AT A GLANCE Project Information
Project Title: ROSA4: At the interface between science and policy for large carnivores: science for policy, science of policy, and science in policy
Project Objective: Exploring the relationship between the accumulation of ecological and social science knowledge concerning large carnivores and their associated conflicts during the last 20 years with the development of management.
Project Duration and Timing: 2012 - 2015
Project Funding: €0.5m from Research Council of Norway, plus co-funding from Norwegian Environment Agency and local level wildlife management authorities.
“Very few people in Norway disagree with the fundamental idea that moose and deer belong in the landscape and have a place in the modern world,” he explains, “and this is despite the conflicts they cause with forestry and through vehicle collisions.“ Unfortunately the same cannot be said of large carnivores. There are large, vocal stakeholder
oppose the premise in and
groups who wholeheartedly that
these the wild. These institutionalised kinds animals
should ever have been allowed to regain a foothold polarised
of political
differences make policy decision making exceedingly difficult.” Many different approaches beyond the
introduction of practical changes to livestock husbandry are needed to address these conflicts. Recognising the intrinsic political nature of the issue implies that the solutions must also be political in nature. Norway has a long tradition of investing in fostering dialogue between stakeholders. At a European level the EC has followed suit and
invested considerable resources in
engaging with stakeholders during the last 2-3 years, included commissioning summaries of the status of large carnivores, overviews of their management, reviews of conflicts and a scoping of potential methods to reduce conflicts. It has also launched its own stakeholder platform to serve as a Europe-wide forum for discussion of issues. While it is unlikely that such forums
the 34
will unify the diverse goals that the different stakeholder groups have, it should improve the interactions between them and identify
areas of common ground for
collaborative work. Sadly, the more mature and nuanced discussions that occur in these forums do not always influence the more heated discussions played out at a local level or in the media. The situation in Norway remains
difficult, with conflicts of interest on many levels meaning that resolution will likely come incrementally in the long term rather than through sweeping legislation. Positives aspects can be taken from the situation, however, such as the high level of science that has been produced over the years. “The original motivation for
funding our work has
always been the issue of conflict reduction and wildlife management, but co-funding from the Research Council of Norway has allowed us to use the same data for basic science, the result of which is that the wildlife species we have been working on are now some of the most studied mammal species anywhere in the world,” says Linnell. “We have been lucky in this respect, and for me it highlights the idea that there is no contradiction between doing relevant science and doing excellent science. In fact, we have begun to cultivate a research culture based around the idea of the ‘excellence of relevance’.”
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Project Partners: Norwegian University for Science and Technology, Trondheim Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås University of Oslo, Oslo Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Grimsö
MAIN CONTACT
John Linnell An ecologist by training, John Linnell now works with interdisciplinary approaches to explore the complex relationships between humans and wildlife in shared landscapes.
Contact: Tel: +47 90012533 Email:
John.linnell@
nina.no Web:
www.nina.no /
www.lcie.org
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