Assessing trust in the Swedish survey system for large carnivores among stakeholders

The human-carnivore conflict in Sweden has been a fact for centuries. Dating back several decades, there has been a reversal in the management of large carnivores towards conservation instead of eradication. Recovering populations have returned to former habitats and thus added to the conflict when depredation on domesticated animals have increased. To mitigate the circumstances where large carnivores and humans need to coexist according to directives and regulations, Swedish authorities together with non-governmental organizations, carries out annual surveys of the large carnivores as to actively manage their populations to a state of favorable conservation status. A common opinion among the respondents is that the survey system for large carnivores and its methods suffers from a lack of trust i.e. that responsible authorities do not act in accordance to their assignment as to produce results and present estimates of carnivore populations. Communication, allocation of responsibility and competence, resources, respect, knowledge and justice are, within this report, identified subcomponents of trust that needs to be strong in order for the system to thrive and develop. By linking quotes to these subcomponents, the picture is made clear and presents a common pattern for distrust in the system, as well as a perception of poorly developed survey methods. Greater respect and knowledge-integration are two factors requested by several rural enterprise organizations to strengthen the institutional trust