Balancing Stakeholder Interests for Sustainable Wolf Population Management in Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, Swedish wolf population management was analyzed by two models. One is information index system to measure the positive and normative information held by the stakeholders. By using this system, the quantitative information indices can be measured to give people a clear understanding of the current situation of themselves and other stakeholders in order to enhance communication and engagement. By testing the current information shortage from the national survey, it was confirmed that the information shortage do exist in the society and the need for improving the information acquirement is significant. Besides, satisfaction functions of positive and negative stakeholders towards wolf population were used to test an agreeable wolf population. Stakeholder satisfaction was expressed as a function of wolf pupulation, either positively or negatively correlated, using economic and social features such as taxes, compensation, preventative payments, lupophobia, biphilia, etc. Weights were given to derive overall goal functions for pro- and anti-wolf stakeholders in order to find if there exist wolf population levels which might indicate include common preference. Whereas, current wolf pupulation is around 210 in Sweden, the results showed that all stakeholder groups could be satisfied with a population of around 500 wolves. Some major policy measures were studied for their influence on stakeholders' interests, in particular in how to increase wolf population in order to achieve this solution.