‘Bear are only the Lightning Rod’: Ongoing Acrimony in Alberta’s Grizzly Bear Recovery

Abstract

Alberta, Canada’s grizzly bears remain a threatened species, with ongoing controversy limiting achievements. Using a social constructionist approach, together with wildlife value orientations and attitudes descriptions within social process mapping, we explored what grizzly bears and recovery mean to people. Semi-structured interviews revealed unique sub-groups, including Homesteader, Frontiersmen, Exurbans, and government Biologists and Officers, whose values are reflective of their identity. While utilitarian or mutualistic orientations were helpful, uncovering identity in relation to values, as part of historical socio-cultural conditions and policy processes, illustrated the importance of power in grizzly bear governance. Our findings suggest collaborative policy processes should be established, to build understanding, relations of trust, and identify common ground to benefit people and bears. Broadly, we suggest researchers look to utilizing qualitative approaches, as well as social constructionism and social process mapping, to better understand and articulate the importance of social-cultural conditions and processes in conservation policy.