Working across the rural-urban divide: Messaging for large carnivore conflict reduction

Conflicts between large carnivores and livestock can be polarizing. The words used around large carnivore-livestock conflict reduction can either further polarize a sensitive situation or bring people together in a common purpose around common goals.

This guidance document highlights sensitive words in rural and urban communities, suggests alternatives, and provides important context so we can better communicate amongst diverse audiences.

As the document states, “It is important to seek to understand the context of our audience when choosing words. This approach can be valuable in conflict reduction work to avoid words that may trigger emotions, heighten pre-existing barriers and in some cases end conversations when other words will do the job.”

This publication is a joint product of the Conflict Reduction Consortium, which WLA convenes as part of our Working Wild Challenge. Learn more.