- The return of bears, wolverines, lynx and wolves to European landscapes from where they have been absent for decades, or even centuries, is a conservation success.
- But while this has also led to a resurgence of age-old conflicts, such as livestock depredation and fears for personal safety, the author of a new op-ed who leads a research project aimed at coexistence is optimistic.
- “The Co-creating Coexistence Project [will] provide valuable knowledge to guide policy as the focus shifts from ‘how do we prevent large carnivores from going extinct?’ to ‘how to live with a conservation success?’” he writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Few people working in wildlife conservation in the 1980s could have imagined a future where breeding wolf packs roam the Netherlands and Denmark — but this is now part of Europe’s new reality. Over the last 30 to 40 years, European wildlife has undergone a dramatic transformation.
Conservation laws, like the Bern Convention and the Habitats Directive, provided vital breathing space for many species to begin the long process to recovery. Among the most striking and iconic comebacks are large carnivores — brown bears, wolverines, Eurasian lynx, and especially the wolf — returning to landscapes from where they had been absent for decades or even centuries. From a conservation perspective, this is a remarkable success.
Because of large carnivores’ position at the top of the food chain, conserving them in the modern European landscape requires that most of their populations live outside protected areas (such as national parks and nature reserves). This means that we need to share the landscapes where we live, work and play with new neighbors. In most cases, these new neighbors live quiet and invisible lives. But there is no escaping the fact that have the capacity to be very challenging cohabitants.
The return of these species has also led to a resurgence of age-old conflicts, such as livestock depredation and fears for personal safety, while also sparking new debates about how our modern society views nature and our relationship with wildlife. These conflicts can have serious consequences for rural communities if poorly managed.
At the same time, many people care deeply about animal welfare and wildlife conservation, welcoming the return of these species. Across Europe, wolves in particular have become symbols in broader social and political disputes. The sum of these issues reveals that carnivore conservation remains highly contentious, and the very notion of coexistence feels elusive, such that some question whether it’s even possible.
But maybe this is also because we have started at the wrong end. A lot of effort has been spent by conservation scientists, myself included on occasion, to try and define coexistence from a distance — treating it as a technical problem to be modeled and solved. What many of us are now realizing is that coexistence is more of a process than a solution, and that this process must begin by consulting with people closer to the ground, especially those who are being asked to share space with large carnivores and other wildlife. While biological constraints and large-scale challenges cannot be overlooked, modern approaches to wildlife conservation underline the need to approach local communities with respect and open minds and listen to what they have to say.
With this philosophy at its core, I am proud, humbled, excited to be leading a team of 18 partner institutions from 12 European countries in a new research project called “Co-creating Coexistence.” Our goal is to use the scientific tools from multiple disciplines to tap into the diverse local voices and lived experiences from across Europe. We aim to design viable coexistence models that integrate bottom-up perspectives, balancing them against the top-down policies that have dominated until now.
The project comes at a key moment, as policy frameworks are beginning to shift. On Friday, March 7, the Council of Europe’s Bern Convention revised the protection status of wolves from “strictly protected” to “protected,” with the EU’s Habitat Directive expected to follow suit. This administrative adjustment to the protection status of wolves gives countries much greater freedom in how they manage wolves, although it will still hold them accountable to reach their conservation goals. In effect, it will make it easier to kill individual wolves associated with conflicts or even manage wolf populations like other game species.
On one hand, this is an additional tool for coexistence, one that follows years of lobbying by rural groups, including those in agriculture and hunting. On the other hand, it must be handled with care. It remains highly controversial among many in the public and will require significant investment in monitoring and institutional structures to ensure sustainability. While it may help address some conflicts, it may exacerbate others.
In any case, the CoCo Project arrives at a critical moment: it will provide valuable knowledge to guide policy as the focus shifts from “how do we prevent large carnivores from going extinct?” to “how to live with a conservation success?”
We can’t promise easy answers, but we can at least ensure that a diversity of perspectives are given a voice in the discussion.
John Linnell is a senior scientist at the Department of Terrestrial Ecology, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, and a professor at the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management at the Inland Norway University of Applied Science. John conducts interdisciplinary research on the interactions between humans and wildlife, with a view to promoting coexistence.
Banner image: Eurasian brown bear. Image courtesy of Magnus Lundgren/Swedensbigfive.org.
Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: A framework that considers the needs of the more-than-human world based on “ecological empathy” is the focus of researcher Lauren Lambert, listen here:
See related content:
Sweden’s ‘nature friendly’ reputation is being shot to pieces (commentary)
