Measuring Motivations as a Method of Mitigating Social Values Conflict

Alaska's Western Arctic Caribou Herd is an important subsistence resource for communities along its migration path and provides opportunities for sport hunting. Members of local communities have expressed conflict with sport hunters' actions including dispersing caribou away from their communities, failing to salvage meat, and trophy hunting. We measured sources of conflict among village residents and sport hunters' motivations for hunting. A cluster analysis of the motivations revealed four groups: general experience (40%), social hunter (25%), family hunter (13%), and trophy hunter (21%). Results illustrate not all sport hunters are hunting primarily for trophy and may share similar values with locals (e.g., family and nature). This information can be used in outreach material by the Bureau of Land Management (the managing agency) to mitigate conflict. This method can be applied to other cases in which social values conflict is present, allowing agencies to respond to this conflict adaptively.