La gestión del conejo en zonas de daños a la agricultura. Aspectos sociales

[EN] In Spanish farmland areas, the European rabbit can cause considerable crop damage. Tensions typically emerge between farmers who advocate rabbit reduction and hunters who wish healthy rabbit populations for shooting. In this study, we used in-depth interviews and small group discussions with farmers, hunters and representatives of the governmental environmental agencies to assess their positions in this conflict. Our results showed that this conflict is characterised by tensions between and within groups, and influenced by leadership, distrust and past decision-making issues, and differences in beliefs among groups. Positions of farmers and hunters are also relatively rigid, which may make difficult their engagement in collaborative processes. To be effective, such processes need that local leaders are empowered and likely also that external neutral mediators are involved. Our research was conducted in two study areas: Campiña Sur de Córdoba (CSC) in Andalusia, southern Spain, and Alt Camp de Tarragona (ACT) in Catalunya, northern Spain. CSC and ACT comprise 11 and 23 municipalities, respectively, the former being larger than the latter (1100 km2 vs. 538 Km2) and including more inhabitants (105,000 vs. 44,000 inhabitants). These areas were selected due to similarities in the global context regarding rabbit damage to crops. The presence of vineyards is notable in both areas and there is significant rabbit damage to vineyards in both. In this study, we used qualitative techniques to understand perspective and views of the main stakeholders involved: farmers, hunters, and people working for governmental agencies in charge of wildlife management. Participants were selected using contact information provided by key informants in both study areas (snow-ball sampling). The total number of participants was 55. We used personal interviews to gather the opinion of key informants; i.e. managers in relevant farming associations, game managers and people working for environmental agencies. To assess the opinion of “regular” hunters and farmers, we used small discussion groups with three or four participants. To avoid the risk that an “opinion leader” may dominate the conversation in a discussion group, the moderator managed this potential limitation through promoting the participation of the most reticent people. Interviews and small discussion groups were conducted between 15th October and 16th December 2015. We stopped data collection when we observed that no new key themes emerged with further data. Both the interviews and the small discussion groups were conducted in such a way that a space was created for the open expression of the positions and criteria of the interviewees, that is, in a non-directive and conversational manner. The interviews and small discussion groups were conducted following a script of issues to be addressed, but it was adapted to the characteristics of the participants and the own development of the interviews and discussion groups. The script addressed participants’ perceptions about rabbit populations and rabbit damage to crops both in the recent past and when the survey was done and their perceptions and opinions about rabbit management conducted in the study area. In addition, it also dealt with the relationships between stakeholders involved in the problems caused by rabbit damage to crops as well as with participants’ attitudes towards other collectives or groups. Participants were guaranteed the mutual confidentiality and anonymity of the opinions expressed. Their express consent was obtained for participation in this study, which was done in compliance with both the Spanish and European legislations in terms of data privacy (Spanish Organic Law 3/2018; European Regulation 2016/679). Interview duration ranged between 15 and 120 minutes, while groups ranged between 45 and 150 minutes. Both were digitally recorded and transcribed. Data from interviews and small groups were analyzed jointly since both addressed the same key issues and had the same informative and opinion nature. Data analysis consisted of reading iteratively each text to identify main ideas and topics, pursuing an understanding and sociological interpretation of the data, checking interpretations among co-authors to create added awareness of certain dimensions in the data, and thus to identify properly the main themes. In order to ensure full protection of participants’ privacy and compliance with Spanish law of data protection (i.e. Royal Decree-Law 5/2018, of July 27th, on urgent measures for adaptation of Spanish Law to European Union regulations on data privacy), raw data is not made publicly available. Instead, a summary of raw data is shown and the information is anonymized and those parts that could give rise to the recognition of any of the participants have been eliminated, thus respecting confidentiality