The relationship between husbandry practices and interactions with wildlife

One to three case study regions per country, depending on its size and the diversity of livestock systems present, are identified across the 12 European countries. The CoCo project plans to engage with 50 to 100 farms per country, gathering insights from over 1000 respondents. Farmers are interviewed about their livestock management, wildlife protection measures, and experiences with wildlife interactions, such as large carnivore attacks.

These interviews address economic aspects, relationships with wildlife authorities and the values pastoralists hold towards their work. A special focus is placed on gender by including female pastoralists in in-depth interviews. CITA leads this task.

Field visits to observe protection measures

UNITO leads the task of observing how damage protection measures are put in place to evaluate the effectiveness of measures used by pastoralists. A random subsample of the previously interviewed pastoralists is asked to participate in this task, focusing on:

• construction and maintenance of electric fences, 
• livestock guarding dog behaviour, 
• and shepherding practices. 

This task aims to compare actual practices with established best-practice guidelines and to help validate the self-reported data collected during the interviews.