Reflections on cooperation between wolf opponents and supporters in the French Alps

• Main Author: Mauz, I.
• Other Authors: CEMAGREF GRENOBLE DTGR
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: CANIS LUPUS; SOCIOLOGIE; CONFLIT D'ACTEUR; SOCIOLOGY; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://irsteadoc.irstea.fr/cemoa/PUB00016340

For the first time since they disappeared, wolves were officially spotted in the French Alps in 1992. Since then, they have been causing a genuine crisis. Wolves are surely not ordinary animals and, after a period of silence or incredulity, their arrival generates the constitution of two adverse camps. More than ten years later, the confrontation is obviously going on : in both camps, the same rumors and the same arguments can be heard and conflicts remain quite fierce. But, at the same time, joint experiments, for that matter more on sheep herds' protection than on wolves' elimination, are also being carried out. It therefore turns out that people do not have to agree to cooperate. What is necessary to collaboration if not agreement? Coexistence is possible only if one renouces an "all or nothing" logic and accepts compromise. Besides, we must admit that we are all dicovering beings unknown to us - wolves and guard dogs - and rediscovering animal and human beings we have known in a certain context, but that the wolf's arrival tranforms or shows in a new light. Finally, we must be aware that all experiences deserve to be taken into account. It is certainly asking much of everybody and particularly of naturalists and managers, whose knowledge, practices and experiences are too often considered as superior to those of farmers, hunters or hikers.