Abstract

Managing wildlife in landscapes under private ownership requires partnership between landowners, resource users, and governing agencies. Agencies often call on landowners to voluntarily change their practices to achieve collective goals. Landowner support for management action is partially a function of normative beliefs about managing wildlife. Understanding factors that support development of normative beliefs is important for program design, with implications beyond deer. Drawing on norm activation theory, identity theory, and community attachment, we hypothesized that landowners’ ascription of responsibility to manage deer were a function of their identity as a wildlife steward and attachment to their community. We tested our hypotheses using structural equation modeling with data from a survey of southeast Minnesota landowners. Results revealed ascribed responsibility to be a function of identity. In turn, identity was predicted by affect toward the community. Findings suggest community-based approaches to wildlife management could improve goal achievement.

摘要

管理私有景观中的野生动物需要土地所有者、资源使用者和管理机构之间的合作。机构经常呼吁土地所有者自愿改变他们的做法以实现集体目标。土地所有者对管理行动的支持部分是关于管理野生动物的规范信念的功能。了解支持规范信念发展的因素对于程序设计很重要，其影响超出了鹿的范围。借鉴规范激活理论、身份理论和社区依恋，我们假设土地所有者对管理鹿的责任归属于他们作为野生动物管理员的身份和对社区的依恋。我们使用结构方程模型和明尼苏达州东南部土地所有者调查的数据检验了我们的假设。结果表明，归属的责任是身份的函数。反过来，身份是通过对社区的影响来预测的。调查结果表明，以社区为基础的野生动物管理方法可以提高目标的实现。