Serena Cinque

Collaborative management in wolf licensed hunting: the dilemmas of public managers in moving collaboration forward

Although wolf recolonization can be considered a success in terms of population increase and geographical dispersal, the return of grey wolves Canis lupus to rural central Sweden has caused frustration and discontent among local stakeholders. Farmers and hunters living in — or adjacent to — wolf territories perceive the political decision to support wolf recovery as intruding on local lives and restricting opportunities for small-scale farming and hunting. They feel that decision-makers have left the consequences of wolf recovery policies unaddressed. To overcome the failure of previous policies and increase local consensus, in October 2009 the Swedish parliament passed a resolution concerning the introduction of licensed hunting on wolves as a measure expected to promote local acceptance and facilitate dialogue among different parties. In doing so, the Parliament delegated to the regional authorities the responsibility to organize, coordinate and implement licensed hunting in the administrative counties concerned. According to Swedish wolf hunting regulations, the regional authorities are to be involved not only in the achievement of primary policy goals, but are also expected to overcome antagonism and conflict through collaboration. Questioning the normative idea which suggests that public managers are expected simply to implement national legislation at the local level, this paper argues that managers create practices and establish routines that enable them to cope with problems related to the realization of collaborative management. Through a combination of participant observations and semi-structured interviews conducted with authorities and field-staff in four administrative counties during the implementation of licensed hunting, this paper concludes that in order to understand how collaborative management of natural resources works, greater attention has to be directed to the way public managers organize their activities, how they cope with their mandate and how they themselves relate to networks of actors.

Administrative discretion in the management of Swedish wolf policy

This article explores the use of administrative discretion in the management of Swedish wolf policy. Using an ethnographic method, the study deploys three conceptual categories (legal conditions, moral evaluations and organisational rules) to describe and explain how and why the administrators at the county administrative boards approach their tasks using administrative discretion. Overall results indicate that the main reason why authorities exercise discretion is to increase the effectiveness of what they see as an incomplete law. This conclusion is supported by evidence demonstrating that more positive evaluations of the regulatory framework are associated with less exercise of discretion. Moreover, the officers try to interpret each rule in a way that increases acceptance of the predator policy and decreases the risk of protest. The results indicate that, to better support and guide administrative agencies, the law needs to be reinforced by giving officers more specific and detailed rules and instruments.

Locality management through cultural diversity: the case of the Majella National Park, Italy.

Abstract To get the support of local communities for the Majella National Park in the Italian Abruzzo region, the park administration decided to celebrate the relationship between human activity and nature. This was to be done through developing a “new rural culture.” Using the memories and reminiscences of local inhabitants, and involving farmers in the reintroduction of fruits, vegetables and cereals that had formerly been grown in the area, local communities were encouraged to take an active part in landscape management. This study addresses how the promotion of local food was employed as a strategy to gain support for management regimes. The results indicate that the initiation of localized food production served to realize the political goals for sustainability and rural development. However, while those farmers, shop-keepers and restaurateurs who have been involved in management concur with the strategies for safeguarding natural and cultural heritage, other entrepreneurs feel marginalized and undervalued, becoming more skeptical of the park with the passage of time.