7 research outputs found
Replication data for: Trust in large carnivore science in Norway
No full textThe dataset is from a national survey from 2018 dealing with trust in research. We focus on large carnivore research, and the survey is based on a geographical sampling and not demographic sampling method
Fear towards the four large carnivores in Norway; a geospatial survey from 2010 and 2019
No full textAbstract
Through the last centuries it has become high disturbances and interventions in natural areas, which has forced wildlife to interact with humans. This has led to human-wildlife conflicts (HWC), where animals have become a threat to peoples’ safety or livelihood. These conflicts have often ended with species becoming endangered or extinct globally, including Norway. There are small populations of wolverine (Gulo gulo), wolf (Canis lupus), lynx (Lynx lynx), and brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Norway. Fear of carnivores is one of the many aspects in the human-large carnivore conflict. This could be fear of being injured or even killed in an encounter, especially those living in large carnivore areas, where the probability of encountering one is much higher.
Through two PhD-surveys executed in 2010 and 2019 I looked at peoples fear between years, spatial patterns of fear within and outside management areas for each large carnivore, and peoples’ perception of the population size of each large carnivore in their living area (municipality). Both methods were performed the same way, where maximum 5 people per municipality had to go through the surveys of 30-40 questions in a phone survey by NORSTAT.
My results revealed a lower level of fear towards all four carnivores in 2019 compared to 2010, while fear in the spatial pattern varied between species; fear towards lynx and wolverine was higher outside their management areas, conversely fear towards wolf was higher within the management area than outside, and fear towards brown bear revealed no difference in areas. By including demographic variables, the only change that occurred in the spatial pattern was fear towards wolf, which no longer showed a difference between areas. Meanwhile, peoples’ perception of the carnivore situation in their municipality revealed low level of fear in the perception of not enough carnivores, while perception of too many carnivores showed a high level of fear. This applies for fear towards brown bear, wolf, and lynx, while it only applies for wolverine in the category of too few wolverines in their own municipality. Lynx was the only carnivore who revealed a high level of fear in the perception of uncertainty. I further discuss causes behind peoples’ fear and further measures should be studied to find ways to help people to manage their fear or even reduce fear to assist the reduce of large carnivore conflict in Norway.
Key words: fear, large carnivores, human-large carnivore conflict, municipality, management area
Media’s portrayal of large predators in Norway from the protection by law in the 1970’s till today: an insight into local and national newspapers
No full textIn the late century of 1800 till mid-1900s, large predators were eradicated worldwide, and bounties were commonly used to get rid of the predators. In the twentieth century the policy changed, and predators became protected by law. The “return” of the predators has resulted in negative human–wildlife interactions and an increase in social conficts. Media plays a key role in most social conficts, as positive portrayals can lead to an increased willingness to conserve the species, as opposed to negative portrayals. We have looked at how Norwegian newspapers portray the large predators from when they were protected by law in the 1970’s till today. Our results show that wolves represent the most articles, and the positive mentioning of wolves has decreased, while for bears this has increased. Local newspapers contained more negative portrayals than national newspapers, and changes in wolf establishment, predator management or politics impact on the number of articles. As our fndings indicate that negative experiences with predators, in particular in local areas, associate with negative articles in the local newspapers, we believe this could contribute to negative attitudes towards predators among those who are readers of the local newspapers. This is yet to be studied in more detail and would be recommended to better understand the role of media in human–wildlife conficts
Trust in large carnivore science in Norway
No full textLarge carnivores are controversial species, and associated conflicts between stakeholders with opposing views on large carnivores are observed across the globe. Social trust, the public’s willingness to rely on those responsible for developing policies, has gained much attention regarding the acceptance of large carnivores and large carnivore management. However, trust in large carnivore science has not received as much consideration. In Norway, administrative management authorities are responsible to execute the political framework decided by the Norwegian Parliament while basing their decisions on recommendations from large carnivore science. As large carnivore science is the main knowledge provider for monitoring and measures implemented in management decisions to achieve viable carnivore populations, trust in science is crucial. Yet, scientific information is often challenged. As attitude studies show a tendency for the wider general public to be more positive towards large carnivores than people most adversely affected, we wanted to examine whether the trust in large carnivore science follows the same pattern. We used a geographically stratified sample of 2110 respondents, five respondents from each municipality in Norway, to model how trust varies across the sample. Our results indicate that elderly men, people with lower education, those who have experienced loss of livestock to carnivores associate with lower trust in large carnivore science. Lower trust was also found among big game hunters and people who fear large carnivores. This knowledge could help to guide targeted science communication and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of cognitions important for management of conflicts involving large carnivores
Living with wolves: A worldwide systematic review of attitudes
No full textThis systematic review of peer reviewed articles
on attitudes towards gray wolves (Canis lupus), shows that
attitudes are mainly measured either by mean values of
attitudes or by proportional differences in attitudes. This
may impact on how attitudes are perceived and interpreted
across studies and areas. However, independent of method
used, we found that people living in areas where wolves
always have existed, are more negative towards wolves
compared to people living in areas where there are no
wolves, or where wolves have recovered after years of
absence. People who express fear, or being directly
affected by having wolves, such as farmers and hunters,
report more negative attitudes compared to other groups of
respondents. For wolf conservation we recommend
politicians and management authorities to prepare local
societies of the different consequences of living in wolf
areas. We recommend using dialogues and conflict
management methods to minimize the level of conflicts.publishedVersio
Trust in researchers and researchers' statements in large carnivore conservation
No full textHuman–wildlife interactions occur when humans and wildlife overlap in the same landscapes. Due to the growing human population, the number of interactions will continue to increase, and in some cases, develop further into social conflicts. Conflicts may occur between people disagreeing about wildlife conservation or arguing over which wildlife management measures should be taken. Social conflicts between humans are based on different attitudes, values and land-use aspirations. The success of solving these social conflicts strongly depends on building trust between the public, stakeholders, authorities and researchers, as trust is fundamental to all communication and dialogue. Here we have examined how trust in large carnivore research differs within a geographically stratified sample of the Norwegian population. The comprehensive survey, including 2,110 respondents, allows us to explore how people perceive factual statements about large carnivores depending on the source of these statements. Specifically, the respondents were given multiple statements and asked to judge them in terms of meaning and authenticity depending on whether the statements were made by a politician, the Norwegian farmers' association, the Norwegian Fish and Game association or a large carnivore researcher. Based on the variations in perceptions, we inferred that trust in large carnivore researchers and their research results varied with people's attitudes, values and direct experience of large carnivores. In general, respondents perceived 60% of the statements to be genuine when given no information of who had made them. Although this increased to 75% when informed that the statements were made by a large carnivore researcher, there was still a 25% probability that the statement was perceived as manipulative or political. Age, environmental values and negative experiences of carnivores increased the probability of perceiving research statements as manipulative or political. People living in areas with high proportions of hunters showed particularly polarized views, either more strongly perceiving the statements as political, or in contrast as research. This study provides a novel perspective in understanding the role trust plays in social conflicts related to human–wildlife interactions. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article
Økosystemtenester frå villreinfjellet i Noreg. Ei vurdering basert på eksisterande datagrunnlag
No full textHelseth, E.V., Eide, N.E., Hansen, B.B., Kvalnes, T., Roos, R.E., Rosvold, J., Rønning, B., Singsaas, F.T. & Mathiesen, K.E. 2023. Økosystemtenester frå villreinfjellet i Noreg. Ei vurdering basert på eksisterande datagrunnlag. NINA Rapport 2373. Norsk institutt for naturforskning.
I denne rapporten gjer vi ei biofysisk vurdering av bruk og kapasitet knytt til 16 viktige økosystemtenester frå villreinfjellet i Noreg. Vurderinga er basert på eksisterande og offentleg tilgjengeleg data. Vi tek utgangspunkt i at dei 24 villreinområda i Noreg utgjer «villreinfjellet», samstundes som vi også inkluderer nokre vurderingar knytt til randsonene til villreinområda.
Villreinfjellet er lokalisert i Sør-Noreg, og utgjer 15,7% av Noreg sitt fastlandsareal. Det er 86 kommunar som har delar av sitt areal innafor villreinfjellområda, fordelt på 8 fylke, og med 576 338 innbyggjarar (10,4% av Noreg si befolkning). Det er 166 128 hytter/ fritidsbustadar i desse kommunane, derav ligg rundt 19 000 hytter/ fritidsbustadar innanfor dei 10 nasjonale villreinområda. Forsking indikerer at besøkande har særleg fokus på fjellet som villmark og rekreasjonslandskap, mens lokale har større fokus på forsynande tenester og relasjonelle verdiar knytt til villreinfjellet.
Dei viktigaste forsynande tenestene frå villreinområda er i) råmateriale, ii) matproduksjon, iii) energiproduksjon, iv) medisinressursar, og v) drikkevatn. Bruken av fleire av desse tenestene har auka dei siste åra. Villreinfjellet leverer rundt 40 % av Noreg sin energiproduksjon frå vasskraft. Vi estimerer årleg matproduksjon i form av kjøt til å vere 131 100 kg frå villrein, 8 100 kg frå rype, og 6 103 938 kg frå sau og lam på beite. Det er 33 registrerte uttak for mineral som er i aktiv drift i villreinfjellområda. Det er også mange drikkevasskjelder i villreinfjellet.
Dei viktigaste kulturelle tenestene er i) friluftsliv, ii) reiseliv, iii) stadkjensle, iv) kulturutøving og kulturminne, v) kunnskap og vitskap, og vi) religion åndelege verdiar. Kulturelle økosystemtenester frå villreinfjellområda er i endring, og det har særleg vore ei sterk auke i bruk av fjellområda til rekreasjonsføremål assosiert med private hytter og kommersielt reiseliv. Mykje av utviklinga innanfor bruk av kulturelle tenester er knytt til auke i infrastruktur og ferdsel.
Særleg viktige regulerande økosystemtenester er i) opptak og lagring av karbon, ii) næringsstoffkretsløp, iii) moderering av ekstreme vêrhendingar, og iv) vasskretsløp. Fjelløkosystema utgjer ei viktig kjelde til karbonopptak, særleg ettersom dei dekkjer så stor del av Noreg sitt areal. Når det gjeld næringsstoffkretsløp, antek ein at villreinen spelar ei viktig rolle, m.a. gjennom beiting og gjødsling, og det trengs styrka kunnskap på dette området. Villreinfjellet er også viktig i det hydrologiske kretsløpet, og høgfjellsområda fungerer m.a. delvis som ‘vasstårn’ som avgir lagra vatn gjennom sommarsesongen.
Villreinfjellet si rolle som habitat for ulike artar er avgjerande for mange av dei andre økosystemtenestene. Villreinen er ein arealkrevjande art som i stor grad unngår område med infrastruktur og busetnad, og villreinfjellet utgjer 56 % av det totale arealet av villmarksprega område i Sør-Noreg. Fjelløkosystem i Noreg har jamt over god økologisk tilstand, men tilstanden er noko dårlegare i dei sørlegaste fjellområda. Samstundes viser kvalitetsnorma for villrein ein dårleg tilstand for villreinen i mange av områda som er vurdert.
Vi finn at auka bruk av nokre forsynande og kulturelle tenester (som energiproduksjon og reiseliv), medfører infrastruktur og ferdsel som særleg kan bidra til å redusere villmarksfjellet sin kapasitet for å vere habitat for villreinen og andre artar. For å fremme eit breiare spekter av økosystemtenester frå villreinfjellet i framtida er det viktig å: i) styrka kunnskap om kulturelle, regulerande, og støttande tenester, ii) vurdere berekraftig balanse i bruk og kapasitet knytt til ulike tenester, iii) kartlegge maktdynamikkar knytt til kva verdiar og tenester som vinn fram i avgjerdstaking, og iv) opne for alternativ til dagens dominerande «grøn vekst» berekraftsbane.Miljødirektoratet: M-2637|202
