Cultural and social aspects of livestock protection

This post is also available in: Deutsch Italiano

The implementation of livestock protection measures and the mitigation of conflicts with large carnivores is influenced by many factors, including technical, economic, social and cultural ones.

For this reason, social scientists are part of the multidisciplinary team of LIFEstockProtect, with preparatory actions planned to provide a deeper understanding of the cultural and social aspects that may influence the decision-making process and behavior of livestock owners. Therefore, in the first months of the project, we conducted a review of the qualitative and quantitative literature on the sociological and cultural aspects related to the relationship between humans and large carnivores.

Some very important aspects have emerged from this overview.

The first aspect is knowledge construction: all groups observe the environment around them and form knowledge based on both their observations and their world view and prior ideas. Wild animals, Livestock and their interactions are no exception. Therefore, when proposing herd protection measures, it is also important to consider local knowledge: its content, how it is formed and how it can be combined with technical and scientific approaches.

It should also be remembered that humans and wildlife have a shared history that influences each other’s behavior and the way space is used and understood by both animals and humans. It is therefore important to consider the historical roots of this relationship and to show herders and breeders that livestock protection measures can provide an opportunity to change their historical relationship with large carnivores.

The use and conceptualization of space is also an important issue: humans tend to divide space, both symbolically and concretely, into “civilized” places and “natural” places. However, wild animals can violate these real or imaginary man-made boundaries, often causing fear and disorientation from a symbolic point of view. Staying in the realm of symbolism, it is well known that wild animals and in particular some species of large carnivores occupy an important place in collective representations and in European myths and legends that can influence people’s perception of these animals and their behavior towards them.

Finally, in the context of all these issues, it should also be considered that conflicts with and around large carnivores are often linked to other conflicts between different human groups, for example between people living in cities and people living in rural environments. Or between people who have different ideas about how nature should be protected or used.

As mentioned above, all these elements can contribute to influencing farmers’ attitudes and behavior, including the decision to adopt livestock protection measures. Therefore, they need to be considered together with all other aspects when promoting these measures. Our literature review shows that there are many aspects that need further investigation, including the historical and cultural dimensions of livestock protection. To learn more about these topics and get some reading suggestions, you can read the full report of the LIFEstockProtect team as a PDF here:

Next steps

After the literature review, the project team will work directly in the field to investigate some of these aspects in the project regions. During the next mountain pasture season, we will conduct interviews in South Tyrol, Austria and Bavaria to learn more about the historical and cultural aspects related to the livestock protection and the relationship of humans to large carnivores. The topics we will explore in depth during the fieldwork are: traditional knowledge about animals (domestic and wild) and their place in culture, the way this knowledge is created, the sources used by shepherds and breeders to gather information, the existence of traditional methods of herd protection and farmers’ views on the future of their work.

This work will enable us to establish a meaningful dialog with farmers and create training courses that are adapted to their crops.

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