Human-carnivore conflicts are complex and are influenced by: the spatial distribution of the conflict species; the organisation and intensity of management measures such as zoning; historical ...experience with wildlife; land use patterns; and local cultural traditions. We have used a geographically stratified sampling of social values and attitudes to provide a novel perspective to the human - wildlife conflict. We have focused on acceptance by and disagreements between residents (measured as Potential Conflict Index; PCI) towards illegal hunting of four species of large carnivores (bear, lynx, wolf, wolverine). The study is based on surveys of residents in every municipality in Sweden and Norway who were asked their opinion on illegal hunting. Our results show how certain social values are associated with acceptance of poaching, and how these values differ geographically independent of carnivore abundance. Our approach differs from traditional survey designs, which are often biased towards urban areas. Although these traditional designs intend to be representative of a region (i.e. a random sample from a country), they tend to receive relatively few respondents from rural areas that experience the majority of conflict with carnivores. Acceptance of poaching differed significantly between Norway (12.7-15.7% of respondents) and Sweden (3.3-4.1% of respondents). We found the highest acceptance of illegal hunting in rural areas with free-ranging sheep and strong hunting traditions. Disagreements between residents (as measured by PCI) were highest in areas with intermediate population density. There was no correlation between carnivore density and either acceptance of illegal hunting or PCI. A strong positive correlation between acceptance of illegal hunting and PCI showed that areas with high acceptance of illegal hunting are areas with high potential conflict between people. Our results show that spatially-stratified surveys are required to reveal the large scale patterns in social dynamics of human-wildlife conflicts.
Wind power has become an increasingly important source of renewable energy in Norway. Current demand and production capacity have exceeded expectations stipulated in energy policies a few years back. ...Wind power affects landscape characteristics, and the rapid development has created considerable public conflict. However, knowledge to date about public attitudes toward wind power development in Norway is limited. We surveyed a representative sample of the Norwegian public to examine relationships between wind power development and place attachment, localization, and policies. We also examined if attitudes toward wind power are linked to broader environmental attitudes and meaning of place. Public attitudes range from strong support to strong opposition. We found limited support for NIMBY effects. Support versus opposition correlates with attitudes toward place attachment, localization of wind power plants and energy policies. We found evidence of a dichotomy between the more fundamental world views of eco-modernism versus de-growth influencing the more specific wind power attitudes. We argue that policy institutions have underestimated the power of attitude diversity in the wind power debate, and that social acceptability of future wind power development will depend on improved understanding of how social values of landscapes are impacted.
In their article 'Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States' the authors state: 'Clearly the extent to which the conservative white male effect on ...climate change denial exists outside the US is a topic deserving investigation.' Following this recommendation, we report results from a study in Norway. McCright and Dunlap argue that climate change denial can be understood as an expression of protecting group identity and justifying a societal system that provides desired benefits. Our findings resemble those in the US study. A total of 63 per cent of conservative males in Norway do not believe in anthropogenic climate change, as opposed to 36 per cent among the rest of the population who deny climate change and global warming. Expanding on the US study, we investigate whether conservative males more often hold what we term xenosceptic views, and if that adds to the 'cool dude-effect'.
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Multivariate logistic regression models reveal strong effects from a variable measuring 'xenosceptic cool dudes'. Interpreting xenoscepticism as a rough proxy for right leaning views, climate change denial in Norway seems to merge with broader patterns of right-wing nationalism.
Abstract
Everyday public denial of anthropogenically caused climate change (ACC) has complex antecedents and exists on both individual and institutional levels. Earlier research has linked ACC denial ...to opposition to formal science and elites, perceived threats to the industrialist capitalist order and existing system properties. Research also suggest that trust in public organizations is a key factor in determining support or opposition to climate change policies. In this paper, we explore the possibility that right wing populism and anti-elitist attitudes fuel both ACC denial and low trust in environmental institutions. We surveyed a representative sample of Norwegians (
N
= 3032) to measure ACC denial, how denial is linked to socio-demographic characteristics, trust in environmental institutions, attitudes toward elites and immigration, as well as environmental attitude orientations. Results show that lack of trust in environmental institutions is strongly associated with ACC denial, and furthermore that the degree of trust—or lack thereof—is partly a function of anti-elitist attitudes, opposition to migration and views of nature.
Ecological restoration is poised to become an increasingly important component of landscape management in the coming years as countries work to halt the rate of biodiversity loss. The success of ...future restoration projects will depend equally on both achieving biological objectives and on producing conditions that meet public expectations. Yet we often know very little about either how the public perceives the purpose or goals of ecological restoration, or how restoration might fit into public expectations for landscape management. We surveyed a representative sample of the Norwegian population (n = 4,077) to determine how familiar the Norwegian public is with ecological restoration, to explore their perceptions of restoration's purposes and goals, and to assess their preferences for types of common Norwegian landscapes. Survey participants generally had little familiarity with ecological restoration, yet they had a greater tendency to view restoration's purpose as enhancing naturalness than as providing benefits for humans. Public attitudes regarding landscape management were reasonably balanced between preserving cultural landscapes and promoting natural landscapes free from traces of human activity. While participants gave agricultural landscapes the highest scores for desirability, the survey did not reveal any conspicuous variation in landscape preferences among the Norwegian public. Policymakers, land managers, and ecological restoration practitioners should use insights from studies such as ours to help identify which future projects are most likely to enjoy widespread support, and to tailor their communication with stakeholders.
Media are important agents in the shaping of northern images. Media coverage influences public perceptions and policy governing resource and societal development. But popular media often provide ...incomplete and skewed representations compared to the documentation provided by scientific literature and the range of activities and interests present in a region. We conducted a topic analysis of media coverage of environmental and social change in the Helgeland, Lofoten, and Vesterålen regions in northern Norway and Svalbard in the high Arctic during approximately 2014 to 2018. Our findings show that popular media collectively contribute to an image of expanding economic development based on natural resource exploitation. However, this narrative is incomplete in terms of the societal dynamics linked to natural resource development as documented in the scientific literature and somewhat biased towards climate change, oil and gas exploitation, tourism, and marine harvesting. Emergency preparedness issues and economic transitions are under-communicated, and we conclude that the popular media narrative only partly represents an alternative to the government policy discourse on northern issues.
Les médias jouent un rôle important dans le façonnement des images que les gens se font du Nord. La couverture médiatique influence les perceptions du public et les politiques régissant le développement des ressources et de la société. Cependant, il arrive souvent que les médias populaires fournissent des représentations incomplètes et biaisées comparativement à la documentation scientifique et aux divers activités et champs d’intérêt présents dans une région. Nous avons analysé les sujets couverts par les médias en matière de changement environnemental et social dans les régions de Helgeland, de Lofoten et de Vesterålen situées dans le nord de la Norvège et dans le Svalbard de l’Extrême-Arctique pendant la période allant de 2014 à 2018, environ. Selon nos constatations, les médias populaires contribuent collectivement à la formation d’une image de développement économique en expansion reposant sur l’exploitation des ressources naturelles. Toutefois, sur le plan de la dynamique sociale liée au développement des ressources naturelles, l’histoire est incomplète, comme en témoigne la documentation scientifique, et elle est quelque peu biaisée dans le sens du changement climatique, de l’exploitation pétrolière et gazière, du tourisme et des récoltes marines. Les questions entourant l’état de préparation en cas d’urgence et les transitions économiques ne font pas l’objet de communications suffisantes. Nous concluons que l’histoire racontée par les médias populaires ne représente qu’une éventualité partielle au discours politique et gouvernemental concernant les enjeux nordiques.
Attitudinal studies are increasingly being adopted as tools for evaluating public understanding, acceptance and the impact of conservation interventions. The findings of these studies have been ...useful in guiding the policy interventions. Many factors affect conservation attitudes positively or negatively. The factors inspiring positive attitudes are likely to enhance the conservation objectives while those inducing negative attitudes may detrimentally undermine these objectives. The magnitude of the resultant effects of each particular factor is determined by the historical, political, ecological, socio-cultural and economic conditions and this may call for different management interventions. In this study we examined how conservation attitudes in western Serengeti are shaped by the following factors: level of conflicts with protected areas; wildlife imposed constraints (inadequate pasture, water, diseases, loss of livestock during migration, theft and depredation); participation in the community based project; and socio-demographic factors (age, education level, wealth, immigration, gender and household size). The results indicated that the level of conflicts, participation in the community based project, inadequate pasture, lack of water, diseases, wealth and education were important in shaping peoples' attitudes. However, in a stepwise linear regression analysis, 59% of the variation in peoples' attitudes was explained by three variables i.e., conflict level with protected areas, lack of water and participation in the community based project. In addition to these variables, level of education also contributed in explaining 51% of the variation in people's attitude regarding the status of the game reserves. Five variables (lack of water, level of education, inadequate pasture, participation in the community based project and diseases) explained 12% of the variation in people's attitude towards Serengeti National Park. The paper discusses the implications for conservation of these results and recommends some measures to realise effective conservation of wildlife resources.
We examined the contribution of natural capital and social capital through the notion of cultural ecosystem services to shaping human well-being in the fishing community of Røst in the Lofoten ...Islands in Northern Norway. Through ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews, and a participatory scenario workshop we develop four narratives centering on the links of nature and ecosystem services. Benefits derived from ecosystem services are fundamental building blocks in the local vision of ‘the good life’ and emerge from a combination of satisfied preferences and struggle, hardships, and capabilities inflicted by a demanding environment and challenging work conditions. Beyond a certain level of meeting basic needs and provisioning of essential public services, simplicity in life and local control over resources and surroundings was preferred over a multitude of other opportunities and services. Well-being was strongly linked to maintenance of identity through traditional practices for harvesting of natural resources, nurturing of skills, social cohesion, and acting meaningfully in one's local environment. In a relational perspective, cultural ecosystem services are constituted and given meaning through interaction with nature. The main policy implication is that contributions of natural and social capital to well-being proved to be hard to meaningfully separate.
There are currently many controversies over the process of wildlife conservation, mainly focused on determining which forms of human-wildlife relationship should be endorsed by society. These ...differences often lead to legal discussions between lawmakers and stakeholders as result of misinterpretation of law. In this study, we examine the dominant conservation ideologies underpinning institutionalized wildlife conservation by exploring the moral basis underlying a broad range of national and international legislation. We used a teleological interpretative approach to explore the implicit and explicit intentions of legislative instruments. We found that a shift from a human-nature dualism to an integration paradigm occurred in the legal frameworks during the last 20-30 years. A desire to improve the status of threatened species or ecosystems was clearly expressed in all legislation. However, the widespread mention of consumptive values seems to indicate no principled opposition between the notions of conservation and of sustainable use. We identified three different groups of legislation: (1) a small group containing largely protectionist instruments, (2) a group based on the main European nature conservation texts and, (3) a cluster incorporating almost all the post-Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) legislation from around the world. The CBD was found to have had a major impact on the shaping of the modern legal instruments, reconciling the eco- and anthropocentric values at the heart of modern legal thinking. Overall, the dominant legal ideology seems to aim for a compromise between the interests of society and wildlife, allowing its sustainable use and steering for shared space.
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