Nature’s contribution to people and community engagement: socio-cultural and economic perceptions of beaver presence in the environment

The overall aim of the project was to inform policy and management practice regarding beaver conservation translocation within Scotland through an exploration and greater understanding of socio-cultural perceptions of beavers and their effects.

This report specifically focuses on objective (ii) the socio-cultural objective of the wider project. It also relates directly to the Goal 8, Objective E, Action (i) of Scotland's National Strategy for Beavers (2022-2045), and the requirement to undertake research on the current perceptions/impacts of having beavers, across different stakeholders and at differing scales (p.32). It should be noted that the Strategy was not published until late in the research process (August 2022). The implications of this on the project are explored in the body of this report. This includes recognition that achieving more locally accepted conservation translocation requires time for broader consultation in the community and ongoing information and education regarding beavers and nature’s contribution to people.

The purpose of this research was to work with a community to explore perceptions (views, ideas, opinions, and feelings) about beavers and their potential translocation. Working with local communities to understand socio-cultural perceptions and the potential impacts of beavers being in, or returned to, a catchment is crucial as social factors hold implications for the success or failure of such wildlife reintroduction projects (Coz and Young, 2020; Auster, Barr and Brazier, 2022a). The potential for human-wildlife conflicts to arise, which are seldom only about ecological factors, is a particular concern (Glikman et al., 2022).