Looking for a common ground: useful knowledge and adaptation in wolf politics in southwestern Finland

Jani Pellikka,Juha Hiedanpää

doi:10.2981/wlb.00269

Abstract

When Finland joined the European Union (EU) in 1995, the grey wolf Canis lupus became strictly protected. The wolf population grew gradually until 2007, at which point it exceeded 250 wolves. Since then, the population size has drastically fluctuated between 150 and 240 animals. Current wolf policy that coordinates wolf‐related human actions has not succeeded in stabilizing the population size on the favorable conservation level. We argue that the understanding of epistemic contestations and social practices in local knowledge production is a key to the improved wolf management.In this case study, we explore wolf hunters' (license applicant's) epistemic adaptations in their interplay with regional authorities as both parties' have attempted to find a common ground of wolf management by means of culling specific wolves. We collected data that cover a nine‐year history of one wolf‐territory in southwestern Finland.Our results indicate that epistemic adaptations that began after appearance of wolves to the region related to 1) how wolf knowledge production was made useful for those participating in it; and 2) how local actors adapted to changing administrative epistemic requirements and processes related to the wolf management. In our case, hunters actively built networking to collect information, and learned to play a strategic game of providing specific descriptive knowledge on the habits of ‘the problem wolf’, and compulsive prescriptive knowledge concerning solutions to the problem. The case shows how the epistemic adaptation in the context of policy and management is associated with the purposes and reasons of local agents in knowledge production. Now that large carnivores have during recent decades been returning to modern human‐dominated landscapes in Europe, an increasing challenge is, how to govern the process of adaptation and create opportunities for utilizing the potential of local knowledge capacity in collective problem solving beyond that of lethal management.

Highlights

Our results indicate that epistemic adaptations that began after appearance of wolves to the region related to 1) how wolf knowledge production was made useful for those participating in it; and 2) how local actors adapted to changing administrative epistemic requirements and processes related to the wolf management
That wolf populations are recovering in human-dominated landscapes in Europe (Chapron et al 2014), our case aims at exploring the types of epistemic adaptations potentially emerging, among hunters
Taking steps forward in Finnish wolf management have during this decade included the introduction of new tools and more dynamic processes to foster the co-production of knowledge, especially on the level of old and new wolf territory

Summary

Introduction

Our results indicate that epistemic adaptations that began after appearance of wolves to the region related to 1) how wolf knowledge production was made useful for those participating in it; and 2) how local actors adapted to changing administrative epistemic requirements and processes related to the wolf management. Compilations of large carnivore damages and descriptions of the behavior of individual animals have become necessary constituents of wildlife policy Both wolf protection and the derogation from strict protection (i.e. granting licenses to remove animals) are discussed and justified in the context of the nationwide wolves’ favorable conservation status (see Hunting Act 615/1993; Government Decree on Derogations Laid down in the Hunting Act 169/2011). This affects how wolf sightings are made locally, how and when researchers have interpreted collected data in producing population estimates, and how the Finnish Wildlife Agency (later wildlife agency) uses specific sightings and abundance estimates to support decision making. That wolf populations are recovering in human-dominated landscapes in Europe (Chapron et al 2014), our case aims at exploring the types of epistemic adaptations potentially emerging, among hunters

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