Project description

The project examined how barriers of knowledge transfer in the field of human-carnivore coexistence can be overcome. It aimed to develop a Digital Transfer Tool that addresses emotional barriers in addition to media and scientific literacy.
Knowledge is a key factor for successful consensus finding in questions of human-wildlife coexistence. In the case of wolves in Germany, a 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 toward 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 indicated 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. The goal was to address these challenges by developing models of socioecological sustainability.

Cooperations

Senckenberg Nature Research Society (SGN)