Collaborative interaction in wildlife management: A practice-based analysis

The May 2005 conviction and sentencing of a Swedish sheep farmer to six months’ imprisonment for shooting a wolf 130 meters away from an enclosed pasture, strengthened the opinion among local residents of wolf inhabited... [ view full abstract ]

The May 2005 conviction and sentencing of a Swedish sheep farmer to six months’ imprisonment for shooting a wolf 130 meters away from an enclosed pasture, strengthened the opinion among local residents of wolf inhabited territories that wildlife management had to give much greater consideration to the consequences associated with wolf presence in the countryside. To allow for the development of efficient and lasting management decisions, and support transition from controversy to consensus, public involvement in resource management have, around the world, increased to deal more effectively with questions concerning contested values. Often, the implementation of such measures is staged against the backdrop of conflicts regarding how to manage, who should be allowed to have a say in the management process, and how to design regulatory renewal to resolve previous failures of natural resource management to respond to local circumstances and values. Common to these arrangements is the understanding that for management to be sustainable, the lowest functional level should be acknowledged. The matter of stakeholder rights and interests should be recognized as to allow for the development of a wise and fair management of land, water and living wild resources.  

Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated three participatory measures in three Scandinavian countries initiated to support transition from top-down, single-function and science-based with a low degree of public involvement to more flexible approaches where the inclusion of the knowledge and values of lower-level actors constitutes an important component. Through the exploration of the motivations for engaging in political activity of this kind and the tangible and intangible social, cultural and organizational conditions that create and sustain participatory practices and their outcomes, the study demonstrates how the presence of large carnivores and associated politics create a buffer zone between the private and public domains. It will also be shown how the operational capacity of governance measures are limited by their representational capacity and ability to support a dialogic space for the exchange of different knowledge and experience.