Introducing lynx, bears and wolves to Britain and Ireland is likely to be complicated, controversial and costly: study

Reintroduction of large carnivores into areas from which they were once extinct has gained ground in several countries. India also joined the list two years ago when it introduced African cheetahs to Kono National Park. However, in another part of Eurasia, reintroducing the big three predators is likely to be a complex, controversial and costly endeavor, according to a new study.

Bringing lynxes, brown bears and wolves back to the British Isles and Ireland has been the dream of many conservationists and nature lovers. However, as Jonny Hanson, a research fellow at the ARK Center for Social Policy at Queen’s University Belfast, found out, it won’t be easy.

Hanson spoke to farmers who would oppose any move to reintroduce the species, given the damage it could do to their livestock, especially sheep. He also interviewed representatives of rewilding.

Read: Bring back wolves, lynxes to Britain and Ireland, study urges

In addition to these 10 interviews with farmers and restoration advocates, Henson also looked at examples of coexistence in other countries.

“It (the study) also examined examples of coexistence from more than 40 interviews and/or visits to Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United States, presented as case studies,” the analysis noted.

Results

Reintroduction of large carnivores to Britain and Ireland: farmers’ views and management options It noted that management and co-management with livestock, particularly sheep, would be a major challenge in reintroducing lynx, wolves and bears to Britain and Ireland.

“The qualitative findings of this report show that there is some degree of consensus, both among agricultural representatives, on the scope and scale of these challenges, with both groups pointing to various political, economic, social, legal and environmental dimensions. It is mentioned in this document.

“In many contexts, a variety of tools and methods are used to manage this symbiosis with large carnivores,” Hanson noted.

He grouped them into five main themes: deterrence, finance, force, investment, and governance.

His interviews showed that farmers were generally skeptical of the first two management tools—deterrence and finance. They mentioned their different effectiveness as well as labor intensity and cost for the former.

All interviewees agreed that the use of force would be a necessary management tool. But they differed on the flexibility of its deployment, especially lethal control.

Rewilding representatives are likely to emphasize the benefits that reintroduction brings in the form of tourism. In the meantime, the farmers were worried about whether these benefits would be granted to them or not.

Hanson also offered some advice in this regard. For example, he suggested that “special protection transfer guidelines for Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should be consulted on and developed by the relevant government agency, complementing the guidelines already in place for Scotland and England”.

He also suggested that other options for the reintroduction of large carnivores that achieve similar environmental results—such as deer population control—should be actively explored and explored by all parties.

“More detailed, in-depth, and independent cost-benefit analyses, which also consider the costs of training and equipping farmers in deterrence methods, should be conducted by restoration, agriculture, and other organizations to address this information gap,” the study says.