Multiple assessments to value wild animals in the analysis of human-wildlife relationships: A case study from the Argentine Dry Chaco

Abstract

Different perceptions of wildlife are usually involved in decision-making processes on the use of environmental commons and in human choices; therefore, knowing how people value nature can enhance our understanding about human-wildlife relationships. We propose to broaden the concept of cultural value by considering the trade-offs between positive and negative nature?s contributions to people (NCP), including trade-offs influenced by near-past contexts. Field work was conducted with inhabitants of a rural community of the Dry Chaco of Argentina, aiming at knowing the importance of fauna in people´s lives. We conducted free listings and semi-structured interviews and calculated the cognitive salience<br />index and five cultural value indexes (differing in the number and types of NCP categories considered). Local inhabitants were found to assess wild species by considering the satisfaction of material needs, immaterial aspects, and/or the damages that certain species may cause. The ethnospecies most widely and frequently used with material purposes in the near past and at present, and those considered the most harmful showed the highest salience values. The cultural value index that integrates both positive and negative assessments was positively correlated with cognitive salience; this relationship supports the results, showing that cognitive salience not only is conditioned by positive assessments but also captures multiple fauna assessments, including the negative ones.