Wildtierökonomik – Analyse der Wildtierbewirtschaftung in der Schweiz (Essay) | Wildlife economics – An analysis of wild animal management in Switzerland (essay)

Wildlife economics is a special way of thinking in which theoretically accepted and empirically founded models form the basis. Such make it possible to convert the wildlife/forest conflict situation into a man-to-man conflict. These models are tied up with specific conditions. As long as these are accepted, and on the basis of the analysis results, statements on the creation of institutional and organisational frameworks for wildlife management can be formulated, without being obliged to include the density of the animal population. The wildlife population is more often than not managed in common by various management groups. In a market characterized by competitiveness, all wildlife management interests can be integrated into the models of those who hunt as a leisure time activity and those of the land owners interested in a maximum profit. When the leisure time hunter and the land owner are not one and the same person, the optimal wildlife densities for the individuals concerned are always different. Conflicts of interest in shared management result from an unequal level of information between the principals concerned and a lack of feasibility in observing whether, during the phase of carrying out the contract, the partners have fulfilled their contractual obligations. Under these conditions, and if one accepts that the current animal population cannot be monitored, self-implementing agreements between leisure time hunters and land owners, as an institutional organisational arrangement, offer a possibility for settling conflicts. In order to be able to introduce such a model of wild animal management in Switzerland, the right to hunt would have to be associated with land ownership. Such a new ruling within the institutions would offer the possibility for the people directly concerned, that is to say the land owners and the hunters, to be able to settle between themselves conflicts connected with the management of wildlife, for example when wild animals cause damage.