Conflicts over wildlife conservation: Learning from the reintroduction of beavers in Scotland

Deborah M Coz,Juliette C Young,Leah Gibbs

doi:10.1002/pan3.10076

Abstract

Abstract Species reintroductions have become a common conservation tool, but they can be controversial and may generate social conflicts. We examine the social dimension of beaver reintroduction in Scotland to understand the issue, the potential for, and impact of, conflict between groups or individuals with differing views on beavers and reintroductions. Using a literature review and semi‐structured interviews, we studied planned and unplanned beaver reintroductions to three contrasting landscapes in Scotland: in Knapdale, the reintroduction was planned and science‐led, whereas in Tayside and the Highlands, the reintroductions were accidental and/or illegal. Our results highlight the context dependency and complexity of reintroductions. Nationally, the reintroduction of beavers has not become a conflict. At the local scale, we found the Tayside situation to be a conflict with major consequences on the debate at the national scale. While there were no conflicts in the Highlands and Knapdale, the reintroduction remains controversial. The level of conflict depended on the reintroduction process, relationships between stakeholders and their perspectives on their role in nature, their perceptions of landscapes, and the potential issue of lack of control and uncertainty around reintroductions. Based on these findings, the study outlines lessons learned in terms of management, guidelines and implications for future species reintroductions. We argue that to prevent future conflicts over reintroductions, processes must go beyond addressing the effects of reintroduced species on the environment and people's perceptions and acceptance of these species. Reintroduction processes require engagement in effective discussions which involve all actual and potential stakeholders to agree on broad and long‐term conservation plans at the landscape scale. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Highlights

Over the last decades, species reintroductions have emerged as a new wildlife conservation tool
Our results show that beaver reintroduction to Scotland has not yet fully developed into a conflict at the national scale
Often heterogeneous, stakeholder groups and broader debates concerning species reintroductions to Scotland more generally played a role in the debate

Summary

| INTRODUCTION

Species reintroductions have emerged as a new wildlife conservation tool. People have forgotten that beavers were a natural ecosystem component (Manning, Gordon, & Ripple, 2009) and so species that have been absent for hundreds of years may be considered as invaders or intruders (Jørgensen, 2013) despite being originally native Mindful of this situation, SNH proceeded by first assessing the feasibility (technical and practical considerations) and desirability (moral and social acceptability) of such a programme (Gaywood, 2018). This study is grounded in social constructionism which posits that various understandings and interpretations of the world coexist and are co-constructed, depending on specific social, cultural and historical contexts With this in mind, the study aimed at testing whether and how different social, cultural and conceptual aspects impacted on the beaver reintroduction and its potential shift into a conservation conflict. This framework was used to develop the semi-structured interview guide and coding categories for the analysis of the data from the interviews

| Literature review

| MATERIALS AND METHODS

| DISCUSSION