Consortium workshop: The intentions of wildlife management in the Netherlands

On Februari 1^st the consortium met for another workshop. The meeting built on two previous workshops and aimed to 1) identify and discuss the different objectives and diversity of intentions within the consortium; and 2) to arrive at a joint problem definition and research focus.

In preparation for the workshop, all partner organizations were asked to share the goals and intentions they set for to the management of wild animals/large grazers. From this input both differences and similarities emerged, which were discussed during the workshop. Important outcomes of these conversations were:

• There are many similarities in the goals that the organizations pursue, but there is a difference in the approach; in how people want to deal with certain situations. The larger differences might be found with the question how you want to achieve the objectives. It is about differences in nuance and implementation. This also shows the importance of a diverse consortium.
• Some goals are seen as goals by some organizations but are preconditions for their main aims by others.

The workshop participants also discussed the focus of WildlifeNL. First of all, we discussed the problem formulation in the project proposal. Based on the previous workshops and input from the preparatory assignment, an overview of the problem was presented. The participants made suggestions for change, for example that an additional problem is that there is a lot of focus on negative experiences with wild animals, while the positive role of animals receives little attention. Participants also pointed out that there was little written in the proposal about the pressure that human-animal interactions can put on safety when, for example, traffic or animal diseases are considered. In addition, it was indicated that an important part of the problem is that underlying causes of negative interactions are often not (or not sufficiently) addressed. All these suggestions are taken into account to create a new, more extensive version of the problem description.

Finally, the assumptions underlying the WildlifeNL project were discussed. The conversation revealed that there was agreement that human-wildlife coexistence is seen as the main goal for WildlifeNL, but there can be different visions on and ways to reach coexistence. As a starting point for the project the assumption is made that there are multiple world views and that some of these views that Dutch people have regarding the management of wild animals are changing. The project wants to understand these views and examine how they can help us achieve more positive human-animal interactions.

All input will be processed by the core team and the postdoctoral researcher in the project into an overview document that can serve as a starting point for the research that will be carried out in the WildlifeNL project.