Wildlife, Rural Communities, and the Rangeland Livelihoods They Share: Opportunities in a Diverse Economies Approach

Abstract

AbstractBecause rangeland ecosystems and the wildlife they support are integral to rural economies, understanding economic trends in rangeland regions is a valuable contribution to wildlife management. This chapter reflects on and synthesizes the experiences of a group of academic and practitioner collaborators working to balance the needs of wildlife and rural ranching communities in a priority conservation region, the central Montana portion of the Northern Great Plains. The chapter summarizes both the challenges facing ranching economies and policy and market strategies available to encourage conservation by private landowners. Its main emphasis, however, is to invite readers into a different kind of conversation about wildlife conservation’s role in rangeland economies and livelihoods. The chapter introduces the concept of diverse economies, a way of understanding the economy through social relationships as opposed to merely the exchange of money, with a brief summary of its origins and perspective. It then draws on the theory and practice of diverse economies to map relationships and activities at the intersection of rangeland conservation and community development in central Montana. In emphasizing the diversity of practices that make up “the economy” and the intimate intertwining of the economy with ecologies, diverse economies thinking opens up space to approach the complex ways that the livelihoods of rural residents and rangeland wildlife overlap and the search for adaptive solutions to conservation challenges.