Current role, importance and characteristics of human dimensions in wildlife management, a preliminary assessment from European and North American scientific journals

Abstract

Human dimensions (HD) of wildlife management is a young field of enquiry which develops in several different directions and deals with various topics. Despite it is possible that popular research topics exist in HD studies, there is no proper research that identifies their role and importance. Besides, there is lack of knowledge on HD studies’ worldwide distribution and research trends per different world regions.The aim of this research was to provide knowledge on current role and characteristics of Human dimensions in wildlife management by analyzing four parameters: (1) proportion of HD studies, (2) current popular research topics in HD studies, (3) distribution of HD studies per world regions and (4) priorities in HD studies per world regions. For the purpose of this article, three journals such as The Journal of Wildlife Management (JWM), Human Dimensions of Wildlife (HDW) and European Journal of Wildlife Research (EJWR), which originate from North America and Europe, retrospectively, were analyzed for the period 2007-2012.Results of this preliminary work show that the proportion of HD studies, in the JWM and EJWR journals, was low, only 2.6%. Analysis of all three journals identified research topics like Large carnivores (15.07%); Wildlife conservation (13.88%); Wildlife management issues (13.88%); and Human-wildlife conflict (13.16%), as the most popular. A geographically biased manuscript distribution was evidenced as well as different popular research topics per world regions