Contested Species. An Interdiciplinary Approach for Understanding Conflict Dynamics in Wildlife Management
Funding source: Formas - The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning
Funding: 1620000 SEK
Description:
The objective of the project is to make an interdisciplinary analysis of conflict dynamics in contested wildlife populations in Sweden, with specific focus on conflicts between stakeholders and management agencies. Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of reports of conflicts between stakeholders and governmental agencies over management of wildlife species. In some instances, these conflicts have even held displays of violence, sabotage, vigilantism, and overt disobedience of laws, and must therefore be considered as one of the most salient political conflicts in Sweden of today. We posit that in many cases, biodiversity loss is rooted in social conflicts around use and management of habitats and species. Thus, a better understanding of the dynamics of social conflict (i.e. conflict generation, reproduction, and resolution) is an important prerequisite for management of key ecological assets such as biodiversity. We will employ a study design in three phases. The first phase will consist in an extensive mapping of cases of wildlife conflicts in Sweden. The second phase focuses on detailed and strategically chosen case studies, and the third phase will involve the use of agent-based models built on case study data. Important research questions are 1) how do conflict affect the possibilities of managing complex and uncertain ecological systems, 2) what factors drives these conflicts, and 3) how do governance initiatives uphold or lessen conflict.
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