Wildlife management in the presence of Large Carnivores
Development of action strategies for forest owners in the presence of wolf, lynx and bear
- Topic area
- Agriculture and forestry, incl. value chain
- Disaggregation level
- Forestry
- Nature conservation
- Environmental protection
- SMEs, trade & economy
- Risk management
- Business management
- Tourism
- Alpine pasture management & mountain agriculture
- Animal welfare
- Forest
- Biodiversity
- Project region
- Burgenland
- Carinthia
- Lower Austria
- Upper Austria
- Salzburg
- Styria
- Tyrol
- Vorarlberg
- Vienna
- LE– Programming Period
- LE 14–20
- Project period
- 01/17-08/18 (geplantes Projektende)
- Project costs overall
- 140.000,00€
- Subsidy from LE 14-20
- 140.000,00€
- Priority
- EN - 7.1.1. a) B Pläne und Entwicklungskonzepte zur Erhaltung des natürlichen Erbes - Naturschutz
- Project initiator
- Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU) - Institut f. Wildbiologie und Jagdwirtschaft
Short description
Wolf, bear and lynx return to Austria. Land managers now must ask themselves what effects this can have. Project goal is the development of new strategies for an adapted wildlife management in the presence of large carnivores. For the first time an innovative approach is used to work on the economic impact of large predators: biological, forestry, economic and political components of the problem are integrated into adapted scenarios.
Based on the results, forest enterprises can develop implementation strategies that are specifically adapted to the individual farm hunting and forestry objectives and structures. By addressing the issue and developing scenarios, which also comment on the current legal and political framework conditions, the handling of large carnivores is to be overall optimized.
Point of departure
Wolves move into to Austria. It is not a question of "if" it happens, but only "where" and "how". Also, lynxes and bears appear again and again in different regions of Austria - where they sometimes stay. Regardless of whether the individual welcomes this or not, in the daily practice of forestry management it will be necessary to adapt to this. There are countries that already have more experience with large carnivores. But due to other hunting systems, ownership structures or management methods, these experiences are only of limited application to Austrian forest enterprises. Therefore, a research project for an Austrian outlook was developed at the Vienna University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Forestry Office (ÖBf). The Institute for Wildlife Biology and Hunting (IWJ) coordinates the project and is supported by WWF Austria, the Office for Wildlife Ecology and Forestry and the Institute for Agricultural and Forestry Economics of the BOKU.