A practical framework for ethics assessment in wildlife management decision‐making

Wildlife professionals lack a framework and process for incorporating ethical considerations in a systematic and transparent way, along with ecological and social science, to support wildlife management decision‐making. We provide such a framework and process based on 3 of the major theoretical branches ethicists have developed in Western culture: consequentialist moral theory, which focuses on consequences and outcomes; principle‐ and rule‐based approaches that deal with what is considered right or wrong; and virtue ethical theory, which considers factors such as character, virtue, and aesthetics. The framework can be used to anticipate the ethical consequences of alternative courses of action or taking no action. If wildlife professionals use this framework as an assessment tool to provide input into decision‐making, resulting decisions will be more transparent, better understood by stakeholders, and more consistent with public trust responsibilities. Ethics, along with biological and social science, play a role in wildlife management decision making. This paper provides a practical framework and process that can be used to make assessment of ethical considerations explicit and transparent. Use of the framework will contribute to more fully informed decision making, consistent with public trust responsibilities.