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“Working Together to Save African Elephants”
An immature reflection from a Youth Ambassador
GAO Yufang
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
4 December 2013, African Elephant Summit, Botswana
Overview
• About me: who I am & why I am here
• My reflection on the summit:
– Premise for working together: finding common ground
– Obstacle for working together: bounded rationality
– Strategy for working together: upgrade whole decision process
• Progress that I have seen
• Move forward
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move Forward
Who I am: Fujian – Beijing – Tibet
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move Forward
Who I am: Yale University, MESc
Master of Environmental Sciences, 2014 Focus on Wildlife Conservation & Policy Sciences
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
Chinese government disagreed with the allegations
China has made great efforts to crack down on ivory smuggling and related criminal activity has decreased remarkably in recent years… We expect these people to take an objective view of China, rather than look through tinted glasses…
--- HONG Lei, Foreign Ministry spokesman (Xinhua, 2012)
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
What is going on indeed?
Study on Social Process of Ivory Trade
Who are the participants?
With what perspectives?
In which situations?
Using which resources (values)?
Manipulating them in which strategies?
With what outcomes?
With what longer effects?
Identity Demand Expectation
Who they are What they want What is to happen
Goal: promote successful international cooperation in saving the African elephants for common interests. Role: Independent observer and participant
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
Tasks of problem solving 1. Goals? (values & indices)
2. What happened? (trends)
3. Why? (conditions)
4. Future? (projections)
5. What to do? (solutions)
Fieldwork in Kenya, Hong Kong, mainland China (May – September, 2013)
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
• My reflection on “working together”
– Premise: common ground
– Obstacle: bounded rationality
– Strategy: decision process
Well-being Respect Enlightenment Affection Rectitude Power Wealth Skill
Working Together to
Save African Elephants
for
Individuals Groups Institutions States
Open and Hidden agendas
Pluralist interests
Well-being Respect Enlightenment Affection Rectitude Power Wealth Skill
Working Together
Save African Elephants
for
- African Elephants - future generation - Economic benefit - Cultural Heritage - …
Ensure Sustainable African elephants populations in the wild
Premise for Working Together: Common Ground
to
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
Rationality of individuals is limited by their perspectives (identity, demand and expectation) and the information they have.
Obstacle - Bounded Rationality
公说公有理,婆说婆有理。 Husband and wife both say they are right.
The world outside and the pictures in our heads can be different.
Claims (& Counterclaims)
• Claims about China in Kenya and the US
– Ivory is extremely popular in China.
– Chinese middle class are eager to buy ivory because they consider ivory as a symbol of social status.
– Illegal ivory trade in China is rampant.
– Most Chinese do not know that ivory comes from dead elephants.
– ……
• Claims about Africa in China
– There are still many elephants in Africa.
– Habitat loss is a more significant threat posed on African elephants.
– Africans hunt elephants because of human-elephant conflicts, not solely for ivory.
– ……
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
Possible outcomes & what to aim for?
Lose - Lose Outcome: Shifting responsibility & blaming game continues; the elephants suffer
Assumption: both care, although possibly for different reasons
Win - Lose Outcome: Who is more powerful? Who dominates? - short term success
Win - Win Outcome: integrate different perspectives – long term solution
1. Recognize the differences 2. See the full picture 3. Information increases &
perspectives changed 4. Achieve compromises in the
common interests
Work together
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
Upgrade the whole decision process
Intelligence
Obtaining, processing, and distributing of information
Promotion
Mobilizing public support for a policy
Setting rules, regulations laws or policies
Prescription
Invocation
Allocating human, financial, and logistical resources etc
Application
Policy enforcement and judiciary to resolve disputes
Evaluation
Assessment of success and decision process
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
Working Collectively
Governments
IGO
Civil Society
Research Institution
Enterprise
……
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
• Attend to every decision function; • Identify the weakness; • Upgrading the whole process.
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move Forward
Progress that I have seen
• More consensus on problem definition (goal, trend, condition, projection, and solution);
• More participation from civil societies in both demand and supply sides;
• More high-level political commitments: agenda setting and decision making;
• More information exchange and sharing, and more willingness to understand different perspectives.
• More comprehensive actions taken: from intelligence, campaigns, to legislation, enforcement and judiciary.
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward
Move forward
• Given the uncertainties and boundaries, we must:
– Integrate reliable knowledge and diverse perspectives, find consensus on problem definition, and establish decision processes which clarify and secure common interests.
• Recommendations:
– Focus on problem to find solutions in saving the elephants: contextual, comprehensive understanding of the problem based on multi-method interdisciplinary efforts; address the conditions that cause the undesired trends.
– Adjust current social process to be more effective: examine assumptions about self and others; involve non-participants that may have important role to play; build arena for respectful dialogue.
– Upgrade entire decision process: evaluate each function, identify the weakness; strategies for improving should be adaptive and contextual.
– Leadership: knowledge, network, and diplomatic and practical skills to work across the differences – find and support potential leaders.
Thank You!
If you are interested to learn more about my research on ivory trade, please contact me at [email protected].
I would like to extend my gratitude to many individuals and organizations in Africa and Asia who shared their insights with me. In particular, I appreciate the hospitality and support from Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton. I am grateful to my Yale advisers, Prof. Susan Clark, Prof. Michael Dove, and Prof. Helen Siu for guiding me through the project. My summer fieldwork was entirely funded by Yale University. I thank Dr. Holly Dublin for inviting me to this Summit. I cannot have come to Botswana without the support of many individuals around the world who donated to my crowd-funding project. In particular I would like to thank Margaret Mccarthy and Andrew Sabin for their generousness.
Acknowledgement
About me | Premise | Obstacle | Strategy | Progress | Move forward