DOCTORAL THESIS the Gentleman, the Vagabonds and the Stranger: Cultural Representations of Large Carnivores in Albania and Their
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DOCTORAL THESIS The Gentleman, the Vagabonds and the Stranger: Cultural Representations of Large Carnivores in Albania and their Implications for Conservation Trajce, Aleksander Award date: 2017 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 The Gentleman, the Vagabonds and the Stranger: Cultural Representations of Large Carnivores in Albania and their Implications for Conservation Balkan lynx in Munella mountain ©PPNEA/BLRP Aleksandër Trajçe BSc, MSc A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Life Sciences University of Roehampton 2016 ii Abstract This thesis explores how people in mountainous regions of Albania interrelate with large carnivores. For the research, I used a combination of questionnaire survey and ethnographic fieldwork to generate insights into how rural dwellers perceive and interact with bears, wolves and lynx. Research and conservation efforts relating to large carnivores in areas where they live near humans often have a strong focus on human-wildlife conflicts; with the presumption that conflicts are a central part of people’s relationships with predators. I argue that, although conflicts between people and predators do occur, human-predator relationships in highland Albania are complex and diverse, beyond a simple engagement with conflict-causing animals. Large carnivores have rich local cultural profiles; each species being differently perceived, and responded to, by local groups in terms of their beliefs about the behaviours and characteristics of the animals. I argue that large carnivores are constructed, and responded to, as social actors and, as such, they are integrated into the moral community of humans. Customary codes that regulate the social life of people in highland Albania seem to extend into relationships with carnivores. Damages from predators are largely interpreted and evaluated on principles of belonging and moral integrity with little considerations of their financial aspects. Lack of conservation efforts from Albanian institutions for prolonged periods of time, and the remoteness of mountain communities, has brought about a situation in which locals have been largely left uninfluenced in shaping their relationships with large carnivores. I contend that such a situation, albeit seemingly problematic from an outside perspective, is particularly beneficial in maintaining low conflicts with, or over, predators. Recent increases in conservation efforts in Albania may influence relationships between people and predators in iii the future. Conservation actors will be faced with the challenge of avoiding possible conflict escalation to the detriment of large carnivores and to rural livelihoods. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. iii List of figures ....................................................................................................................................... vii List of tables .......................................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................x 1. Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1 1.1. Research rationale ...................................................................................................................1 1.2. Thesis structure .......................................................................................................................9 1.3. Study area..............................................................................................................................12 1.4. Large Carnivores ...................................................................................................................22 1.5. Fieldwork set-up ...................................................................................................................35 1.6. Tools and materials ...............................................................................................................38 1.7. Profile of participants ............................................................................................................40 1.8. Interviews, discussions and observations ..............................................................................47 1.9. Ethical issues .........................................................................................................................53 1.10. Ethnography at home ........................................................................................................55 1.11. Concluding remarks ..........................................................................................................59 2. A quantitative perspective on public attitudes towards large carnivores in the south-west Balkans 61 Preface to Chapter 2 ..........................................................................................................................61 2.1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................................65 2.2. Materials and methods ..........................................................................................................70 2.3. Results ...................................................................................................................................75 2.4. Discussion .............................................................................................................................82 2.5. List of tables and figures .......................................................................................................93 3. An ethnographic profile of large carnivores in Albania ..............................................................110 3.1. Lynx: unknown, beautiful and problem-solving .................................................................111 3.2. Bear: a gentleman with a heavy shadow .............................................................................122 3.3. Wolf: a troublesome paladin ...............................................................................................140 3.4. Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................164 4. Perceptions of spatial relationships between people and large carnivores in highland Albania .168 4.1. Bears at home ......................................................................................................................169 v 4.2. Homeless wolves ................................................................................................................184 4.3. The mythical (non)existence of lynx ..................................................................................191 4.4. Cultural home ranges of (Albanian) carnivores ..................................................................196 4.5. Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................203 5. Where is all the conflict? Interplays of material and moral damages from large carnivores in highland Albania. ................................................................................................................................207 5.1. Dividing ‘conflict’ from ‘impact’ .......................................................................................208 5.2. The quest for finding large carnivore damages in Albania .................................................217 5.3. Is ‘damage’ always a ‘problem’? ........................................................................................237 5.4. Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................245 6. The past, present and future of large carnivores and their conservation in Albania ...................249 6.1. Is there conflict if there is no conservation? A brief history of nature conservation and large carnivore conservation in Albania ..................................................................................................249 6.2. The beginning of conservation conflicts in Albania ...........................................................271 6.3. Large carnivores in Albania: a future of conflict? ..............................................................277 7. Concluding thoughts ...................................................................................................................284