Northern coastal regions are facing multiple challenges from accelerating global environmental and socioeconomic changes, such as ecosystem degradation, climate change, intensified resource ...extraction, land use change and declining populations. Based on interviews with 13 farmers, fishers and aquaculture employees from coastal Nordland, northern Norway, this study demonstrates how the local stakeholders' perceptions of change and experiences of vulnerability are closely linked to their livelihood values and worldviews. What the informants consider a sustainable and meaningful way of coastal living does not coincide with national goals for sustainable, natural resource dependent development of the region. The article demonstrates the importance of attending to local values if policymakers and managers are to ensure successful local mobilisation, reduce vulnerability to ongoing and future processes of change, and ensure legitimacy and consistency in development goals of coastal zone management. Insights from this study are useful for local and regional decision makers with responsibility for natural resource policies and development efforts.
We examined community perceptions of preferred objectives for wild reindeer management in Southern Norway as the former population-based model is being replaced with an area-based, multi-level ...regional management model spanning large mountain regions. Communally oriented objectives are favoured over economic benefits to landowners. Environmental attitudes discriminate on many of the issues and can be useful factors in sorting out levels of support for proposed management actions and compromises in land use decisions. The regional reindeer plans create a new political context for land use management across large mountain areas which will require better cooperation among municipalities.
Species and ecosystems are under constant pressure from a rapidly-growing human population. Human tolerance of carnivores, including the willingness to live in areas with these predators, is key to ...the success of large carnivore conservation. In the Scandinavian Peninsula, large carnivore populations conflict with human activity; low tolerance among local people may lead to illegal hunting. A survey of 2521 Scandinavian respondents to measure environmental value orientation, using the new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale and attitudes toward large carnivores, revealed attitudes towards the presence of carnivores were not related to carnivore abundance. Nor was there a significant relationship between environmental value orientation and personal experiences with loss of domestic sheep or hunting dogs. Environmental values were mainly explained by country differences; Swedes had a more ecocentric value orientation than Norwegians. Significantly more Norwegians (45 %) than Swedes (19 %) responded that there were too many carnivores in their country. Historic differences in how government is perceived between Norway and Sweden may result in different attitudes towards illegal hunting and towards carnivores. Specifically, Norwegians may hold a more anthropocentric view, based on a suspicion of central authorities, whereas Swedes may hold a more ecocentric view.
The authors surveyed a representative sample of the Norwegian population (N = 4077) to examine perceptions of biodiversity loss and management, the relative importance of biodiversity loss to other ...environmental issues, and perceived implications of biodiversity loss. The results showed that 50% of the sample population saw biodiversity as a reality and major environmental issue, and 75% recognized that biodiversity loss occurs. Biodiversity loss was perceived as a lesser global environmental problem than environmental toxins, climate change, air and water pollution, and loss of rainforest, despite the fact that these topics can be difficult to separate since biodiversity loss is a function of other environmental problems. Loss of biodiversity was seen to have negative impacts on people's relationship to the natural environment, to impact environmental resilience, to be at least partly human-induced, and to be an issue of importance and relevance to the general public, not merely to the scientific community. Self-reported levels of knowledge of environmental topics were associated with increasing concern about consequences of reductions in species diversity. The authors conclude that efforts to increase public support for biodiversity conservation can be strengthened by increased emphasis on aesthetic, emotional and cultural aspects of biodiversity.
Wildlife management policies are often based on expert perceptions of the ecological importance of certain species and poorly informed perceptions of how public attitudes toward management are ...formed. Little is known about why preferences vary greatly and how this affects support for management actions. This paper explores preferences for a range of wildlife species among a sample of the rural population adjacent to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. We also examine the degree of acceptance for alternative management interventions when potentially dangerous animals pose different levels of problems to human beings, and the extent to which these attitudes are related to species preferences. Gender has a significant effect on species preferences. Men like most species better than women. Age has no significant effect, but level of education affects preference level for some species. Species preferences have a positive effect on support for management intervention when dangerous animals cause small or moderate problems to humans, i.e. there is a higher degree of acceptance of problems caused by animals that are well liked. In situations where human life is threatened, species preferences have no effect on preferred management actions. Appreciation of animals is a combination of functional, consumptive and cultural dimensions, and there is no simple link between species preferences and attitudes toward management actions. The local context and concrete experience with wildlife encounters is more important for shaping normative beliefs like attitudes towards management actions than global wildlife attitudes.
Ptarmigan (
Lagopus mutus
) hunting has long traditions in Norway. It is often assumed that hunters are more consumptively and less conservation oriented than other recreational groups. Considering ...the large numbers of hunters and the popularity of the sport it is more likely that hunters value both consumptive and appreciative aspects and represent diversity in their concern for the environment. In this study we surveyed 2,717 ptarmigan hunters to examine environmental orientation, and the effects of environmental orientation on different management regulations. Results showed that environmental concern is a discriminating factor for how the hunters rate hunting goals, harvest regulation measures, and acceptance of protecting parts of the bird populations in refuges. Increasing environmental concern is positively correlated with higher acceptance of regulatory management actions aimed at preserving the resource. Socio-demographic variables had limited effect on the relationship between environmental concern and attitudes toward management. Small game management needs to balance consumptive and appreciative experience dimensions, and degree of environmental orientation may be an indicator of acceptance of management actions.
The backdrop for this study is the Norwegian national Svalbard policy, with long-term goals to transition Svalbard into a sustainable future without coal and to maintain Norwegian presence. Tourism, ...education and research are the three economic pillars. This transition affects the tourism industry, spatial planners, environmental officials, local politicians, port authorities and research community in Longyearbyen. We apply an adaptation framework and a community-based approach to analyse the multiple layers of change identified by key stakeholders: climate change, national policy and increasing tourism. Based on semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Longyearbyen and document review we analysed the adaptation strategies and measures to address the challenges and opportunities from the economic transition sectors, climate change impacts, national Svalbard policies and increasing tourism activities. Adaptation dilemmas emerge for Longyearbyen: 1) increased tourism is a national goal while strict environmental management restricts its potential tourism operators, and 2) climate change creates hazardous conditions which require the local spatial planners to develop new safe housing areas, but the strict environmental protection limits the action space. A tension is therefore emerging between the national policy context (The Svalbard Treaty, The Svalbard Act, The Environmental Protection Act) which governs development and local adaptation options to address climate change impacts and increasing tourism.
Arctic and northern coastal regions are among the least developed in the world in terms of density of settlements, population and resource exploitation. It is often assumed that these regions will be ...frontiers of future change, conflict and opportunity due to climate change, new transportation routes, geopolitical tensions and increasing demands for their natural resources. But to what degree do global discourses about future challenges in northern coastal areas align with the perceptions and concerns of people living there? Identifying the mainstream public concepts of change can be essential for developing effective and legitimate policies for coastal regions. We surveyed a representative sample of residents in the Lofoten – Vesterålen archipelago in Northern Norway to identify their perceptions of the main conflict issues and drivers of change facing their region. Petroleum exploration, infrastructure development, the fishing industry, and uncertainty about future municipal governance and public services emerged as the key conflict themes. Perceptions of drivers group in positive forces; developments and improvements in transportation, the fishing industry, tourism, new marine industries and cultural heritage protection, as well as negative factors; climate change, aging and declining rural populations, degrading of the cultural landscape due to reduced grazing, and bureaucratic obstacles in the fishing industry. The main attention is on social and economic drivers of change, as well as “doorstep” concerns rather than global discourses. National or global environmental and geopolitical issues are largely absent in the responses.
•Understanding public perceptions of change can be critical for sustainable development policies in coastal regions.•Oil and gas, inadequate roads, the fishing industry and public sector governance are core concerns in Northern Norway.•Local concerns show little correspondence to global challenges.•Social and economic drivers of change gain far more attention than environmental issues.
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