Design with nonhumans takes wildlife agency into account to reduce conflicts

The concept of nonhuman animal agency has recently been introduced in fields from more-than-human geography to wildlife conservation. Nonhuman animal agency refers to the capacity of animals to create, set in motion, and cause or influence actions through their relations with humans and other nonhumans. Ecologists have long recognized that animal species are active components of ecosystems and have important ecological functions, yet most wildlife management treats species as objects that are (or should be) passive and controllable. We argue that explicit recognition of nonhuman agency can reduce human-wildlife conflict, enhance the capacity for coexistence, and create better outcomes for conservation and other human-based projects. Rather than attempting to control species, the emerging more-than-human perspective suggests that a better target of management is place-based relationships, where humans and a variety of nonhumans are active participants in shaping landscape structures and lived experiences. To implement this concept in practice, we present design with nonhuman species as a pragmatic approach that draws on and may combine elements of contemporary design methods, coexistence approaches, rewilding perspectives, adaptive management, and traditional land management practices. The uniqueness of this approach is its focus on responding to both human and nonhuman agencies and its interactive problem solving mediated by materials, objects, structures, spaces, and spatiotemporal patterns. Design with seeks to appreciate and embody desires and concepts, which can be understood as being held by both humans and nonhumans. Critically, design with enables forms of negotiation that are not based on impractical anthropocentric linguistic and political models. We encourage conservationists to engage with designers interested in design with nonhumans.