| Summary: | Large carnivores are species that have a great impact on their environment. They influence their prey population directly by killing animals, and indirectly by affecting their behavior (e.g., feeding, vigilance and distribution). They are also known to affect people through induction of fear and controversy resulting often in conflicts between stakeholders. The life of people that live close to large carnivores is affected by their presence every day. Recently, wildlife managers and scientists are recognizing more and more the importance of stakeholder participation and responsibilities in the management of large carnivores to reduce conflict potential. Stakeholder engagement in wildlife management can be implemented by two general approaches. The top‐down approach, where stakeholder involvement in management decision making is low, and the bottom‐up approach were this is high. Several studies have addressed the theory that public participatory processes increase conflict resolution potential of large carnivore management. However, to date, there has been limited empirical evidence to confirm the claim that conservation conflicts can be resolved through effective or more public participation. Therefore, I have attempted to evaluate how effective an increase of public participation and responsibility in the management of the four large carnivores of Europe is in mitigating conflicts. As an indicator of whether conflict potential is high or low for a given country, I have used general attitudes toward the four large carnivore species. A meta – analytic approach was chosen for this study. I have found an indication that the mean positive attitudes toward the brown bear seem to be higher than toward the wolf. In addition, for the brown bear I have found indications that the mean positive attitudes toward the species increases as stakeholder involvement increases. Whereas for the wolf I did find this indication for the general public, but not for the public within large carnivore area. On top of that I have found ...
|
|---|