A social license to operate theory for lethal control of crown‐of‐thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef

Abstract Outbreaks of crown‐of‐thorns starfish (COTS) have been recorded on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) since 1962 and have considerable ecological and economic impact. Monitoring and control of COTS to predict, prevent and mitigate outbreaks is an important part of the ongoing protection of the GBR. We set out to develop an in‐depth understanding of GBR community perceptions of COTS management and to synthesize these perceptions inductively into a social licence to operate (SLO) theory. Our study contributes to the nascent literature on factors that influence SLO in (marine) conservation contexts. Informed by 1593 surveys with Australian residents and based on 117 semi‐structured interviews with 140 community members living and/or working in close proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, we developed a grounded theory of the primary domains of SLO for COTS management on the GBR. These included community perceptions of (1) ethical responsibility; (2) knowledge and rationale; (3) management effectiveness; and (4) socioeconomic benefits. Our results also emphasize the need to distinguish between SLO and the unique rights and responsibilities of GBR Traditional Owners. Except for the importance of socioeconomic benefits, the domains we identified differ from those found by previous studies of the mining and resource extraction industries, where SLO has been more established. Our grounded SLO Theory can be helpful for environmental managers to identify potential avenues to increase community support and social licence for environmental management programmes such as the culling of COTS. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.