Authors: Pacifici, Michela;

Attitudinal studies toward large carnivores are becoming a common practice as a start for understanding human wildlife coexistence. However, human coexistence with wildlife is influenced by a variety of factors that researchers and managers struggle to identify and address. As human-wildlife interactions increase over time, successful wildlife conservation will depend not only on understanding attitudes towards wildlife, but also on implementing successful strategies for an effective coexistence among interest groups. The goal of this workshop is to advance our collective understanding of attitudes toward large carnivores, and to identify approaches to foster coexistence across Europe. The workshop will begin with a series of short presentations of research findings and lessons learned for understanding attitudes towards large carnivores across diverse European countries. Specifically, researchers will highlight case studies from southern Europe (Italy, Albania) to northern Europe (Switzerland, Germany and Sweden), as well as eastern Europe (Romania). Furthermore, there are gradients of length in co-habitation with large carnivores among these countries; there are some where large carnivores have been never extirpated, and others where recolonization is recent. After this series of presentation, participants will break into smaller groups to explore lessons learned and identify potential patterns that influence attitudes toward large carnivores, and that can support coexistence. Finally, the session participants will reconvene to summarize and synthesize progress made in small groups and to discuss potential implications for assessment, application, and evaluation of work designed to promote coexistence.