Unravelling discourses about the management of a migratory declining game species: the case of European Turtle-dove (Streptopelia turtur)

Managing migratory game species is challenging and often leads to conflicts across areas or stakeholders. The European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur (TD), a declining migratory game bird, is currently subject to an adaptive harvest management plan in the European Union (EU), which has led to a tem...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Moreno-Zarate, Lara, Arroyo, Beatriz, Morales-Reyes, Zebensui, Delibes-Mateos, Miguel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
Repositorio:Repositori Obert UdL
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/466898
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2024.2391461
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/466898
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Q-methodology
Governance
Adaptive harvest management
European Turtle-dove
Hunting
Descripción
Sumario:Managing migratory game species is challenging and often leads to conflicts across areas or stakeholders. The European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur (TD), a declining migratory game bird, is currently subject to an adaptive harvest management plan in the European Union (EU), which has led to a temporary hunting moratorium in western Europe. We used Q-methodology to identify the discourses of hunters, hunting lobbyists and members of governmental agencies in Spain, the country with the largest TD hunting bags within EU, regarding the role of hunting and its regulation, including the moratorium, on species recovery prospects. Three discourses were identified: one that denies any involvement of hunting in the species population decline and thus considers the moratorium unnecessary; one that advocates for a moratorium but highlights the need for global strategies for it to be effective; and one that disputes the population decline, attributing the moratorium purely to environmentalists’ pressures and false data. Larger differences were observed among hunters from areas with varying levels of TD hunting than among hunters that hunt or not TD, suggesting that discourses may be socially constructed and maintained. Hunting lobbyists’ discourse was more uniformly against the moratorium than that of hunters as a whole, while governmental agencies had more nuanced perspectives. A point of consensus among discourses was the agreement on the need for transboundary coordination and a global conservation strategy incorporating habitat and hunting management approaches. These results emphasize the importance of increased transborder collaboration and effective communication strategies to mitigate conflicts about migratory game management.