Understanding the Role Attitudes Could Play in Conservation Planning for Wolves and Brown Bears In
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MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT Understanding the role attitudes could play in conservation planning for wolves and brown bears in Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, Italy By © Jenny Anne Glikman j. a. [email protected] A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Geography Department Memorial University July 2011 St. John's, Newfoundland Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81983-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-81983-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'Internet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondares ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract Wolf and brown bear populations are expanding throughout Europe, in a human dominated landscape. Conservation of these two species will be determined by the attitudes of those who live close to them. Unlike in North America, human dimensions (HD) regarding human-wildlife issues remains a relatively new field of research in Europe, and even more so in Italy. This is the first study of HD in wolf and bear management in Italy. This dissertation has focused on understanding how the attitudes of those living in close proximity to both wolves and bears can play a role in achieving conservation planning. Attitudes are positive or negative evaluations of an object - in this case wolves or bears - and are a mental state composed by affective (feelings), cognitive (beliefs) and behavioural intention components. Each component of attitude plays a role in the conservation of wolves and brown bears. The objectives of this study were to look in detail at these three components, how they can be linked, and how they contribute to conservation. Quantitative face- to-face (n= 1611) interviews were carried out to determine attitudes of residents toward wolves and bears in the Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise National Park (PNALM) and the surrounding buffer zone. This dissertation demonstrated that the majority of residents in the PNALM are willing to coexist with these large carnivores. Participants expressed - ii - positive feelings toward wolves and bears, they tolerated the perceived damages caused, and they support the maintenance and protection of both species- but especially of brown bears. This dissertation showed that residents have a higher level of knowledge about bears, which results in stronger positive feelings. These are important messages to communicate to managers responsible for the conservation of wolves and brown bears. Emphasizing these positive findings can be the starting point for constructive dialogue on conservation. This study, therefore, sets the direction for future public involvement processes. The next HD step would be to organize workshops with all interest groups (e.g. shepherds, hunters, non-locals), to bring them together and to work with them on their commonalities to create a management plan for wolves and bears. Keywords: Apennine brown bear conservation, attitudes, beliefs, human dimensions, Italy, knowledge, national park, public involvement, wildlife management, wolf conservation. - in - Dedication To my Husband that I met in this remote island and to my future son who gave me the focus to finish this dissertation on time - iv - Acknowledgements Writing a PhD involves four years of our lives, and many people around us that pass by, go or stay. It is hard to include all of them. There are many people to acknowledge during the whole process of a PhD, and in general during our length of life. When I think about acknowledgements, immediately I think about my parents, who gave me life. They encourage me every day to pursue my dreams, and their support helps make them happen. I am lucky because I have already accomplished one dream of my life: to find the perfect companion with whom to make all the other dreams come true. I would also like to thank him in helping me in the G.I.S. map design in this dissertation. Special thanks to an anonymous donor that made this whole project possible. In the professional academic realm, I am very thankful to Luigi Boitani and Paolo Ciucci who allowed me to embark on the project of human dimensions, and my supervisor Alistair Bath who taught me what human dimensions is and how to do it. I am grateful to Jerry Vaske, who kindly and patiently taught me new statistical analyses. I greatly appreciated the insights and comments of my PhD committee (Ratana Chuenpagdee and Arn Keeling) that made this dissertation more complete. I would like to thank Federico Caldera and Eugenia Caudullo for their assistance in the field as well as the park rangers, biologists, hunters, shepherds, and local residents who helped in the development of the questionnaire during the initial qualitative phase, and their continued support of this study. I am fortunate to have colleagues around me who are also great friends such as Beatrice Frank, Maria Jose Barragan, Maggie Sutherland, Vesna Kerezi and Carly Sponarski. Particular thanks go to Beatrice Frank with whom I shared these years of PhD and life. I am really glad that she found a project that brought her to St. John's at the same time as me. I could have never made it without her. Last but not least, thank you to all of my friends and relatives around the globe that give me happiness outside the university world. - vi - Table of content Abstract ii Dedication iv Acknowledgements v Table of content vii List of Tables ix List of Figures x List of Abbreviations and symbols xi Glossary of main concepts xii List of Appendices xiii Co-authorship statement xiv Part I: Background of the Research 1 1. Overview of the dissertation 1 2. Introduction 7 2.1. Human dimensions and its history 7 2.2. Human dimensions and geography 11 2.3. Human dimensions in conservation program context 14 2.4. Human dimensions and participation in decision-making 17 2.5. Human dimensions and the nature of attitudes 20 3. Research goal and objectives 25 4. Study area 30 4.1. Flora and fauna 32 4.2. Kings and bears: the origin of the national park 36 4.3. Zoning of the Park 38 4.4. Human activities 40 4.5. Study zones of the HD research 41 5. Method 45 5.1. Data collection 45 - vii - 5.2. Data analysis 51 6. References Part I 54 Part II: Papers 76 7. Paper 1: Human dimensions of wildlife in Europe: the Italian way 76 8. Paper 2: The influence of folklore and cultural practices in understanding rural attitudes toward Apennine wolves (Canis lupus italicus) and Apennine brown bears (Ursus arctos marsicanus) 100 9. Paper 3: The moderating influence of knowledge on feelings, beliefs and normative beliefs about wolves and bears 132 10. Paper 4: Segmenting normative beliefs regarding wolf and brown bear management options in Central Italy 165 Part III: Discussion and Conclusions 207 11. Discussion and Conclusions 207 12. References Part III 223 13. Appendix I: The questionnaire 232 - vm - List of Tables Table 5.1.1 Sampling frame for Abruzzo Marsica 46 Table 5.1.2 Sampling frame for Molise 47 Table 5.1.3 Sampling frame for Lazio 47 Table 5.1.4 Sampling frame for Abruzzo Fucino 47 Table 7.1 Frequencies of types of HD documents for Italy 84 Table 7.2 Frequencies of themes in HD documents for Italy 86 Table 8.1. Paired sample t-test results on attitudinal items1 110 Table 9.1 Descriptive statistics and reliability analyses for wolves 144 Table 9.2 Descriptive statistics and reliability analyses for bears 145 Table 9.3 Descriptive statistics for knowledge 146 Table 10.1. Descriptive statistics and reliability analyses for wolves 180 Table 10.2. Descriptive statistics and reliability analyses for bears 181 Table 10.3. Acceptability of wolf management actions for three clusters 183 Table 10.4. Acceptability of bear management actions for two clusters 183 Table 10.5. Relationship between cluster for wolves 185 Table 10.6. Relationship between cluster for bears 187 - IX - List of Figures Figure 2.5. The cognitive hierarchy model of human behaviour 23 Figure 4.