To contribute to book on carnivores

I have agreed to contribute to a prospective book on carnivores in Southern Norway. Plans are at an early stage.

Chapter "The semiotics of predation and the Umwelten of large predators" revised

Today I finished revising my forthcoming book chapter «The semiotics of predation and the Umwelten of large predators», based on editorial feedback. At 14-15.000 words, this will be one of the longest pieces I´ve published.

See also:
Large predators chapter completed

Large predators chapter completed

In the night between December 25th and 26th I completed the chapter «The semiotics of predation and the Umwelten of large predators" (previously titled "The Semiotics of Wild Carnivore Management"), for the collective monograph Animal Umwelts in a Changing World: Semiotic Studies of human-animal relations (forthcoming, Tartu University Press).

FRIPRO application "Umwelt Theory For Our Time" completed and submitted

Today I have finished the research application "Umwelt Theory For Our Time" - a 10-page project description; 30-something pages altogether with electronic application and attachments - for Research Council of Norway´s Young Research Talents scheme (FRIPRO, independent research). 11 good colleagues are involved either as Visiting researchers or as members of the prospective project´s Reference Group (and Timo Maran is one of the core researchers).

See also previous posts on FRIPRO and on "Umwelt Theory For Our Time".

Videos from Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference 2013 online; including two featuring me

Videos from the Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference 2013 are now online via the YouTube page of Minding Animals Norway - see YouTube playlist. Videos include one of my presentation, titled "Hva er natur i en verden uten villmark?" [What is nature in a world without wilderness?] and a panel discussion I chaired, "Fritt vilt? Forvaltningen av de store rovdyrene" [Fair game? Management of the big predators].

Kudos to Lene Sand for filming and to Frode Bakke Bjerkevik for editing, plus to NOAH - for animal rights for filming of the two panel discussions.

Norway: Second animal ethics conference to be held August 22nd

Last Friday I participated in a meeting in Oslo where Kristian Bjørkdahl, Ann Margaret Grøndahl and I evaluated the first Dyreetikkonferansen [The animal ethics conference] (September 21nd 2012) and made plans for the second. We agreed that the second will take place in Oslo on August 22nd 2013, with the theme "Hvem er villest i landet her? Fra pelsdyr til store rovdyr: Hvordan vi former ville dyr i vårt bilde" [Who is the wildest one in the country here? From fur animals to large carnivores: How we shape wild animals in our own image].

On September 9th the national parliamentary election takes place in Norway. This year's animal ethics conference will therefore treat topics that are currently politically relevant, namely management of large carnivores including wolves and further the Norwegian fur animal business (involving close to a million animals - Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and American mink (Mustela vison), which very existence has the last few years been under debate.

Talk scheduled for conference on carnivores and grazing livestock

I have agreed to give a talk at this year's Den nasjonale konferansen om rovvilt, beitedyr og samfunn [The national conference on predators, grazing livestock and society] (Hamar, Norway, Oct. 31 - Nov. 1). Last year there were 120 attendants.

My talk will be entitled "Offisiell og 'uoffisiell' rovviltforvaltning i Norge sett med et humanøkologisk blikk - Hva er motivene og handlingene?" [Official and "unofficial" predator management in Norway, as seen in a human ecology perspective - What are the motives and actions?].

The talk has been scheduled for 40 minutes. I have been asked to address the topic of illegal wolf hunting, and will also present my general analysis of cultural symbolism in the Norwegian wolf/sheep strife.

Carnivore settlement? Nope

Tonight at around 3 a.m. the negotiations involving all political parties represented in the Norwegian parliament, which had been aiming to reach a new carnivore settlement replacing that of 2004 (effective from 2005), ended without results. The negotiations were supposed to conclude before Christmas 2010. After several delays, and critique from the opposition for the coalition government's lack of any joint proposal, it was said that the negotiations would conclude before the parliament's summer break. Instead, the negotiations are now over. And after a year or so of conflicting expectations and promises, there is no policy review whatsoever. Nada. There will be no deal. It is totally uncertain as of today when a new attempt will be made - perhaps in a couple of years, when Sweden moves on with their policy review. In the meantime everything is as it was - except that nobody wants it to stay like it is - a status quo that benefits neither carnivores nor farmers nor sheep. In this particular case stasis - inaction - is not an acceptable compromise, but an outright failure to deal with this whole problematique.

Norwegian wolf management is my PhD case study. I am covering historical times before and after the wolf got status as protected species, plus contemporary times (2006-2011).

Excerpts from online debate on agriculture and carnivores in Dagbladet

My chronicle in Dagbladet, "Landet som grodde igjen", triggered 90 comments or so in Dagbladet's online debate (same page as the article). Three excerpts were printed in a column in Dagbladet Tuesday 15th of February, along with a brief presentation of my text.

Chronicle on agriculture and carnivores

Today a chronicle of mine, "Landet som grodde igjen" [The country that /overgrew/], is in print in the national Norwegian daily Dagbladet (Norway's third biggest newspaper).

An unedited version of the Norwegian language text has been posted in my Norwegian language blog Utopisk Realisme.

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Here's the chronicle on Dagbladet's pages. As of now there are 69 comments.