The impact of lynx and wolf on roe deer hunting benefits in Sweden

Katarina Elofsson and Tobias Häggmark
Additional contact information
Tobias Häggmark: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, 2021, vol. 23, issue 4, No 3, 683-719

Abstract: Abstract Large carnivores provide ecosystem and cultural benefits but also impose costs on hunters due to the competition for game. The aim of this paper was to identify the marginal impact of lynx (Lynx lynx) and wolf (Canis lupus) on the harvest of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in Sweden and the value of this impact. We applied a production function approach, using a bioeconomic model where the annual number of roe deer harvested was assumed to be determined by hunting effort, abundance of predators, availability of other game, and winter severity. The impact of the predators on the roe deer harvests was estimated econometrically, and carnivore marginal impacts were derived. The results showed that if the roe deer resource was harvested under open access, the marginal cost in terms of hunting values foregone varied between different counties, and ranged between 18,000 and 58,000 EUR for an additional lynx family, and 79,000 and 336,000 EUR for an additional wolf individual. Larger marginal costs of the wolf, in terms of the impact on roe deer hunting, were found in counties where the hunting effort was high and the abundance of moose (Alces alces) was low. If instead, hunters could exert private property rights to the resource, the average marginal cost was about 20% lower than it would have been if there was open access, and the difference in wolf impact between counties with high and low moose density was smaller. Together, results suggest that the current plan for expanding the wolf population in south Sweden can be associated with a substantial cost.

Keywords: Human-large carnivore conflict; Lynx; Predation; Production function approach; Wolves; Q51; Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10018-020-00299-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:envpol:v:23:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10018-020-00299-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... mental/journal/10018

DOI: 10.1007/s10018-020-00299-y

Access Statistics for this article

Environmental Economics and Policy Studies is currently edited by Ken-Ichi Akao

More articles in Environmental Economics and Policy Studies from Springer, Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().