GRENSEVILT – slutrapport till Interreg Sverige-Norge

Boreal forests provide the basis for important aspects of Inner Scandinavia’s cultural heritage, i.e., forestry and the moose hunt, which are of great economic and cultural value in the region. During the last decades, moose population development in the region has varied greatly among areas, as a result of altered harvesting regimes, forestry practices, and the return of large carnivores. Large carnivores now form part of the region’s natural heritage. In the intersection point between natural and cultural heritage, conflicts arise, such as human-carnivore competition for game, wolf-killed hunting dogs, and damage to forest stands in areas of high moose densities. Whereas wild animals move freely across administrative borders and often have home ranges that overlap multiple management units, their management is often characterized by barriers caused by administrative borders. Moose, wolves, and wolverines are distributed across the Swedish-Norwegian national border, and cross-border seasonal moose migrations result in an uneven distribution of revenue from the moose harvest and damages to forest stands. Dialogue across administrative borders at various spatial levels is also vital to sound ecosystem management, allowing for a mutual agreement on how to manage the shared forest and wildlife resources. Researchers from Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences initiated the project GRENSEVILT recognizing the need for increased knowledge about challenges in cross-border management of moose, wolves and wolverines, and an enhanced dialogue and interaction across the national border. The overarching goal of the project GRENSEVILT was to build a solid foundation for a better, more inclusive, and conflict-reducing cross-border, multispecies management of moose, wolves, and wolverines in Inner Scandinavia, across the national border. The work towards this goal has had two main components, focusing on 1) building up a research-based knowledge base that is relevant to the management, to elucidate border-related issues concerning the interaction between cultural (forestry and moose hunt) and natural heritage (moose, wolves, and wolverines), and 2) extensive communication and network building to facilitate inclusive cross-border multi-species management. Using data from GPS-collared moose, wolves, and wolverines combined with field studies and data collection, GRENSEVILT has generated new and important knowledge, and has communicated this knowledge to management, stakeholder groups and the general public through a variety of channels. The results of GENSEVILT are highly relevant for cross-border management, e.g., how cross-border seasonal moose migrations affect the forest, the moose harvest and the large carnivores, how different factors affect the moose population, wolf predation on moose in a wolf population of increasing density, and the impact of humans and wolves on the return of the wolverine. Directed by GRENSEVILT, a cross-border network was established, with different stakeholders in the management of moose, wolves and wolverines in Inner Scandinavia. In GRENSEVILT 2, this network is continuing the work towards cross-border wildlife management. The project has uncovered several issues in which the national border obstructs economically and ecologically sustainable forest and wildlife management. Possible solutions that can be explored further are mutual calibration of methods and indicators for monitoring the impact of moose on forest stands, collaboration between land owners who share the same moose population, a more coordinated management of wolverines and wolves, and a better and more coordinated system for registering hunting and browsing surveys.