Sakari Mykrä

The good bad wolf—wolf evaluation reveals the roots of the Finnish wolf conflict

This article focuses on the roots of the Finnish wolf conflict by using stakeholder evaluations of the wolf as a tool. The recent growth of the wolf population has highlighted stakeholders’ contradictory objectives and revealed a conflict between the two main stakeholders, conservationists and hunters, in wolf management. The question of hunting emerges as the core of the conflict. The negative evaluation of the wolf by hunters reflects a competitive situation, which is typical of the historical development of wolf management in Finland. In areas with the most abundant wolf populations, hunters view the wolf most negatively. This study clearly demonstrates that the Finnish wolf conflict is rooted in the values of modern society and carries a long historical, practical and ecological background in which humans and wolves compete over resources, mainly the moose. The conflict between hunters and conservationists in wolf management is connected to the appreciation of moose as game and stems from competition between humans and wolves over their prey and the historical presence or absence of the wolf.

Decreasing the fragmentation of old forests in landscapes involving multiple ownership in Finland: economic, social and ecological consequences

The management of biological diversity at the landscape level in Finland is complicated by the relatively small size of the holdings and the fact that the habitats of species do not necessarily follow the holding borders. Therefore, there is a great need to develop such forest-planning approaches that aim at solving the problems that some species have faced due to modern forestry, including the fragmentation of old forests. One way to deal with fragmentation is to aggregate old forests into larger patches, a goal that may be achieved by excluding some areas from forestry operations or by restricting the intensity of treatments. In a planning area under multiple ownership, the sizes, shapes and relative locations of set-aside areas are important, since they affect the social equity of the proposed forest plans. In this study, the effects of two conflicting goals, i.e. the improvement of old-forest patterns, and the equal participation of forest owners were studied in a privately owned forest area in Finland. This was made possible through the examination of the consequences of alternative strategies to delineate areas set aside. The two main results of the study were, first, that it is difficult to reach these goals simultaneously, and, second, the time interval relevant in the management planning of private forestry is quite short with respect to efforts to change landscape structure significantly. However, in real planning situations, it is important to specify the locations of forest holdings whose owners are willing to acknowledge biodiversity values above the level defined in the legislation. In addition, ecologically important areas should be located and connected to the above information. According to the results of this study, it seems that a compensation system would facilitate the restructuring of the forest landscapes towards an ecologically enhanced structure.

A history of organized persecution and conservation of wildlife: species categorizations in Finnish legislation from medieval times to 1923

Attitudes towards wild animals are reflected through history in various categorizations of species. For example, changes in the useful-harmful dichotomy of species have affected policy decisions during the long history of organized pest persecution as well as during the much more recent rise of nature conservation. The first hunting legislation in Finland dates back more than 650 years, to times when the country belonged to the Kingdom of Sweden. From those times to the early 20th century various acts of law exhibited a marked variation in placing species into useful and harmful categories. The dichotomy seems to be based upon fundamental ecological interactions between humans and other species. We show that the varying interest in pest perse- cution as well as important conservation milestones have been associated with contemporary human-animal rela- tions such as the attitudes of decision makers and laymen towards wild animals, and the public awareness of species conservation issues.

Long-term change in territory occupancy pattern of goshawks (Accipiter gentilis)

Abstract: We examined territory occupancy (n = 161; 720 breeding attempts) of northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) in western Finland in 1983–1996. Nest sites of goshawks were characterized by old forests. The proportion of longstanding goshawk territories declined steeply from the beginning of the 1990s, while occasionally occupied goshawk territories became common. We suggest that the longstanding occupancy of the same territory, typical for goshawks, has decreased at least partly because of the logging of mature forests, which are preferred nesting habitats of goshawks. The mean occupancy rate of all goshawk territories, however, did not change through the study period, which suggests that the size of the breeding population has been constant.

Back-Calculation of Large Carnivore Populations in Finland in 1865–1915

We estimated population abundances of the bear, lynx, wolf and wolverine in Finland in 1865–1915 by combining official bounty statistics with verified knowledge on annual intrinsic growth and mortality rates of these species. We used an annual backwards iteration method for all of these species, starting from a systematically-adjusted population size in 1915. According to our results, there had been approximately 1000 bears and an equal number of wolves in Finland until their decline started around 1875. As for lynx, it appears that its population increased markedly in the first quarter of our study period, but seemed not to have exceeded 3500 in the 19th century. Concurrently with the assumed strong growth of the lynx population, a marked increase took place in sheep and goats killed by large carnivores. The number of wolverines prior to 1885 appears to have been varying between 300 and 600.