Student insights on wolf coexistence: Four FNP theses from local to national perspectives

Bart Hendriks - Perceptions of local inhabitants

During my Master’s thesis, I researched how the presence of the wolf affects the behavior and lives of residents of the Veluwe. These were ordinary citizens and not residents directly financially affected by the wolf. For this purpose, I conducted long in-depth interviews with 15 residents of the Veluwe and analyzed the interviews with various social theories.

The interviewees showed four types of behavioral changes, the majority of them being predominantly negative. These include more avoidance behavior (i.e., people avoiding certain parts of nature areas, or nature areas altogether), people taking defensive and safety measures (for example walking in groups or even bringing knives with them to defend against the wolf) and also residents becoming more alert to signals and the presence of the wolf. Most of these behavioral changes are influenced by residents seeing the wolf as a potential danger to themselves and their children or kept animals. Experiences with the wolf, beliefs and social factors play an important role as well. Two of fifteen participants were positive about the wolf and indicated that for them the wolf was an enrichment of Dutch nature.

While participants often indicated that they feel restricted in their freedom and no longer feel safe in their environment, most of them shared as well that they admire wolves and recognize the Veluwe as the most suited area for wolves in the Netherlands. In order to live well together with the wolf, the interviewees indicated that they would like to have a sense of control. Current communication about the wolf is not adequate enough and leans too much on sharing plain scientific knowledge and facts, without addressing the emotions and worries that local inhabitants have. They experience situations differently than what science tells them, and are therefore better served by training or ways in which they maintain a sense of control.

Julia Noorlander - Perceptions of sheep keepers

The Latin phrase "auribus teneo lupum," meaning "holding a wolf by its ears," aptly describes the predicament of sheep keepers on the Veluwe. They face significant challenges, whether they implement protective measures against wolves or not. The fifteen sheep keepers I interviewed for my Master’s thesis acknowledged that wolves belong in natural areas with abundant prey, such as deer and boar, and that protective measures can in theory reduce wolf attacks on sheep. However, the implementation of these measures is fraught with difficulties and actual or perceived negative outcomes: electric fences require constant monitoring and maintenance, which is labor-intensive, and participants worried about potentially disruptive effects on the migration of other wildlife like deer, foxes, and badgers. Guard dogs require daily care and can get into conflict with rural inhabitants and visitors. Keeping sheep indoors is not only expensive (due to extra fodder, straw, and labor), it can harm their welfare and reduce their vital role in managing grassland, cultural landscapes, dikes and heather ecosystems. My results include more examples of challenges.

Contrary to misconceptions, the sheep keepers I interviewed on the Veluwe are not opposed to protective measures. They feel a deep responsibility for their sheep and are driven by a passion for animal care rather than profit. However, the difficulty of implementing these measures and the expected increase of wolf populations in rural areas on the Veluwe, make their situation particularly challenging. To ensure the co-existence of sheep keeping and nature conservation on the Veluwe, several steps should be taken. My results call for innovative solutions and collaborative efforts. By providing financial support, developing practical protection measures, and fostering cooperation, we can create a sustainable environment where both livestock and wildlife thrive. Innovation of livestock protection measures and a more equitable division of costs by increasing support to animal keepers in their efforts to protect their animals could be beneficial. The intention to use livestock protection measures might increase if they were more practical and feasible in implementation, remained effective in reducing attacks on the long term, and minimized negative side-effects on animal welfare and other wildlife.

Laura Koenderink - Wolf coexistence in Dutch media

I focused my Bachelor’s thesis on the Dutch understanding of coexistence with the wolf, by conducting a media analysis. I have analyzed 48 news articles from Dutch newspapers Algemeen Dagblad, de Volkskrant and De Telegraaf. In each article I searched for words and phrases that would reveal the perception of coexistence with the wolf. Prior to starting, my expectations were that the Dutch media would be negative towards the wolf and thereby that the wolf debate would be more polarized. However, in the media sources that were included in this study, the wolf issue in the Netherlands delivered a more nuanced debate than one might think. The analyzed articles had an accepting attitude towards the comeback of the wolf. Rather than being against the wolf altogether, the articles focused on making living with the wolf possible with little conflict. In various articles, different measures were mentioned on how to make this possible.

My research concluded that, in the newspapers I examined, coexistence with the wolf is understood as humans living spatially separate from the wolf in the Netherlands. However, the Netherlands is a very densely populated country and thus completely separating humans from wolves might not be possible. Therefore, more research would be needed to make any conclusions about the possibility of humans living spatially separate from wolves in the Netherlands.

Yustin Kaptein - Lobbying dynamics in wolf policymaking

Following the insights on local perceptions and media coverage provided by Bart and Laura, my Master’s thesis focused on the lobbying dynamics that influence wolf policymaking in the Netherlands, particularly surrounding the recent call for a revaluation of the wolf’s protected species status by the European Commission. At first, I identified two key advocacy coalitions in relation to these developments in wolf governance: those advocating for conservation and those seeking reduction of wolf numbers. Each coalition was found to be driven by its own distinct set of core values and beliefs (e.g. conservation advocates prioritizing ecological preservation), informing different lobbying strategies to influence wolf policymaking processes.

However, I also identified a third, rather neutral, coalition of stakeholders promoting effective management. This coalition seemed to prioritize the efficacy of wolf management rather than taking resolute ideological stances toward the wolf in the Netherlands. The more my study progressed, the more it became apparent that the majority of interviewed stakeholders actually belonged to this particular coalition of effective management advocates, which is something I did not expect initially. Nonetheless, resource disparities between coalitions, for instance in financial means and manpower, impact their effectiveness and create power imbalances. Despite these differences, there appears to be a willingness among stakeholders to engage in dialogue and learn from each other. Ultimately, this highlights the need for collaborative policymaking to balance local concerns with national strategies, ensuring sustainable wolf governance in the Netherlands and beyond.

Conclusion

While wolves are a controversial topic, the results of these four theses show that for many directly involved people the issue is not about whether to have wolves in the Netherlands or not, but rather about finding pragmatic and acceptable solutions for coexistence. This was reflected in Dutch newspapers and in the interviews with those who manage wolf-human interactions and those who directly coexist with wolves (e.g. locals and livestock owners). Often, spatial separation of wolves and humans is preferred as a solution (e.g. confining them to protected areas or remote wilderness zones), but this is not feasible within the intensely managed landscape of the Netherlands and Europe. While it will remain a challenge to find solutions that are feasible and sufficient for the different stakeholders, the results suggest that there is interest and openness for finding compromises. One important recommendation is that the experiences and emotions of those coexisting with wolves, whether positive or negative, are highly relevant and should be considered in management plans.

In general, the results align with research on human-wolf coexistence in other European settings, such as the work from Sweden by Sabrina Dressel, who supervised these four students. Sabrina: “We see that the longer people coexist with newly returned wolf populations, and as these populations grow and their impacts increase, the more demands are placed on practical management actions to mitigate some of the direct conflicts.”

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If you have any questions about wolf coexistence, please reach out to Sabrina Dressel by using the contact form above