Managing an Endangered Asian Bovid in an Australian National Park: The Role and Limitations of Ecological-Economic Models in Decision-Making BARRY W. BROOK* DAVID M. J. S. BOWMAN COREY J. A. BRADSHAW BRUCE M. CAMPBELL PETER J. WHITEHEAD School for Environmental Studies Institute of Advanced Studies Charles Darwin University Darwin, Northern Territory 0909, Australia ABSTRACT / Should north Australia‘s extensive populations of feral animals be eradicated for conservation, or exploited as a rare opportunity for Indigenous enterprise in remote regions? We examine options for a herd of banteng, a cattle species endangered in its native Asian range but abundant in Garig Gunak Barlu National Park, an Aboriginal land managed jointly by traditional owners and a conser- vation agency in the Northern Territory of Australia. We re- flect on the paradoxes that arise when trying to deal effectively with such complex and contested issues in natural resource management using decision-support tools (ecological-economic models), by identifying the trade-offs inherent in protecting values whilst also providing incomes for Indigenous landowners. One of the great intellectual challenges facing humanity in the 21st century is finding a socially acceptable balance between the imperatives of security and certainty against an increasingly dangerous and risky environment (Beck 1992). The need to deal with this uncertainty is apparent in all facets of life, ranging from geopolitics, to local responses to extreme weather phenomena, to sustainable exploitation of dynamic liv- ing systems (Ludwig and others 1993; Deville and Har- ding 1995). Conservation biology provides numerous examples where programs designed to reduce the risk of species extinction are based on imperfect knowledge about the causes and trajectories of threatening pro- cesses (Caughley and Gunn 1996). The inability of conservation science to provide a single, optimal strategy to address management questions inevitably results in conservation managers having to select a particular re- sponse from a multitude of possible options (Burgman and others 1993). Furthermore, conservation biologists are increasingly aware that species management and biodiversity conservation programs often fail because they lack the appropriate understanding of the eco- nomic context in which conservation interventions are developed and implemented (Adams and Hulme 2001). Unprecedented global environment change demands adaptive rather than deterministic management re- gimes to cope with the inherent complexity and uncer- tainty involved, yet pathways to changes in policy and decision-making are often unclear and confused (du Toit and others 2004). A classic example of this is the tension between the western models of National Parks imposed in the developing world settings (e.g., Indo- nesia) where exploitation of natural resources forms a key component of local subsistence (non-market) economies (Curran and others 2004). The disciplines of ecology and economics show both striking similarities and fundamental differences be- cause they have largely developed in isolation from each other, despite both seeking to understand com- plex and dynamic systems (Costanza 1996). For exam- ple, ecology is characterised by a well-developed descriptive tradition and limited engagement with society, whereas economists have a stronger develop- ment of mechanistic theories to predict costs-benefit trade-offs and far-reaching influences on society. More recently, ecologists, particularly in the applied facets of the discipline such as conservation biology, have had to look beyond the plot- and population-scale to protect effectively species threatened with extinction and, consequently, they have had to engage actively with the political process (Balmford and others 2002). This raises a conundrum for conservation biologists: should KEY WORDS: Conservation values; Exotic animals; Hybrid economy; Indigenous people; Transaction costs; Wildlife man- agement Published online May 22, 2006. *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; email: barry. brook@cdu.edu.au Environmental Management Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 463–469 ª 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-005-0157-7