Spatio-temporal characteristics of crop damage caused by wild boar in north-eastern Poland

Abstract

Increasing wild boar damage to farmlands has resulted in a growing conflict between farmers and hunters in north-eastern Poland. The objective of this study was to evaluate wild boar crop damage and compensation as well as the fiscal balance of wild boar management over an area of 1867.2 km2, with 27.4% fragmented forests. During 2011–2013, the total area of farmland damaged by wild boar (1365 cases) amounted to 1000.4 ha. In this period, farmers received 432,600 EUR as compensation for destruction of crops caused by wild boar. In the area of damaged crops, cereals predominated (50.2%), followed by grasslands (24.0%) and rapeseed (21.2%). The damage by wild boar was correlated with population density (r = 0.648), forest cover (r = - 0.514) and distance to forest-farmland border (r = − 0.918). The net income per year from wild boar hunting was EUR 163,100 whereas the compensation paid amounted to EUR 144,200. The issue of reducing the conflict between farmers and hunters through lowering the wild boar population density is discussed.