Wolves in agricultural landscapes: a political ecology of coexistence.

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Increasing opposition towards lethal removal amongst urban people and conservationists risks to further marginalise rural people and exacerbate conservation conflicts. Through a mixed methods approach, this PhD will address current knowledge gaps on the values and views of conservationists and farmers on lethal removal, and expose cryptic power-imbalance issues in the management of large carnivore populations. First, through a global web-based survey, this PhD will investigate the extent to which, and by whom, lethal removal is opposed in the conservation community. Second, through a case study approach, this PhD will address the cosmology of rural farmers in anthropogenic landscapes, and explore power relations between smallholder and large-scale farmers and between rural and urban communities. Fieldwork will be conducted in Tuscany, Italy, because there is a dearth of studies in the country and the local context provides a particularly interesting case study. Data collection will include participant observation and semi-structured interviews, addressed to the local farming community and policymakers (i.e., regional administration). Findings will promote inclusive debates on lethal removal, highlight the relationship of rural people with carnivores, shed light on how power structures may work to privilege the views of certain actors (e.g., large-scale farmers, conservationists) over others (e.g., smallholders), and also emphasise the value of qualitative data and social science studies in conservation.