Project description

The project examines how barriers of knowledge transfer in the field of human-carnivore coexistence can be overcome. It aims to develop a Digital Transfer Tool that addresses emotional barriers in addition to media and scientific literacy. The Digital Transfer Tool will be based on the use of tablets and a modular application featuring surveys and games in public locations in Germany and abroad.

Knowledge is a key factor for successful consensus finding in questions of human-wildlife coexistence. In the case of wolves in Germany, one here once extinct, but now again increasingly spreading species, knowledge transfer is hindered by an additional and so far unaddressed emotional barrier.
While the return of the wolves is generally well accepted by the broader German public, conflicts exist mainly at the local scale. Especially in rural communities, people may experience feelings of anxiety towards wolves, although these feelings may not be substantiated by facts. Knowledge and attitudes toward wolves are affected by recipients’ emotional barriers, as well as their levels of science literacy and media literacy.
This indicates the need for an adaptive knowledge transfer accounting to overcome these three barriers in science communication to society: i) emotional barriers, ii) media literacy, iii) science literacy. It aims to address these challenges by developing models of socioecological sustainability that will be implemented in a Digital Transfer Tool (DTT) as an innovative, immersive, and adaptive interface between science and society.
The DTT will be realized as a modular tablet application that facilitates a horizontal transfer between users who will compare information, attitudes, and knowledge on human-wolf coexistence to others’ worldwide. The aim is to apply the DTT in different countries. As a result of this work, cross-cultural scenarios of management for human-wolf coexistence shall be derived.
 This project is an interdisciplinary cooperation between the IWM and the Senckenberg Nature Research Society (SGN).

Cooperations

Senckenberg Nature Research Society (SGN)