Are Large Carnivores the Real Issue? Solutions for Improving Conflict Management through Stakeholder Participation

Valeria Salvatori, Estelle Balian, Juan Carlos Blanco, Xavier Carbonell, Paolo Ciucci, László Demeter, Agnese Marino, Andrea Panzavolta, Andrea Sólyom, Yorck von Korff and Juliette Claire Young
Additional contact information
Valeria Salvatori: Istituto di Ecologia Applicata, 00161 Rome, Italy
Estelle Balian: FEAL-Facilitation for Environmental Action and Learning, 26120 Peyrus, France
Juan Carlos Blanco: Consultores en Biologia de la Conservación, 28004 Madrid, Spain
Xavier Carbonell: ARC Mediacion Ambiental, 08015 Barcelona, Spain
Paolo Ciucci: Department of Biology and Biotechnologies ‘Charles Darwin’, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185 Rome, Italy
László Demeter: National Agency for Protected Areas, 530140 Miercurea-Ciuc, Romania
Agnese Marino: Institute of Zoology, London NW1 4RY, UK
Andrea Panzavolta: Independent Researcher, 41125 Modena, Italy
Andrea Sólyom: Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, 530104 Miercurea Ciuc, Romania
Yorck von Korff: Flow-ing, 34980 Montferrier sur Lez, France
Juliette Claire Young: French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE), 75338 Paris, France

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: Social conflicts around large carnivores are increasing in Europe, often associated to the species expansion into human-modified and agricultural landscapes. Large carnivores can be seen as an added value by some but as a source of difficulties by others, depending on different values, attitudes, livelihoods, and everyday activities. Therefore, the effective involvement of the different interest groups is important to identify and shape tailored solutions that can potentially be implemented, complementing top-down approaches that might, on their own, result in lack of implementation and buy-in. To improve dialogue in conflictual situations, as part of a European project promoted by the European Parliament, we assessed the practical implementation of participatory processes in three sample areas in Europe where wolves and bears have recently been increasingly impacting human activities. Our results demonstrate that collaboration among different and generally contrasting groups is possible. Even in situations where large-carnivore impacts were seen as unsatisfactorily managed for many years, people were still willing and eager to be involved in alternative discussion processes hoping this would lead to concrete solutions. An important and common highlight among the three study areas was that all the management interventions agreed upon shared the general scope of improving the conditions of the groups most impacted by large carnivores. The process showed the importance of building trust and supporting dialogue for knowledge co-production and mitigation of conflicts between stakeholders and that controversial environmental issues have the potential to trigger a meaningful dialogue about broader societal issues. The direct involvement and support of competent authorities, as well as the upscaling of this process at larger administrative and social scales, remain important challenges.

Keywords: large-carnivore management; participatory processes; co-production; stakeholder involvement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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