Urban conflict management, human-wild animal interactions, local environmental governance and political participation

Abstract

Local authorities today cope with environmental changes. As urbanization advances, the overlap between nature and the world of human beings increases. The resulting new interactions between humans and wild animals have many consequences. The perspectives of public administration and politics regarding this issue remain unexplored. There is limited research on local environmental crises and local environmental governance regarding the interactions between people and animals in the management of urban spaces. Therefore, we conducted a study using the presence of wild boars in Haifa, Israel. It tests the impact of support for the incumbent mayor through the mediated relationship of the harm caused by wild animals and the moderating effect of local governance on local political participation. Our findings may advance current theory to local administration and local environmental governance. On a practical level, policymakers can design effective local environmental governance, and promote behaviors on the part of politicians and residents.