The effect of wolves on the exit and voicing exit of Swiss mountain farmers

Wolves' contribution to structural change in grazing systems among swiss alpine summer farms: The evidence from causal random forest

“…Three or more attacks may be said to represent systematic attack behaviour by wolves that have learned to predate livestock. This leads farmers to assume that livestock will continue to be killed and to make the decision to change the pasture system or abandon the farm (Mink & Mann, 2022). Meanwhile, less than three attacks might be assumed to be negligible, as they can occur when a migrating wolf randomly attacks livestock.…”

“…However, their small numbers and changing proportion of the total number of farms might have created large variances in the annual changes and the estimates. In addition, the affected farmers might abandon their farms for other reasons that we did not examine (Mink & Mann, 2022). Therefore, the most important limitation of this study is the low number of treated observations, which could distort the estimates.…”

“…Schroeder et al, 2022;Sjölander-Lindqvist, 2009), the attitude of Swiss farmers towards wolves has remained negative (Hunziker et al, 2001). A recent study by Mink and Mann (2022) has shown that the exits of Swiss farmers from farming are weakly correlated, among other factors, with the burden caused by wolves. An increased exit of farmers, however, does not imply that the number of farms will decrease if, at the same time, other farmers take over the farms, land and livestock.…”

“…Wolves cause increased work for small ruminant farmers attempting to properly protect their livestock and great emotional distress when livestock are killed (Flykt et al, 2022; Zahl‐Thanem et al, 2020). Due to the high wolf pressure and increasing workload, some farmers have given up farming (Mink & Mann, 2022), which is often coupled with land abandonment (Price et al, 2015), a decline in livestock and food production (see more about the sector in Aepli & Finger, 2013), negative consequences for biodiversity (Colombaroli et al, 2012; Koch et al, 2013) and a reduced attractiveness for tourism (e.g., Lindemann‐Matthies et al, 2010). Moreover, the sense of tradition and security may be lost in rural areas, which is of particular importance for rural populations (Ashley & Maxwell, 2001).…”

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Explore the Intention of Farmers to Use Livestock Protection Measures

“…The number of shepherds present daily to guide the animals and manage the pasture in an optimal way fell considerably because of low economic profitability, combined with high employee costs and low social recognition of the profession (Tasser et al 2012; CIPRA International 2021). The recent return of wolves and the necessity of using livestock protection measures form an additional challenge for alpine summer farming, raising questions about the future and adaptability of this system in the Alps (eg Mink and Mann 2022).…”