As a common species, farmers, surprisingly, rarely mention the hedgehog as an important
species to protect, even though it was one of the first protected species of professional
conservation in Hungary in the early 20th century.
Photo credit: Viktor Ulicsni

By Viktor Ulicsni, Zsolt Molnar, István Szentirmai, and Dániel Babai.

Read the full paper here.

Locals engaged in traditional farming and possessing traditional ecological knowledge consider certain species worthy of protection, as do official nature conservationists. However, the animals each seeks to protect are not the same. Exploring the relationship between the two sets of taxa could bring many practical benefits, yet we know very little about this subject. For more efficient conservation and better engagement and knowledge co-production with locals, it is necessary to understand the principles, preferences and worldviews of the two knowledge systems, and the drivers behind the choices of which animal species to protect.

We examined which animal species traditional farmers and conservationists wish to protect, and why. In the case of the species that conservationists consider most in need of protection, we also enquired how knowledgeable local farmers are about these species. We carried out our research in two adjacent protected sites in Central Europe along the Slovenian-Hungarian border. We conducted interviews with traditional farmers and local conservationists at each of the two sites. Both conservationists and local farmers predominantly mentioned the protection of species that do not provide a tangible economic benefit to farmers and that show a declining population trend. Local farmers with greater species knowledge did not know significantly more about the species to be protected than those with less knowledge, nor did they list more legally protected species. The preliminary assumption of the conservationists was that the locals knew the species and listed the ones to be protected for essentially functional reasons (e.g., usefulness). By contrast, it was found that many more aspects (e.g., population trends, appearance) also had a significant impact.

Once the boundaries between the two knowledge systems are removed, collaboration between the stakeholder groups can facilitate the protection of natural assets and local communities. We consider it the responsibility of conservationists (together with ethnoecologists and other researchers) to ensure that these preferences are properly understood for the benefit of conservation and local communities.