Funding the base of long term large carnivore conservation in Hungary ID no.: LIFE 00/NAT/H/7162

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1 Distribution of knowledge, changing public attitude The successful protection of large carnivores and the implementation of the actions greatly depend on the approach of the general and professional public. The general image of large carnivores in Hungary is usually negative due to folklore traditions. Based on folklore stories and legends people have a picture of large carnivores like bloodthirsty animals, presenting danger to humans and being definitely damaging. Unfortunately, these assumptions are also shared by many professional game managers. Fighting back such convictions is absolutely necessary for the protection of large carnivores; this is the only way to ensure that the priorities specified for them are enforced and that the number of illegal killings is reduced. Such convictions are based on beliefs and misbeliefs and they lack any scientific bases. Changing people s opinion is possible by providing them with the necessary information. We try to change the attitude of the public by sharing the latest scientific results in different ways: lectures in graduate and postgraduate education, presentation at meetings, frequent appearance in the media, setting up information signs and distributing brochures. To achieve its purpose the DoWBGM made the following actions: 1 Personal meetings with local wildlife managers It is necessary to establish a direct contact with the professional public. By holding presentations, providing personal expertise, participating in professional events DoWBGM tries to provide the latest scientific results to them, finding compromises between nature conservation and wildlife management interests. Establishing good partnership contacts is important also because these are the people knowing the area in question and the animals the best, they may have many unregistered observances, and also because they may be the most sensitive to the problems arising in parallel with the repatriation of large carnivores. Therefore personal contacts are especially important here. To prevent possible conflicts and negative approach we have visited the most important forestry and game management units operating in the area. They were informed about the objectives of the project, given a detailed description of the actual tasks, and aimed at establishing the possibly widest range of co-operation. For the successful implementation of the tasks it is of essential importance that besides enforcing nature conservation interests the economic operation of game management is ensured. So far, all of our visits were closed successfully, the colleagues working in game management ensured us about their support and co-operation, and we also received information on so far unknown observations of wolves and lynx made in the last three years. At the same time, good contacts with the national and regional leadership of game management have been established: as a result of it, the leaders of game management wildly and publicly support the protection of large carnivores and the project itself. As a proof of that the project manager of the LIFE project was invited twice to give lecture and also to chair discussion fora at the annual training for professional hunters of the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Hunting Inspectorate. 2 Presentations and discussion fora DoWBGM established good contacts with WWF Hungary in disseminating

2 information. Our actions are harmonized with their large carnivore program running in parallel with our project. DoWBGM was invited to participate in the development and implementation of an informative campaign organized by WWF Hungary, which led to our participation in the Permeable borders for large carnivore program of WWF Hungary. This educational course was held in those parts of the Northern Mountains that are most frequently visited by large carnivores. There were three locations in Hungary and two in Slovakia. Meetings were divided into two parts: first there was a presentation given by invited lecturers then it was followed by a discussion. The invited lecturers were the members of Hungarian or Slovakian official institutions and NGOs, respectively. Hungarian presentations given at the meetings were the following: 1. International regulation of large carnivore conservation by the Ministry of Environment and Water Affaires, Department of International Agreements on Nature Conservation 2. The role of Non-Governmental Organizations in protecting large carnivores, by WWF Hungary 3. Field observation of large carnivores by Saint Stephen University, Department of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, Large Carnivore project 4. Introduction and first results of the LIFE Nature project for protecting large carnivores of Hungary by László Szemethy, Saint Stephen University, Department of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, Large Carnivore project. Reaction to the meetings presented either in the media or in personal ways was mainly positive. Regarding this success, the DoWBGM decided to continue the course in the unvisited sites of the project area. This second program was not an international one; it took place mainly in the eastern part of the Northern Mountains in Hungary. The time schedule of the meetings was similar to that of the one mentioned above. The DoWBGM invited official and civil organizations of nature conservation, game management and also forestry. Among the audience both local leaders of forestry and game management and common field workers could be found. The main importance of the program was that at the meeting participants had an opportunity to learn about the experiences and/or opinions of the different stakeholders. As the composition of the audience, as well as the presentations, was versatile, a little discussion formed on each occasion. During the discussion the different positions began to approach to each other. The main subject of these discussions was the damage caused by large carnivores, the compensation/supporting system and the economic background of large carnivore conservation. It worth to note the fact, that hunting and game management is an important part of the agriculture in Hungary. Moreover, particularly in this region of the country, these activities (along with their linked services) provide local people with one of the main opportunities to make a living. As at the same time these people have the highest influence on wildlife habitats, the DoWBGM considers it very important to persuade these people about the advantages of conservation. If they become economically interested in the presence of large carnivores in their territory, gamekeepers will be the most effective help of long-term conservation. At the same time, the number of illegal killings would decrease. The experts were for the supporting system.

3 3 Appearance in media To distribute the new results of the project and to emphasize the importance of the protection of large carnivores in the possible widest range, the DoWBGM tries to use every kind of media. Following an official press conference when launching the project the program was mentioned in several daily and monthly papers, public radios and also in the evening news program of the television. Additionally, official government leaders declared the necessity of the protection of large carnivores in their interviews. This focused the attention of the public to large carnivores. Thanks to the educational courses, not only the general public but the experts and different groups of stakeholders (gamekeepers, forestry experts) began to focus on large carnivore problems. The public interest is still strong. 67 media appearance were made about large carnivores during the project time. 14 of that were interviews with the project manager on the subjects of LIFE project. 21 interviews were with WWF; 13 of that about the courses in which DoWBGM took part. The LIFE project was mentioned in other 5 media commentaries. The remaining 27 were indirectly related to the project. It is important that only 3-4 of them were against the presence of large carnivores. Regarding that before the beginning of the project large carnivores appeared rarely in the media topics, we believe that it is the present project that has provoked the increased interest. The DoWBGM was given three appeals to participate in making documentary films about the re-colonization of large carnivores in Hungary. One of them was completed by WWF Hungary recently and was presented on TV in December The film presents the actual status of large carnivores in Hungary, the problems appearing parallel with their presence, gives some ideas to prevent and overcome these problems and also introduces the whole project. It takes about 40 minutes. 4 Information signs To inform local people and tourists participants of the project set up information panels in the field and presented placards to the local government authority. Panels and placards were designed by the OfNP. They were distributed and placed out by the competent national parks (Bükki NP, Danube-Ipoly NP, Aggteleki NP) during the winter and early spring. The panels are made of weatherproof material having the size of an A3 paper and placed under the sign of nature conservation area. The placards are of the same size, made of weather-proof laminates and were distributed also by the national parks, placed on notice boards, in tourist accommodations, forest schools and educational centers. Development of some more leaflets is in progress. 5 Information for animal caretakers in zoos (unplanned action) A special target group is that of animal caretakers, as by introducing animals to the visitors of zoos visitors may be directly influenced by them, thus helping a change in the above-mentioned general public attitude. Colleagues of the DoWBGM joined the zoopedagogical training operating in Hungary. This is organized in various zoos bimonthly by lecturers specialized in different fields of nature conservation to biology teachers and others that are interested in. The following zoos have joined the work within the project area: Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden, Jászberény Zoo, Miskolc Game-Preserve and

4 Nyíregyháza Game-Preserve. Information panels will be fitted in these zoos and other information materials will be available, too. Organizers of the training demonstrated their interest in the LIFE project by inviting the DoWBGM to a conference on The role of zoos in nature conservation to give information about the situation of large carnivores in Hungary. Following the presentation the zoos also undertook similar tasks in disseminating information. The place of greatest resort of the above training is obviously the Budapest Zoo (1,5-2 million visitors/year), but the smallest zoo in Jászberény also welcomes at least 50,000 visitors annually. They also show wolves and lynx. 6 Lectures in the education Another special target group would be students of game management and their teachers, as well. The DoWBGM integrated the presentation of its project and large carnivore conservation in general into the curriculum of SSU. Furthermore, on the basis of good experiences, DoWBGM started to organize a course of lectures to other high schools and secondary schools interested in the subject. 7 Participation on conferences The objectives and first results of our project were presented to the experts and researchers working in this field at the 1st Hungarian Conference on Conservation Biology by colleagues of the DoWBGM as invited lecturers. Our project and results were also presented at three international conferences. Results Thanks to the numerous media commentaries the conservation of large carnivores and related problems became widely known among the general and professional public. Looking through the news from 2000 up till now, there seems to be a kind of change in public attitude. Before the beginning of the project there was not much news about large carnivores except from one or two rumours about damages made by wolf. Since the beginning of the program the first news were informing about winning financial support for the project, following that there were some articles titled do not fear of wolf, let s protect them instead and similar ones. But linked to the programs mentioned above, news became rather positive, titled e.g.: The wolf had come back and Dissipating false believes about wolves and lynx. Of course, some negative messages also turn up, but this shows a decreasing tendency. Nevertheless, we can state that the topic has become well known as the number of articles and news about large carnivores increased. Extra action: Human conflicts The DoWBGM conducted another survey on human conflict with large carnivores, because this is an important subject and it is included in the SPAP. As a first step the impact of large carnivores on animal husbandry was estimated. Questionnaires were spread among farmers living in the project area and their experiences and opinion were asked for. We can summarize the results, so that there is very little interest in that subject. The response rate was very low and practically there was no negative answer given. We think that attacks against domestic animals are very rare in the Northern Mountains. (The situation may differ in the southern, mainly agricultural areas, but that is out

5 of our project area.) These results were used in the elaboration of a compensation system and this is the reason why we are sure of that the main conflict is among large carnivores and game managers. That is why we started to work on a support system. As a next step, one of our students carried out a special questionnaire survey on the attitude of hunters in a most important large carnivore area (Zemplén Hills). The results were controversial. Negative habits are generally typical to the elder generation of game managers and hunters. That is detrimental because it is mainly they who make decisions about the maintenance of a given area. The younger ones, and they are in majority, are more tolerant. It proves that the main endangering factor is illegal killing and the antagonistic thinking of several hunters. The effectiveness of our campaign of spreading information can be measured by the repetition of the survey. Next we surveyed the habitat suitability for large carnivores. According to an international survey the whole project area is qualified as medium or high quality habitat of large carnivores. This evaluation has little interest in the barriers of dispersion. We dealt with this question. We mapped the sites where wolf observations were made in the project. Generally these took place in the big patches of closed forests but there were some observations between these patches, too. These latter locations can form corridors between the patches. These patches from east to west include the Zemplén Hills, the Aggtelek region and the Bükk Plateau. It is strange why the Börzsöny Hills are so "empty". That may be because of the lack of corridors to that area, but it has to be taken into consideration that the examination carried out in different regions could differ significantly in accuracy and frequency. Furthermore, it was surveyed how the corridors between the patches are affected by human disturbance. The human activities (agriculture, transport, industry, etc.) are very intensive around human settlements. Consequently, a 1 km buffer zone was marked around the settlements and it was surveyed how it overlaps the corridors and the patches. As you can see in the attached maps the buffers totally separate some of the patches. That means isolation of habitats and populations, which impose heavy danger on large carnivores (see Map 1, 2, 3 at the end of text). It was pointed out that one of the main barrier of repatriation and dispersion for large carnivores is the almost continuous chain of settlements, especially in river valleys and along the main roads. The DoWBGM will increase its efforts to be able to protect or construct ecological corridors, and remind the decision makers to the priority of large carnivore conservation in the affected areas. We suggest the expansion of this analysis also to the neighbouring Slovakian areas, because the source population is found in that region. As it was not planned in the original project, ways of such kind of co-operation is to be searched for, as well.

6 Map 1. Human conflict map part 1: Good quality habitats for large carnivores in the project area Data background: official topografical map Scale: 1: Map of 2004

7 Map 2 Human conflict map part 2: large carnivore distribution in the project area Data background: official topografical map Scale: 1: Map of 2004

8 Map 3 Human conflict map part 3: effect of cities to the distribution Data background: official topografical map Scale: 1 : Map of 2002