The governance of wolves in transboundary regions: a triquetrous study of ephemeral agreements transcending sub-national and national boundaries

Abstract

Contradictory management objectives in adjacent jurisdictions can affect transboundary wolves and their associated socio-ecological systems. Elite interviews and case study methodology were used in this thesis to explore three transboundary wolf management agreements, their effectiveness, and their impacts on wolves, ecosystems and stakeholders. Separate agreements between the State of Alaska and: Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, and Denali National Park and Preserve, and an agreement between Italy and Switzerland show that despite a diversity of socio-ecological contexts, approaches, and hierarchical level of actors, transboundary wolf agreements are prone to ephemerality. The ephemerality of these agreements appears to be due primarily to institutional path dependency, and to political tension between management entities. The impacts of these agreements and their cessation, on socio-ecological systems are limited by the agreements' limited scopes. The agreements do however figure incrementally into larger trends, especially including changes in rural and urban identities, and in large carnivore management discourse. I argue that a diversity of wolf management approaches across a landscape, and the inherent conflict between management entities preserves adaptive capacity by preventing one size fits all prescriptions based on incomplete knowledge. Assuming no acute state of emergency, incremental rather than transformational change is more equitable to diverse stakeholders; allowing public perception, policy, and scientific knowledge to shift concurrently. The cases also suggest that facilitating trans-entity conversation and coordination at multiple levels would support understanding, and increase the prevalence of creative agreements contributing to amenable, incremental change. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives are put forth as a potential platform or template for this facilitation.