Carnivore costs - damage compensation and prevention

The purpose of this project is to calculate costs to society of free ranging carnivores in Sweden, and to evaluate the efficient use of policy instruments for damage compensation and prevention. This is done through analysis of different types of costs that follow recolonizing and established large carnivore populations, and the distribution of these costs among affected parties, such as farmers, hunters and taxpayers. We aim to analyze farmers’ direct and indirect costs, hunters’ and landowners’ costs for reduced game and loss of income from hunting lease and, and taxpayers’ costs for wildlife damage compensation prevention. The current and alternative designs of damage compensation and prevention schemes are evaluated with an aim to identify alternative designs that might reduce social costs from carnivores in a least-cost manner. The project can contribute to a constructive and fact based policy discussion on carnivore management issues at different scales, as improved knowledge about costs strengthens the possibilities to design adequate compensation schemes, improved knowledge about successful management strategies for joint systems of ungulates and carnivores can benefit the development of private and public management strategies, and analysis of policy instruments can facilitates efficient use of the money spent.