The influence of valuational and organizational considerations on the success of rare species translocations Original Research Article

Translocations of rare and endangered species face significant valuational and organizational challenges; however, these dimensions are rarely discussed in the translocation literature. We employed a 98 question sample mail survey to assess these variables and received 131 responses from 110 individuals in 10 nations. In contrast to the literature which suggests that most translocations fail, a large proportion of the programs surveyed were perceived as being successful and most respondents identified relatively few valuational or organizational problems or difficulties in their translocation programs. While perceived local support was correlated with perceived translocation success, the presence of public relations/education programs was not. Therefore, simply having a public relations/education program is no guarantee that public support will increase or that a translocation will be more successful. Organizationally, translocations which established special groups or teams were perceived as increasing innovation, but not in improving program organization, nor decreasing conflict. Further, the presence of special groups or teams was not correlated with translocation success. Finally, translocations with the objective of augmenting populations were perceived to suffer from more problems, including greater local opposition, poorer public understanding, less money, and poorer leadership, than were translocations aimed at establishing or re-establishing populations. The results illustrated the difficulty of analyzing valuational and organizational aspects of conservation programs using questionnaires.