Imagine waking up, opening your curtains and seeing a pack of wolves on your patio. How would you feel knowing that these large carnivores had invaded your territory and were just metres away? Both fearful and fascinated, probably.
For livestock farmers, fear wins the day 鈥� we often dislike things that could harm us, our loved ones or our property. But this is bad news for wildlife: is one of their biggest threats and a cause of decline in many places.
However, across much of Europe and North America, populations of wolves, bears, and lynxes are increasing. It looks like fascination has won out. How come?
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A new US study offers an answer. It says that modernisation, traditionally seen as destructive to habitats and their wild species, could be behind this.
Dual trend
The explanation is in two parts. First, as nations advance, livelihoods have shifted from agriculture to cities 鈥� a trend gathering pace in many parts of the world 鈥� and more and more of us are physically separated from the countryside. This means that we come into less contact and conflict with large carnivores, so we鈥檙e less likely to kill them.
Second, and less obvious, is that this separation is mental too. Attitudes towards predators change 鈥� we begin to fear or despise them less, which in turn increases our desire to protect them. Wildlife management policies then begin to shift away from paying to eradicate 鈥減ests鈥� towards spending millions on conserving habitats and species. Increasing wealth and better education are part of that, refocusing our societal values with regard to the welfare and use of wildlife, suggests the study.
This idea bolsters a new wave of environmental thinking known as ecomodernism, which argues that technological solutions such as highly mechanised farming, along with circular economies and a retreat to cities, are our best hope for protecting the planet. The belief is that these factors enable us to reduce the per-capita human footprint and hand more space back to wildlife.
Split from nature
To me, this decoupling of people from nature sounds more like a scene from a science-fiction movie in which nature-anaemic humans rely on machines, nuclear power and genetic engineering to increase productivity and reduce their ecological impact, with the result that they鈥檝e never seen a wild deer in their life. I can鈥檛 help thinking that this seems more like a lonely dystopia than a progressive utopia.
So it is worth asking if there may be better ways to achieve the same end. Fortunately there are.
It鈥檚 not just 鈥渕odernised鈥� nations such as the US that have seen carnivores bounce back. Namibia鈥檚 renowned , which encourage people and animals to coexist, have resulted in huge population booms for much of its wildlife 鈥� and this is in a country arguably only part way through its modernisation process.
Suffice to say, I鈥檓 not a convert to ecomodernism. Although this study shows convincing proof that modernisation can be good for predators, I think I鈥檇 prefer to take another route to the same end 鈥� a world in which fewer people consume meat and game, which would really get to the core of the conflict problem.
Journal: BioScience, DOI:
