Responsiveness in the Swedish moose management
The moose population in Sweden has historically fluctuated considerably. It has changed from a situation of near extinction to a state of overabundance. With the intent to solve some of the ecological and social problems present in the moose management, the Swedish government introduced a new moo...
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| Formato: | H2 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
| Publicado: |
SLU/Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
2017
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| Materias: |
| Sumario: | The moose population in Sweden has historically fluctuated considerably. It has changed
from a situation of near extinction to a state of overabundance. With the intent to solve
some of the ecological and social problems present in the moose management, the Swedish
government introduced a new moose management system in 2012. It is now supposed to be
carried out in an adaptive, ecosystem- and locally based way, were the knowledge and
experiences of hunters and landowners are used to manage the species. A new level of
responsibility has been installed called moose management areas (MMA). The areas are
governed by a moose management group (MMG) consisting of three hunters´ and three
landowners´ representatives, who are supposed to represent the interests of their respective
organisations. The aim of my study was to investigate the representation in the newly
instated MMA´s and the component, in the concept of representation, which I mainly
focused on was responsiveness. In order to investigate responsiveness, I used data from
three questionnaires, which had been sent out to landowners, hunters and MMG
representatives. I primarily defined responsiveness as the overlap in views, regarding the
number of moose in an MMA, expressed by the local landowners´, hunters´ and their
respective MMG representatives in the different questionnaires. Furthermore, I also
collected several moose management plans (MMP), from the various MMAs, to be able to
examine if the views of the local landowners and hunters could be observed in the plans.
Moreover, to investigate if certain aspects could have an effect on responsiveness, I tested it
against a number of independent variables, which I named occupation, identity, attendance
at wildlife management consultation and network. Moreover, I also tested if there was
significant difference in responsiveness between the landowners, hunters and the MMG
representatives seen between the three regions Götaland, Svealand and Norrland of
Sweden. The general conclusion that can be made from my study is that the overlap
between the views of the local hunters and their MMG representatives appears to be
slightly greater compared to the overlap between the views of the landowners and their
MMG representatives. However, the overlap between the views of the landowners’
representatives and the development goals in the MMPs, appears to be stronger than that of
the hunters´ representatives. Furthermore, the results also revealed that two independent
variables presented a significant difference in responsiveness for the landowners, namely
occupation and network, indicating that responsiveness may be effected if a landowner has
a job in either the forestry, agriculture or wildlife management as well as if a landowner is
part of a landowner organisation. Results also revealed that responsiveness, for the hunters,
may be affected if a hunter is part of a hunting team. Furthermore, I detected a significant
difference in the mean level of responsiveness for hunters, amongst the three regions, but
could not detect any such significant difference in responsiveness for the landowners. |
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