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A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in Part Fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Science

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A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in Part Fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Science A thesis submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in part fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Science Local attitudes towards wolves and wolf management in and around the Bükk National Park, Hungary CEU eTD Collection Katalin TARR July, 2017 Budapest Notes on copyright and the ownership of intellectual property rights: (1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European University Library. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author. (2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Central European University, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. (3) For bibliographic and reference purposes this thesis should be referred to as: Tarr, K. 2017. Local attitudes towards wolves and wolf management in and around the Bükk National Park, Hungary. Master of Science thesis, Central European University, Budapest. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University. CEU eTD Collection ii Author’s declaration No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. _________________________ Katalin TARR CEU eTD Collection iii CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT OF THESIS submitted by: Katalin TARR for the degree of Master of Science and entitled: Local attitudes towards wolves and wolf management in and around the Bükk National Park, Hungary Month and Year of submission: July, 2017. Parallel to trends in Europe and North America, the population of large carnivores is slowly increasing in Hungary, including within the Bükk National Park (BNP). After almost a century of absence, the wolf (Canis lupus) re-entered the BNP in 2010, and human-wolf conflicts of livestock depredation and competition for wild game immediately followed. In general, wolves generate both strong positive and negative feelings in residents, and wolf tolerance is especially low in regions where the wolf has been previously extirpated. Furthermore, the wolf is often understood as a symbol for other socio-economic or cultural issues, such as rural depopulation, lack of trust in authorities, and restrictions on the use of natural resources. Local acceptance is a key factor in successful and efficient large carnivore conservation, yet no research has been conducted so far on the attitudes of local residents towards wolves and wolf management in and around BNP. The current study’s aim is to assess the strength and direction of these local attitudes and the set of demographic, socio-economic, and cultural variables which shape them. A face-to-face questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted among local residents of 3 villages in and around BNP - Szilvásvárad, Nagyvisnyó and Répáshuta – and several key stakeholders, and a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed to assess local attitudes. The main results are similar to global trends, namely attitudes are neutral-negative. Irrational negative emotions and fear do not influence attitudes, while most respondents attributed intrinsic or aesthetic value to wolves. Negative attitudes are centered around the concept of damage caused by wolves, and the root cause of negative attitudes towards wolves and wolf management lie in deeper socio-economic tensions. Keywords: attitudes, Bükk National Park, Canis lupus, human-wildlife conflict, Hungary, CEU eTD Collection large carnivore conservation, socio-economics of nature conservation iv Acknowledgements I am grateful to many individuals who helped me in the completion of this thesis. First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Brandon P. Anthony for the continuous guidance, feedback and encouragement. I am also grateful to Attila Bartha from the Bükk National Park Directorate for his support, and I would like to thank all the interviewees and questionnaire respondents for taking their time to answer my questions. CEU eTD Collection v Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. ix List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ x List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................. xi 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. 2010: the wolf returns to BNP ......................................................................................... 1 1.2. The social context of wolf conservation .......................................................................... 1 1.3. Research problem ............................................................................................................ 2 1.4. Thesis Structure ............................................................................................................... 2 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................... 3 2.1. Conservation of Large Carnivores ................................................................................... 3 2.1.1. The challenges .......................................................................................................... 3 2.1.2. The human dimension ............................................................................................... 4 2.1.3. Tendencies in Europe ................................................................................................ 5 2.2. Wolf conservation ............................................................................................................ 6 2.2.1. Characteristics of the wolf (Canis lupus) .................................................................. 6 2.2.2. Conservation status ................................................................................................... 6 2.2.3. Human-Wolf conflict ................................................................................................ 8 2.2.4. The wolf in Hungary ............................................................................................... 11 2.3. Attitudes towards large carnivores ................................................................................ 14 2.3.1. What are attitudes? .................................................................................................. 14 2.3.2. Attitudes towards large carnivores .......................................................................... 16 2.3.3. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 23 2.4. The BNP ........................................................................................................................ 25 2.4.1. Climate, geography, wildlife ................................................................................... 25 2.4.2. Socio-economic profile ........................................................................................... 27 CEU eTD Collection 2.4.3. BNP management: land use and conservation ........................................................ 31 2.4.4. The Wolf in BNP: return and conflict ..................................................................... 32 2.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 34 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................... 35 3.1. Questionnaire ................................................................................................................. 35 3.1.1. Study area ................................................................................................................ 37 vi 3.1.2. Sampling ................................................................................................................. 38 3.1.3. Ethics ....................................................................................................................... 39 3.2. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders ............................................................... 39 3.3. Data collection ............................................................................................................... 40 3.4. Data analysis
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