Abstract：
Conflicts between economic development and conservation are increasingly hampering efforts to restore imperiled wildlife populations. Public opinion can influence how these conflicts translate into conservation actions, encouraging stakeholders to express their views through various public channels. The outcome of these campaigns typically remains unknown. Via an online survey, we collected to the opinion of 1000 citizens of Québec, Canada, regarding the ongoing conflict between logging and the conservation of at-risk caribou populations (Rangifer tarandus). We found that people expect conservation actions that are sufficient to recover caribou populations, even if millions of government investment are required and jobs are lost in the process. When respondents learned that academic caribou researchers indicated that the two management strategies being studied by government would be insufficient for population recovery, one-third withdrew their support for either strategy. Age, gender and education all explain variation in public opinion, but it was the region of residence that most consistently explained variation in opinion. Residents of caribou-inhabited regions were less concerned about caribou conservation and more supportive of forestry than residents of other regions, reflecting regional differences in expected economic impacts of conservation, not negative interactions with caribou. In fact, most people supported strong conservation actions for the recovery of caribou populations, regardless of their socio-demographics. Our analysis provides general insights into how public opinion on the trade-off between conservation and economy is influenced by socio-demographics and scientific conclusions. We found that current government conservation actions (or lack thereof) are not in line with mainstream public opinion. Moreover, we show that making species at-risk lists does not ensure that the species will benefit from strong conservation actions without lengthy delays, even for a high-profile, flagship species like caribou. This observation echoes concerns about the fate of less charismatic, at-risk species, and thus about future biodiversity conservation efforts.
摘要：
经济发展与保护之间的冲突越来越阻碍恢复受威胁的野生动植物种群的努力。公众舆论可以影响这些冲突如何转化为保护行动，鼓励利益相关者通过各种公共渠道表达意见。这些运动的结果通常仍然未知。通过在线调查，我们收集了魁北克1000名公民的意见，加拿大,关于伐木与保护高危驯鹿种群之间的持续冲突（Rangifertarandus）。我们发现人们期望保护行动足以恢复驯鹿种群，即使需要数百万的政府投资，并且在此过程中失去了工作。当受访者了解到学术驯鹿研究人员表示政府正在研究的两种管理策略不足以恢复人口时，三分之一的人撤回了对这两种策略的支持。年龄,性别和教育都解释了公众舆论的变化，但最一致地解释观点差异的是居住地。与其他地区的居民相比，驯鹿居住区的居民对驯鹿的保护和对林业的支持程度较低，反映了保护的预期经济影响的区域差异，而不是与驯鹿的负面互动。事实上,大多数人支持为驯鹿种群的恢复采取强有力的保护行动，不管他们的社会人口。我们的分析提供了关于保护与经济之间权衡的公众舆论如何受到社会人口统计和科学结论的影响的一般见解。我们发现，当前的政府保护行动（或缺乏）与主流舆论不符。此外，我们表明，列出有风险的物种名单并不能确保该物种将从强有力的保护行动中受益，而不会长时间拖延，即使是高调的人,像驯鹿这样的旗舰物种。这一观察呼应了人们对不那么有魅力的命运的担忧，有风险的物种,以及未来的生物多样性保护工作。
