Tveraa Torkild, Stien Audun, Brøseth Henrik, Yoccoz Nigel G
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), FRAM - High North Research Centre for Climate and the Environment NO-9296, Tromsø, Norway.
NINA P.O. Box 5685 Sluppen, NO-7485, Trondheim, Norway.
J Appl Ecol. 2014 Oct;51(5):1264-1272. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12322. Epub 2014 Sep 24.
A major challenge in biodiversity conservation is to facilitate viable populations of large apex predators in ecosystems where they were recently driven to ecological extinction due to resource conflict with humans.Monetary compensation for losses of livestock due to predation is currently a key instrument to encourage human-carnivore coexistence. However, a lack of quantitative estimates of livestock losses due to predation leads to disagreement over the practice of compensation payments. This disagreement sustains the human-carnivore conflict.The level of depredation on year-round, free-ranging, semi-domestic reindeer by large carnivores in Fennoscandia has been widely debated over several decades. In Norway, the reindeer herders claim that lynx and wolverine cause losses of tens of thousands of animals annually and cause negative population growth in herds. Conversely, previous research has suggested that monetary predator compensation can result in positive population growth in the husbandry, with cascading negative effects of high grazer densities on the biodiversity in tundra ecosystems.We utilized a long-term, large-scale data set to estimate the relative importance of lynx and wolverine predation and density-dependent and climatic food limitation on claims for losses, recruitment and population growth rates in Norwegian reindeer husbandry.Claims of losses increased with increasing predator densities, but with no detectable effect on population growth rates. Density-dependent and climatic effects on claims of losses, recruitment and population growth rates were much stronger than the effects of variation in lynx and wolverine densities.. Our analysis provides a quantitative basis for predator compensation and estimation of the costs of reintroducing lynx and wolverine in areas with free-ranging semi-domestic reindeer. We outline a potential path for conflict management which involves adaptive monitoring programmes, open access to data, herder involvement and development of management strategy evaluation (MSE) models to disentangle complex responses including multiple stakeholders and individual harvester decisions.
生物多样性保护面临的一个重大挑战是，在那些因与人类发生资源冲突而导致大型顶级食肉动物最近在生态上灭绝的生态系统中，促进其形成可存活种群。目前，对因捕食造成的牲畜损失给予货币补偿是鼓励人类与食肉动物共存的一项关键手段。然而，由于缺乏对捕食造成的牲畜损失的定量估计，导致在补偿支付做法上存在分歧。这种分歧加剧了人类与食肉动物的冲突。几十年来，斯堪的纳维亚半岛大型食肉动物对全年自由放养的半家养驯鹿的捕食程度一直存在广泛争议。在挪威，驯鹿牧民声称，猞猁和狼獾每年造成数万头驯鹿死亡，并导致鹿群数量出现负增长。相反，此前的研究表明，对捕食者进行货币补偿可使养殖数量实现正增长，而高食草动物密度会对苔原生态系统的生物多样性产生连锁负面影响。我们利用一个长期的大规模数据集，来估计猞猁和狼獾捕食以及密度依赖型和气候性食物限制对挪威驯鹿养殖中损失索赔、补充量和种群增长率的相对重要性。损失索赔随着捕食者密度的增加而增加，但对种群增长率没有可检测到的影响。密度依赖型和气候对损失索赔、补充量和种群增长率的影响，比猞猁和狼獾密度变化的影响要强烈得多。我们的分析为捕食者补偿以及在有自由放养半家养驯鹿的地区重新引入猞猁和狼獾的成本估算提供了定量依据。我们概述了一条冲突管理的潜在途径，其中包括适应性监测计划、数据的开放获取、牧民的参与以及开发管理策略评估（MSE）模型，以理清包括多个利益相关者和个体收获者决策在内的复杂反应。
