Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry

Hunting is a widespread but often overlooked land-use activity, providing major benefits to society. Hunting takes place in most landscapes, yet it remains unclear which types of landscapes foster or dampen hunting-related services, and how hunting relates to other land uses. A better understanding...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology and Society
Main Authors: Wiebke Neumann, Christian Levers, Fredrik Widemo, Navinder J. Singh, Joris P.G.M. Cromsigt, Tobias Kuemmerle
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Resilience Alliance 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12882-270102
https://doaj.org/article/b79d37426e314f8db419be4792dc09cc
id ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b79d37426e314f8db419be4792dc09cc
record_format openpolar
spelling ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b79d37426e314f8db419be4792dc09cc 2023-05-15T17:45:11+02:00 Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry Wiebke Neumann Christian Levers Fredrik Widemo Navinder J. Singh Joris P.G.M. Cromsigt Tobias Kuemmerle 2022-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12882-270102 https://doaj.org/article/b79d37426e314f8db419be4792dc09cc EN eng Resilience Alliance https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss1/art2/ https://doaj.org/toc/1708-3087 1708-3087 doi:10.5751/ES-12882-270102 https://doaj.org/article/b79d37426e314f8db419be4792dc09cc Ecology and Society, Vol 27, Iss 1, p 2 (2022) functional game groups human-nature interactions human-wildlife co-existence land-use archetypes northern europe social-ecological systems spatial clustering ungulate overabundance wildlife management Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12882-270102 2022-12-31T07:00:13Z Hunting is a widespread but often overlooked land-use activity, providing major benefits to society. Hunting takes place in most landscapes, yet it remains unclear which types of landscapes foster or dampen hunting-related services, and how hunting relates to other land uses. A better understanding of these relationships is key for sustainable land-use planning that integrates wildlife management. This is particularly urgent for Europe, where wildlife populations are increasing. Focusing on Sweden, we explored the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry to identify archetypical combinations of these land uses. Specifically, we combined indicators on the extent and intensity of agriculture and forestry, with data on hunting bags for 63 game species using self-organizing maps, a non-parametric clustering approach. We identified 15 typical bundles of co-occurring land uses at the municipality level across Sweden. The harvest of forest grouse, bears, and moose co-occurred with forestry in northern Sweden, whereas the harvest of small game, different deer species, and wild boar co-occurred with agriculture across southern Sweden, reflecting species' biology, environmental factors, and management. Our findings also highlight the strength of associations among hunting and other land uses. Importantly, we identified large areas in central Sweden where harvest of game was below average, possibly indicating that intensity of hunting is out of balance with that of agriculture or forestry, potentially fostering conflict between wildlife and land use. Collectively, our results suggest that (1) hunting should be considered a major land use that, in Sweden, is more widespread than agriculture and forestry; (2) land-use planning must therefore integrate wildlife management; and (3) such an integration should occur in a regionalized manner that considers social-ecological context. Our approach identifies a first spatial template within which such context-specific land-use planning, aiming at aligning ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ecology and Society 27 1
institution Open Polar
collection Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
op_collection_id ftdoajarticles
language English
topic functional game groups
human-nature interactions
human-wildlife co-existence
land-use archetypes
northern europe
social-ecological systems
spatial clustering
ungulate overabundance
wildlife management
Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
Ecology
QH540-549.5
spellingShingle functional game groups
human-nature interactions
human-wildlife co-existence
land-use archetypes
northern europe
social-ecological systems
spatial clustering
ungulate overabundance
wildlife management
Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
Ecology
QH540-549.5
Wiebke Neumann
Christian Levers
Fredrik Widemo
Navinder J. Singh
Joris P.G.M. Cromsigt
Tobias Kuemmerle
Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
topic_facet functional game groups
human-nature interactions
human-wildlife co-existence
land-use archetypes
northern europe
social-ecological systems
spatial clustering
ungulate overabundance
wildlife management
Biology (General)
QH301-705.5
Ecology
QH540-549.5
description Hunting is a widespread but often overlooked land-use activity, providing major benefits to society. Hunting takes place in most landscapes, yet it remains unclear which types of landscapes foster or dampen hunting-related services, and how hunting relates to other land uses. A better understanding of these relationships is key for sustainable land-use planning that integrates wildlife management. This is particularly urgent for Europe, where wildlife populations are increasing. Focusing on Sweden, we explored the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry to identify archetypical combinations of these land uses. Specifically, we combined indicators on the extent and intensity of agriculture and forestry, with data on hunting bags for 63 game species using self-organizing maps, a non-parametric clustering approach. We identified 15 typical bundles of co-occurring land uses at the municipality level across Sweden. The harvest of forest grouse, bears, and moose co-occurred with forestry in northern Sweden, whereas the harvest of small game, different deer species, and wild boar co-occurred with agriculture across southern Sweden, reflecting species' biology, environmental factors, and management. Our findings also highlight the strength of associations among hunting and other land uses. Importantly, we identified large areas in central Sweden where harvest of game was below average, possibly indicating that intensity of hunting is out of balance with that of agriculture or forestry, potentially fostering conflict between wildlife and land use. Collectively, our results suggest that (1) hunting should be considered a major land use that, in Sweden, is more widespread than agriculture and forestry; (2) land-use planning must therefore integrate wildlife management; and (3) such an integration should occur in a regionalized manner that considers social-ecological context. Our approach identifies a first spatial template within which such context-specific land-use planning, aiming at aligning ...
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Wiebke Neumann
Christian Levers
Fredrik Widemo
Navinder J. Singh
Joris P.G.M. Cromsigt
Tobias Kuemmerle
author_facet Wiebke Neumann
Christian Levers
Fredrik Widemo
Navinder J. Singh
Joris P.G.M. Cromsigt
Tobias Kuemmerle
author_sort Wiebke Neumann
title Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
title_short Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
title_full Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
title_fullStr Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
title_full_unstemmed Hunting as land use: Understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
title_sort hunting as land use: understanding the spatial associations among hunting, agriculture, and forestry
publisher Resilience Alliance
publishDate 2022
url https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12882-270102
https://doaj.org/article/b79d37426e314f8db419be4792dc09cc
genre Northern Sweden
genre_facet Northern Sweden
op_source Ecology and Society, Vol 27, Iss 1, p 2 (2022)
op_relation https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss1/art2/
https://doaj.org/toc/1708-3087
1708-3087
doi:10.5751/ES-12882-270102
https://doaj.org/article/b79d37426e314f8db419be4792dc09cc
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12882-270102
container_title Ecology and Society
container_volume 27
container_issue 1
_version_ 1766148007374356480