Knowledge and Perceptions of Macedonian Hunters and Herders: The Influence of Species Specific Ecology of Bears, Wolves, and Lynx

Lescureux, Nicolas; Linnell, John D. C.

doi:10.1007/s10745-010-9326-2

Cited by 73 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The wolf is considered as one of these additional costs and doesn't enjoy a positive image among hunters and livestock breeders. Indeed, interactions with wolves are mainly linked to livestock, and shepherds encounter wolves more frequently than hunters (Lescureux and Linnell 2010). As this shepherd explains: "Yes, as we are living in the summer pasture, we often see them, we are living with them!"…”

Section: Wolves As An Additional Threat To a Highly Weakened Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

Lescureux

Linnell

2013

Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice

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The relationship between humans and wolves is often associated with conflicts strongly linked with livestock breeding activities. However, as conflicts are often more intense than expected considering the magnitude of their economic impact, some authors have suggested that these conflicts are disconnected from reality and are mainly due to persistence of negative perceptions from previous times. To the contrary, we suggest that local people's perceptions are often linked to wolf behaviour through direct observations and interactions. We conducted ethnological investigations on human-wolf relationships in countries belonging to former USSR (Kyrgyzstan) and former Yugoslavia (Republic of Macedonia), subjected to rapid social changes impacting both livestock husbandry and hunting practices. Our studies revealed that changes in hunting and husbandry practices have led to modifications in the socio-environmental context and to the nature of wolf-human interactions. These changes have resulted in an increased vulnerability of local people to wolf damage and a concomitant reduced acceptance for wolves. All these changes contribute to changes in the perception of the wolf and to an increase in the perception of conflicts, even in countries where humans and wolves have continuously coexisted. Our study shows the dynamic nature of human-wolf relationships, the necessity to understand the broader socio-economical context in human-wildlife conflicts, and the challenge pastoralists are facing in a changing world.

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Section: Wolves As An Additional Threat To a Highly Weakened Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These new approaches reveal the influence large carnivore behaviour can have on human perceptions and activities, and also provide insights into the interactive and dynamic character of human -wolf relationships (Lescureux 2006, Lescureux andLinnell 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

Lescureux

Linnell

2013

Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice

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“…It becomes imperative to work in cooperation with communities that coexist with local species to achieve urban environment conservation (Campbell-Smith, Simanjorang, Leader-Williams, & Linkie, 2010; Lescureux & Linnell, 2010). Such cooperation can help residents to better understand the real value of conservationist efforts (TrigueroMas et al, 2012) and to improve both the environment and their quality of life, for example through understanding the benefits of a diverse and balanced environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

<b>Human perception of the conservation and biodiversity state of forest remnants under different levels of urbanization

Grande

Ribeiro

Melo

2016

Acta Sci. Biol. Sci.

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ABSTRACT. Human perception of local environmental biodiversity and conservation may provide another dimension to understanding the ecology of urban ecosystems. This perception can vary according to the environmental urbanization level and may contribute towards its conservation. We investigated the relationship between the human perception of the conservation and state of animal richness in urban remnants and level of landscape urbanization, and between the human perception of animal richness and the remnants' area. In addition, we tested the effectiveness of interviews as the means for evaluating animal richness. The subjects' perception of the conservation of remnants did not correlate with the level of urbanization. Richness was reported as high and varied with the remnant's area -indicating maintenance of a possible species-area relationship in the studied landscape -but did not correlate with the level of urbanization. Urbanization can standardize the popular knowledge about conservation. Interviews with local residents proved to bring efficient insights into urban animal richness, especially for primates, and can be supplemented by camera-trapping. Human perception, obtained through interviews, is relevant and useful for the description of ecological aspects of urban regions and supports environmental awareness, actions, research projects, and management for conservation purposes.Keywords: popular knowledge, anthropization, urban remnants, faunal richness, ethnoecology, species-area relationship.Percepção humana sobre o estado de conservação e a biodiversidade de remanescentes florestais sob diferentes níveis de urbanização RESUMO. A percepção humana da biodiversidade e conservação do ambiente possibilita o acesso e entendimento da ecologia dos ecossistemas urbanos. Esta percepção pode variar de acordo com o nível de urbanização do ambiente e colaborar com a sua conservação. Investigamos a relação entre a percepção humana do estado de conservação e da riqueza animal de remanescentes urbanos e o grau de urbanização da paisagem; e entre a percepção humana da riqueza animal dos remanescentes e a sua área. Testamos também a eficácia de entrevistas como via de levantamento da riqueza. A percepção dos sujeitos acerca da conservação das áreas não variou com o nível de urbanização. A riqueza relatada foi alta e variou com a área do remanescente, mas não se relacionou com o nível de urbanização. A urbanização pode padronizar o conhecimento popular e a fauna remanescente pode ser suficientemente generalista e tolerante às pressões antrópicas. As entrevistas se mostraram eficientes para o levantamento da riqueza urbana, especialmente para primatas, podendo ser complementadas por armadilhamento fotográfico. A percepção humana, apreendida por entrevistas, é uma via relevante para a descrição de aspectos ecológicos das regiões urbanizadas e para fundamentar ações de sensibilização ambiental, investigação e manejo para fins de conservação.

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“…The conservation of grey wolves Canis lupus in the United States, for example, has been heavily affected by socio-economic events that have taken place in the past, including the perceived increasing influence of government policies on livestock ranchers, coupled with the declining profitability of the agricultural sector (Robinson, 2005). Wolves have become a symbol of the differences in values between groups of people (Ring, 2011); a thorough appreciation of a conservation problem from a socio-historical perspective is therefore needed firstly to understand this conflict and secondly to mitigate it (Lescureux & Linnell, 2010;Young, Ma, Laudati, & Berger, 2015). Thus I shall briefly describe the history of Namibia from the pre-colonial era to present day.…”

Section: Namibia's Political Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ethnography has been rarely utilised to study coexistence with carnivores (although see Baynes-Rock, 2012;Herrmann et al, 2013;Lescureux & Linnell, 2010).…”

Section: Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

Rust¹

2018

Preprint

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Many carnivore populations were in decline throughout much of the 20 th century, but due to recent conservation policies, their numbers are stabilising or even increasing in some areas of the world. This, compounded with human population growth, has caused increased livestock depredation by carnivores, which threatens farmer livelihoods, particularly those in developing countries such as Namibia. How to resolve this so-called "conflict" between carnivores and livestock farmers remains challenging, in part because some mitigation strategies have proven somewhat ineffective or unacceptable. By using a case-study approach on the commercial farmlands of northcentral Namibia, I aimed to understand the complexity of the human dimensions affecting coexistence between carnivores and people in an unprotected working landscape. Specifically, my objectives were to 1) develop a participatory decisionmaking exercise to analyse the views of stakeholders on how they would like carnivores to be managed in unprotected lands, 2) understand how the media framed financial incentives to improve human-carnivore coexistence, and 3) determine if there were any underlying social, economic or political causes of negative human-carnivore interactions on commercial livestock farms.To answer objective 1, I developed a new decision-making exercise that combined Q-methodology and the Delphi technique to determine whether a diverse group of stakeholders could agree on how to manage carnivores on commercial farmland. A strong agreement was reached by participants: providing conservation education and training on livestock husbandry were acceptable and effective ways to improve coexistence with carnivores. This new also method highlighted areas of disagreement between stakeholders and showed that there were two different narratives on how carnivores should be managed. This method could be used by policy makers to help with participatory decision-making for resolving other conservation conflicts.To answer objective 2, I undertook content analysis of national newspapers to determine how the media framed articles on financial incentives to mitigate this conservation conflict. The most common (30%) financial incentive discussed was compensation -many (61%) of these articles framed compensation positively. Niki Rust © 2015However, upon categorising these articles into those where respondents were enrolled in compensation schemes compared with those who were not, a clear pattern emerged: articles were more likely (89%) to be framed ambivalently or negatively when respondents had experience of this financial incentive compared with respondents that did not. These results can help conservationists plan more effective communication interventions and anticipate issues that can affect the success of mitigation strategies.To answer objective 3, I undertook eight months of participant observation on livestock farms and interviewed 69 respondents and found that reported livestock depredation was associated with increased instances of poaching of wildl...

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Knowledge and Perceptions of Macedonian Hunters and Herders: The Influence of Species Specific Ecology of Bears, Wolves, and Lynx

Cited by 73 publications

References 40 publications

The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

The effect of rapid social changes during post-communist transition on perceptions of the human - wolf relationships in Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan

<b>Human perception of the conservation and biodiversity state of forest remnants under different levels of urbanization

Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

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