Paper short abstract:

Contrary to many other animals, wolves are often attributed agency in human-wolf conflicts, but these claims obscure human responsibility. Through political ecology, we emphasize uneven power relations between humans and wildlife, while highlighting non-human perspectives in convivial conservation.

Paper long abstract:

As anthropocentric approaches to wildlife conservation have failed in many respects and biodiversity depletion continues, questions of conviviality have become paramount for the future of life on the Earth. We argue that more careful attention to other-than-human perspectives in human-wildlife interactions presents an opportunity for new conceptualizations and understandings of the power relations at the intersections of nature and society. Here, we focus on the highly contested issue of wolf conservation. Contrary to many other animals, wolves are often attributed intentional agency in their actions that affect humans. We argue that these claims of wolves’ intentional agency can obscure aspects of human responsibility. Our study is based on ethnographic-oriented field research on human-wolf-interactions in Lieksa, northeastern Finland. The data has been gathered through qualitative interviews with more than 80 informants, complemented with participant observation, and subsequent interviews with conservation biologists and other wolf experts. Through the critical lens of political ecology, we emphasize power relations and questions of responsibility concerning post-human discourses on human-wildlife relations. It is important to recognize wolves’ value as such and pay attention to wolves’ intrinsic needs and patterns of behavior in questions of conviviality. However, we argue that it is crucial to maintain analytical distinctions between human agency and other-than human actions, as arguments of wolves as intentional actors may lead to underestimation of human responsibility, the role of political decision-making in wolf conservation, and uneven power relations between humans and animals/wildlife.