Dr Darragh Hare
Research Fellows
I combine applied and basic research to study controversial issues in biodiversity conservation.
My applied research focuses on conservation conflicts: acrimonious, morally fraught divisions over wildlife conservation and governance. I collaborate closely with non-academic conservation professionals working on real-world conflicts. We use quantitative methods to measure people’s attitudes, beliefs, and policy preferences, and use results to propose practically orientated ways to improve outcomes for biodiversity and people. I have ongoing projects in Scotland (deer management, woodland restoration, potential reintroduction of Eurasian lynx), the United States (deer management, wildlife decision-making and governance), and southern and East Africa (human-wildlife conflicts, protected areas management, community-based natural resource management, hunting).
My basic research asks whether the theory of evolution by natural selection can explain why environmental problems arise and why they persist. I am particularly interested in the evolution of environmental morality: individual-level beliefs, intuitions, attitudes, as well as social norms about what is right and wrong regarding other species and the environment more generally. I collaborate with ecologists, psychologists, evolutionary anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists to measure and analyse how people think about wild organisms, develop formal evolutionary models of adaptive conservation behaviours, and investigate how people’s evolved moral psychology promotes pro- or anti-conservation behaviours.
I have an MA(Hons) in moral and political theory from the University of Glasgow and a PhD in Natural Resources from Cornell University. I worked in public policy for nine years before starting my postgraduate work. I retain a keen interest in public policy and collaborate with conservation professionals across sectors to help design socially and ecologically responsible systems of wildlife governance.
I am affiliated with Cornell University’s Center for Conservation Social Sciences, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and Atkinson Center for Sustainability. I am working to establish long-term research collaborations between Oxford and Cornell, supported by the Brettschneider Exchange Fund. From 2019-2021 I was an adjunct assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of New Mexico.
Website: Morally contested conservation
Selected Publications
Kirkland, H., Hare, D., Daniels, M., Krofel, M. Rao, S., Chapman, T., & Blossey, B. (2021) Successful deer management in Scotland requires less conflict not more. Frontiers in Conservation Science 2. doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2021.770303
Hare, D., Daniels, M., & Blossey, B. (2021) Public perceptions of deer management in Scotland. Frontiers in Conservation Science 2. doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2021.781546
Rudd, L.F., Allred, S.B., Bright Ross, J.G., Hare, D., Nkomo, M.N., Shanker, K., Allen, T., Biggs, D., Dickman, A., Dunaway, M., Ghosh, R., Thompson-Gonzalez, N., Kepe, T., Mbizah, M., Middleton, S., Oommen, M.A., Paudel, K., Sillero-Zubiri, C., & Dávalos, A. (2021) Overcoming racism in the twin spheres of conservation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 20211871. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1871
Pomeranz, E.F., Hare, D., Smith, C.A., Forstchen, A.B., Schiavone, M.V., Jacobson, C.A., & Decker, D.J. (2021) Successful wildlife conservation requires good governance. Frontiers in Conservation Science 2, 753289. doi: 10.3389/fcosc.2021.753289
Hart, A., Cooney, R., Dickman, A., Hare, D., Jonga, C., Johnson, P., Louis, M.P., Roe, D., Semcer, C., & Somerville, K. (2020) Threats posed to conservation by media misinformation. Conservation Biology 34(6), 1333-13334. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13605
Curry, O., Hare, D., Hepburn, C., Johnson, D.P., Buhrmester, M.D., Whitehouse, H., & Macdonald, D.W. (2020) Cooperative conservation: seven ways to save the world. Conservation Science and Practice 2(1), e123. doi: 10.1111/csp2.123
Mattison, S.M., Quinlan, R., & Hare, D. (2019) The expendable male hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 374: 20180080. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0080
Giacomelli, S.*, Hare, D.*, Gibbert, M., & Blossey, B. (2019) Public trust thinking and public ownership of wildlife in Italy and the United States. Environmental Policy and Governance 29, 209-219. doi:10.1002/eet.1848. (* Joint first authors)
Hare, D., Blossey, B., & Reeve, H.K. (2018) Value of species and the evolution of conservation ethics. Royal Society Open Science 5: 181038. doi: 10.1098/rsos.181038
Hare, D., Smith, C. A., Forstchen, A. B. & Decker, D.J. (2018). Developing governance principles for public natural resources. Society and Natural Resources 31(3), 382-388. doi: 10.1080/08941920.2017.1400627
Hare, D., Decker, D. J., Smith, C. A. & Forstchen, A. B. (2017). Applying public trust thinking to fish and wildlife governance in the United States: challenges and potential solutions. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 22(6), 506-523. doi: 10.1080/10871209.2017.1359864
Hare, D., Reeve, H. K. & Blossey, B. (2016). Evolutionary routes to stable ownership. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 29(6), 1178–1188. doi: 10.1111/jeb.12859.
Decker, D. J., Forstchen, A. B. & Hare, D. (2016). Genesis of wildlife governance principles: need and response. Transactions of the 81st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, 138-143
Kretser, H. E., Schiavone, M. V., Hare, D. & Smith, C. A. (2016). Applying wildlife governance principles: opportunities and limitations. Transactions of the 81st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, 152-160
Decker, D. J., Smith, C. A., Forstchen, A. B., Hare, D., Pomeranz, E. F., Doyle-Capitman, C., Schuler, K. & Organ, J. F. (2016). Governance principles for wildlife conservation in the 21st century. Conservation Letters, 9(4), 290–295. doi: 10.1111/conl.12211
Hare, D. & Blossey, B. (2014). Principles of public trust thinking. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 19(5), 397–406. doi: 10.1080/10871209.2014.942759
Decker, D. J., Forstchen, A. B., Jacobson, C. A., Smith, C. A., Organ, J. F. & Hare, D. (2013). What does it mean to manage wildlife as if public trust really matters? Transactions of the 78th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, 47–54
