Hedmark University College, Faculty of Applied Ecology and Agricultural Sciences, Campus Evenstad, Koppang, Norway.
PLoS One. 2013 Jul 24;8(7):e68849. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068849. Print 2013.
Human-carnivore conflicts are complex and are influenced by: the spatial distribution of the conflict species; the organisation and intensity of management measures such as zoning; historical experience with wildlife; land use patterns; and local cultural traditions. We have used a geographically stratified sampling of social values and attitudes to provide a novel perspective to the human - wildlife conflict. We have focused on acceptance by and disagreements between residents (measured as Potential Conflict Index; PCI) towards illegal hunting of four species of large carnivores (bear, lynx, wolf, wolverine). The study is based on surveys of residents in every municipality in Sweden and Norway who were asked their opinion on illegal hunting. Our results show how certain social values are associated with acceptance of poaching, and how these values differ geographically independent of carnivore abundance. Our approach differs from traditional survey designs, which are often biased towards urban areas. Although these traditional designs intend to be representative of a region (i.e. a random sample from a country), they tend to receive relatively few respondents from rural areas that experience the majority of conflict with carnivores. Acceptance of poaching differed significantly between Norway (12.7-15.7% of respondents) and Sweden (3.3-4.1% of respondents). We found the highest acceptance of illegal hunting in rural areas with free-ranging sheep and strong hunting traditions. Disagreements between residents (as measured by PCI) were highest in areas with intermediate population density. There was no correlation between carnivore density and either acceptance of illegal hunting or PCI. A strong positive correlation between acceptance of illegal hunting and PCI showed that areas with high acceptance of illegal hunting are areas with high potential conflict between people. Our results show that spatially-stratified surveys are required to reveal the large scale patterns in social dynamics of human-wildlife conflicts.
人与食肉动物的冲突是复杂的，受以下因素影响：冲突物种的空间分布；分区等管理措施的组织和强度；野生动物的历史经验；土地利用模式；以及当地的文化传统。我们使用地理分层抽样的社会价值观和态度，为人类与野生动物的冲突提供了一个新颖的视角。我们专注于居民对四种大型食肉动物（熊、猞猁、狼、狼獾）非法狩猎的接受程度和分歧（以潜在冲突指数表示；PCI）。这项研究基于对瑞典和挪威每个市镇居民的调查，询问他们对非法狩猎的看法。我们的研究结果表明，某些社会价值观与偷猎行为的接受程度有关，以及这些价值观如何在不依赖食肉动物丰度的情况下在地理上存在差异。我们的方法与传统的调查设计不同，后者往往偏向于城市地区。尽管这些传统设计旨在代表一个地区（即从一个国家中随机抽样），但它们往往很少收到来自农村地区的受访者的反馈，而这些地区才是与食肉动物冲突最多的地区。挪威（12.7-15.7%的受访者）和瑞典（3.3-4.1%的受访者）对偷猎的接受程度存在显著差异。我们发现，在有自由放养的绵羊和强烈的狩猎传统的农村地区，对非法狩猎的接受程度最高。在人口密度中等的地区，居民之间的分歧（以 PCI 衡量）最高。食肉动物密度与非法狩猎的接受程度或 PCI 之间没有相关性。非法狩猎接受程度和 PCI 之间存在很强的正相关关系，这表明接受非法狩猎程度高的地区也是人与野生动物之间潜在冲突高的地区。我们的研究结果表明，需要进行空间分层调查，以揭示人与野生动物冲突的社会动态的大规模模式。
