How much biotic nativeness matters across human demographic groups

TL;DR

The study explores how people's feelings about bird declines differ based on the birds' native status and the participants' race, revealing potential equity issues in conservation decisions.

Contribution

The study introduces ecological grief and cultural ecosystem service metrics to assess sociodemographic differences in conservation perceptions.

Findings

Race was the strongest moderator of feelings of loss related to bird nativeness.

White participants felt more grief for native bird declines than non-native ones.

Ecological knowledge and urban experiences did not moderate the effect of nativeness on grief.

Abstract

Many central concepts of conservation biology—such as nativeness—are structured by ecological and social factors. However, the social consequences of using these concepts to make conservation decisions remain inadequately understood. Some researchers argue that nativeness, rather than acting as an objective proxy for important ecological relationships, may instead mask social and cultural values about which species belong in a given ecosystem. Yet, even as many non‐native species decline, experts often prioritize the conservation of native species. We assessed the perceptions of people (n = 600) in Metro Vancouver, Canada, regarding local declines of native and non‐native birds. We measured ecological grief (feelings of loss associated with ecological changes) and loss of cultural ecosystem service (nonmaterial benefits people derive from relationships with nature) associated with documented declines in 2 native and 2 non‐native birds. We measured variations in perceptions across differences in nature experiences and sociodemographics. We used a 2‐treatment experimental design in which we informed only half the participants about species’ nativeness. Perceptions of loss differed among respondents based on their familiarity with birds, experiences with birds, and the native status of the bird. However, the effect of nativeness on feelings of loss was not moderated by ecological knowledge, whether a respondent was an urbanite, or experiences with birds. Instead, race was the strongest moderator of the effect of nativeness on feelings of loss. Only White people reported greater grief for declines in native species than non‐native species, even when accounting for education, income, and other variables. Although native status may often be a useful heuristic for inference, relying on it for conservation decision‐making may have unintended sociodemographic and equity consequences. Our results also demonstrate how pairing ecological grief and cultural ecosystem service questions with documented ecological declines can elucidate human–nature relationships, such as those between people and non‐native birds.

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