategy to improve the management of invasive speciesIf you ask engagement specialists about their biggest challenge managing invasive animals, many will acknowledge than managing pests is difficult but managing people is harder. People are an integral, but often neglected, part of invasive species management. An impressive set of technologies and recommended best practices for detecting and controlling invasive species are available but achieving effective outcomes depends strongly on the people responsible for their application. People need to be sufficiently empowered and motivated to accept and implement best practices, as well as be dissuaded from engaging in behaviours that undermine invasive species management objectives. Getting everyone on the same page can be incredibly challenging. Engagement specialists are often tasked with attempting to modify the current behaviour of a highly diverse set of people who possess a range of values, enterprise-interests and skill sets.
- PublicationBehaviourally Effective Communications for Invasive Animals Management: A Practical GuideThe Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) has developed an impressive set of technologies and recommended best practices for managing and controlling invasive pests. But these proposed solutions will fail unless the public is sufficiently motivated and empowered to change behaviours and adopt new approaches. Changing behaviour, and sustaining these changes over time, is a difficult process. Educating the public about the negative impacts of invasive animals and providing information about control strategies is rarely enough.
- PublicationPrioritizing community behaviors to improve wild dog management in peri-urban areas(Taylor & Francis Inc, 2018)
; ; ; Jamieson, IainWild dogs contribute to a range of negative impacts in Australian peri-urban regions. We identified and prioritized 13 behaviors that peri-urban residents could engage in to reduce the impacts of wild dogs in their communities. Key-informant interviews and stakeholder focus groups were used to develop a list of wild dog-management behaviors. On-line surveys with wild dog experts (n = 10) and peri-urban residents (n = 302) were used to create a Behavior Prioritization Matrix (BPM), which ranked the behaviors in terms of projected impact, based on: (a) expert estimates of effectiveness, (b) current adoption levels (penetration), and (c) likelihood of future adoption. BPM analysis indicated that increasing community reporting of wild dogs and their impacts would produce the greatest overall benefits for wild dog management. Behaviors rated as highly effective by experts (e.g., baiting and trapping) had low projected impact given that they were unlikely to be adopted by most residents.
- PublicationApplying behavioral theories to invasive animal management: Towards an integrative frameworkInvasive species wreak an estimated $1.4 trillion in damages globally, each year. To have any hope of reducing this damage, best-practice control strategies must incorporate behavior change interventions. Traditional interventions, based on the 'knowledge-transfer' model, assume that if land managers are properly educated about risks and strategies, they will develop supportive attitudes and implement appropriate control strategies. However, the social sciences have produced a large number of behavioral models and frameworks that demonstrate that knowledge transfer, by itself, fails to change behavior. The challenge then lies in knowing which behavioral model to choose, and when, from a potentially overwhelming 'universe'. In this paper, we review nine behavior theories relevant to invasive species management. We then introduce the 'Behavior Change Wheel' as a tool for integrating these theories into a single practical framework. This framework links drivers of and barriers to behavior change with intervention strategies and policies, in what we consider, from an applied perspective, to be an important advance.
- PublicationConnecting with Country in Mungo National Park, Australia: a case study to measure the emotional dimension of experience and place attachment(Routledge, 2017)
; ; ; Connecting people with nature improves well-being, but how people connect with natural places is not well documented. We asked 43 people (19 Aboriginal Australians, 24 non-Aboriginal people) about the messages they received from Country during an interactive experience in the remote Mungo National Park, Australia, and analysed the physical senses, emotions and cognitive processes they mentioned. The physical senses mentioned by most respondents were sight, hearing and motion (particularly walking). These senses helped people receive messages from Country and connect with place. We used the primary-process emotional systems of Panksepp [2010. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 12 (4), 533–545] as a framework to capture the emotional dimension of experience. Most people reported positive emotions; they spoke about being nurtured by the group and the land (CARE), and the intense joy (PLAY) of being part of the community, being on Country and being accompanied by Aboriginal people. However, our results indicate the framework does not capture the breadth of positive emotions, particularly those associated with connection to place and spiritual experiences. Both groups mentioned cognitive processes reflecting their beliefs, existing knowledge, or sharing and acquiring new knowledge. Our results indicate that the emotional dimension of experience has the potential to measure connection to place, and provide a subjective measure of well-being. More research is needed to document this dimension of experience, and how it changes with context. Our case study provides further insight for those who manage protected areas and seek to enrich the experience of visitors.
- PublicationUnderstanding why peri-urban residents do not report wild dog impacts: an audience segmentation approachPeri-urban populations are diverse, with residents possessing a broad range of values, knowledge and skills related to managing invasive pests. In this article, we employed the COM-B behavior change model and audience segmentation analysis to identify the main barriers that prevent Gold Coast peri-urban residents from reporting wild dog impacts to local government. Participants (n = 383) responded to a random digit dial phone survey that assessed their capability, opportunity and motivation to report wild dogs and their impacts to local government. Audience segmentation analysis identified two types of non-reporters: (a) Reluctant – perceived no benefits of reporting, it took too much effort, and believed dogs should be left alone – and (b) Receptive – acknowledged wild dogs were a threat and understood the benefits of reporting. We describe how segmentation analysis can be used to develop interventions specifically tailored to the needs of each type of non-reporter.
- PublicationWater knowledge systemsOur research focuses on how to empower and recognize traditional water knowledge systems. With this in mind, we questioned how best we could share our collective conversation about the relationship with water from three different perspectives: an Indigenous perspective, a depth-psychology perspective and a stewardship perspective. As we explored our relationship and synergies in water knowledge systems, we realized that adopting an Indigenous research framework utilizing the conversational method was the best way to share our collective story. We each bring particular cultural and disciplinary approaches to water knowledge system issues. Dr Lorina Barker is a Wangkumara and Muruwari woman from northwest NSW and emphasizes the many examples where Aboriginal Elders are conveying traditional Indigenous water knowledge to government agencies and the wider public, to ensure the cultural, spiritual, social and emotional wellbeing of people, place and the environment. There are many complex reasons why Elders are sharing these water stories, and why they have chosen multimedia as the vehicle for that transmission. The inclusion of traditional water knowledge in water governance recognizes the importance of Indigenous water knowledges. Dr Patricia Please considers the questions at the centre of this project from the perspective of public engagement with, and participation in, natural resource management, using an integrated holistic approach that accommodates the importance of empathy, affect-emotion and eco-psychology. Dr Jacqueline Williams explores environmental stewardship from an enviro-social perspective, as a white Australian rural landholder and as an environmental scientist. She identified globalization as one of the main barriers to the recognition of traditional water knowledge systems, suggesting it is best understood as another wave of colonization. Our chapter is presented in the form of a narrative where each author presents their perspectives through an on-going dialogue from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds.