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Democratic societiesâ emphasis on individual rights and freedoms inevitably opens them up to political disputes. Conflict management should thus be seen as an integral part of democratic institutional design. The evolution and management of policy disputes concerning the use of different natural resources in Finland is analysed by using the theoretical models of frame analysis and strategic interaction. The studied disputes include lake fisheries, watercourse regulation, reindeer herding, and forestry. The institutional design in the case studies varies. Despite the differences, many common features are identified that could explain their successes or difficulties in achieving sustainable and cooperative use of the resources. Among these are problems involving complex and uncertain knowledge, differences in frames held by multiple users of a resource, and distrust between the users and other parties. The analysis concludes with preliminary conclusions on how various disputes related to sustainable resource use could be managed. These include addressing the knowledge and frame problems in order to initiate a learning process; establishing sub-processes in which mutual trust between the parties â including a managing authority or a third party â can emerge; giving explicit roles and a clear division of entitlement to the parties; and providing a credible alternative for co-operation that affects the partiesâ payoff assessments during the process. Finally, the conflict management process shouldnât be regarded as a distinct phase of dispute resolution, but as an essential aspect of ongoing co-management practices of resource use.

For decades, researchers have employed sound to study the biology of wildlife, with the aim to better understand their ecology and behaviour. By utilizing on‐animal recorders to capture audio from freely moving animals, scientists can decipher the vocalizations and glean insights into their behaviour and ecosystem dynamics through advanced signal processing. However, the laborious task of sorting through extensive audio recordings has been a major bottleneck. To expedite this process, researchers have turned to machine learning techniques, specifically neural networks, to streamline the analysis of data. Nevertheless, much of the existing research has focused predominantly on stationary recording devices, overlooking the potential benefits of employing on‐animal recorders in conjunction with machine learning. To showcase the synergy of on‐animal recorders and machine learning, we conducted a study at the Kutuharju research station in Kaamanen, Finland, where the vocalizations of rutting reindeer were recorded during their mating season. By attaching recorders to seven male reindeer during the rutting periods of 2019 and 2020, we trained convolutional neural networks to distinguish reindeer grunts with a 95% accuracy rate. This high level of accuracy allowed us to examine the reindeers' grunting behaviour, revealing patterns indicating that older, heavier males vocalized more compared to their younger, lighter counterparts. The success of this study underscores the potential of on‐animal acoustic recorders coupled with machine learning techniques as powerful tools for wildlife research, hinting at their broader applications with further advancement and optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wild and semidomesticated reindeer are one of the key species in Arctic and subarctic areas, and their population dynamics are closely tied to winter conditions. Difficult snow conditions have been found to decrease the calving success and survivability of reindeer, but the economic effects of variation in winter conditions on reindeer husbandry have not been studied. In this study, we combine state‐of‐the‐art economic–ecological modeling with the analysis of annual reindeer management reports from Finland. These contain local knowledge of herding communities. We quantify the occurrence probabilities of different types of winters from annual management reports and analyze the effects of this variation in winter conditions on reindeer husbandry using an age‐ and sex‐structured bioeconomic reindeer–lichen model. Our results show that difficult winters decrease the net revenues of reindeer husbandry. However, they also protect lichen pastures from grazing, thereby increasing future net revenues. Nonetheless, our solutions show that the variability of winter conditions overall decrease the net income of herders compared to constant winter conditions. Low lichen biomass appears to make reindeer management more sensitive to the effects of difficult winter conditions. We also found that it is economically sensible to use supplementary feeding during difficult winters, but the net revenues still decrease compared to average winters because of the high feeding costs. Overall, our analysis suggests that the increasing variability of winter conditions due to climate change will decrease net revenues in reindeer husbandry. This decrease will still occur even if the most extreme effects of climate change do not occur. This study shows that combining a state‐of‐the‐art bioeconomic model and practitioner knowledge can bring compatible insights, ideas, results, and a bottom‐up perspective to the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operational sex ratio (OSR), the ratio of sexually active males to sexually receptive females, is one of the main measures used to predict the intensity and direction of mating competition, influencing the opportunity for sexual selection. Here, we conducted the first experimental study to investigate how OSR and male age impacts the intensity of mating competition in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), under semi-natural conditions during the rut. We manipulated OSR on two levels in two enclosures, a female biased treatment (3♂:6♀ = OSR 0.5) and a sex balanced treatment (3♂:3♀ = OSR 1), over 2 years with males from two age groups, and with females of various ages. We found some support for prevailing OSR theory, notably with female intrasexual competition occurring at lower frequencies in OSR 1 than OSR 0.5, and male intrasexual competition occurring at higher frequencies in the older male age group. Courtship behaviour was found to occur at higher frequencies in OSR 1 than OSR 0.5; however, there was no effect of male age. To successfully pass on genes to the next generation, one needs access to mates and winning a competitive bout is not always indicative of successfully accomplishing gene flow. Studies on OSR have the potential to help us understand the drivers behind sexual competition and how best to predict breeding outcomes during a rut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]