Local attitudes toward Apennine brown bears: Insights for conservation issues

Elizabeth O. Davis,Paolo Ciucci,Luigi Boitani,Jenny A. Glikman,Alistair J. Bath,Agnese Marino

doi:10.1111/csp2.25

Abstract

Human‐carnivore coexistence is a multi‐faceted issue that requires an understanding of the diverse attitudes and perspectives of the communities living with large carnivores. To inform initiatives that encourage behaviors in line with conservation goals, we focused on assessing the two components of attitudes (i.e., feelings and beliefs), as well as norms of local communities coexisting with Apennine brown bears (Ursus arctos marsicanus) for a long time. This bear population is under serious extinction risks due to its persistently small population size, which is currently confined to the long‐established protected area of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park (PNALM) and its surrounding region in central Italy. We interviewed 1,611 residents in the PNALM to determine attitudes and values toward bears. We found that support for the bear's legal protection was widespread throughout the area, though beliefs about the benefits of conserving bears varied across geographic administrative districts. Our results showed that residents across our study areas liked bears. At the same time, areas that received more benefits from tourism were more strongly associated with positive feelings toward bears. Such findings provide useful information to improve communication efforts of conservation authorities with local communities.

Highlights

| MATERIALS AND METHODSThe current range of the PNALM is 507 km, plus an additional 787 km of external buffer zone, with an average human population density of 14.6 inhabitants per km (Ciucci et al, 2015)
We focused on the attitudes of local communities toward Apennine brown bears (Ursus arctos marsicanus; hereafter bear), whose endemic population is currently restricted to the Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park (PNALM) and surrounding areas in central Italy (Ciucci et al, 2017)
According to the model's coefficients (Table 3), several variables differentiated between Abruzzo Marsica (AM) and all the other study areas: respondents that believed that bears frequently enter villages and those that had seen a bear in the wild were less likely to reside in Abruzzo Fucino (AF), Molise administrative district (MO), and Lazio administrative district (LA)

Summary

| MATERIALS AND METHODS

The current range of the PNALM is 507 km, plus an additional 787 km of external buffer zone, with an average human population density of 14.6 inhabitants per km (Ciucci et al, 2015). The survey instrument was prepared in English, based on an initial phase of qualitative interviews to identify the key issues, their nature, and their importance from the perspective of various interest groups (e.g., hunters, shepherds, biologists; n = 44) (Glikman & Frank, 2019) While this qualitative data was not used in the analysis, it guided the development of the quantitative items and offered insights in interpreting our results. We included categorical items measuring: (g) whether respondents had seen a bear in the wild, and their beliefs regarding, (h) whether bears frequently entered villages, (i) the demographic trend in bear population, and (j) the main mortality cause for bears (see S1 for exact item wording, and complete questionnaire). To identify if and which attitudes and norms about bears most differentiated the four study areas, we used the R

In areas where

| RESULTS

| DISCUSSION

Findings

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

| CONCLUSIONS