The effect of human-wildlife interaction and political factors on support for local environmental morality policies: Thinning, trap–neuter–return and regulation against wild-animals’ feeders

Abstract

What influences support for local environmental morality policies? Since Earth has entered the Anthropocene era, municipalities are facing the growing challenge of managing local environmental governance. Thus, to theorize this dynamic in the fields of public administration, politics, and policy, we examine how human-wildlife interaction and political factors affect support for local environmental morality policies—defined here as municipal environmental interventions that are rooted in ethical, societal, or religious values and tend to elicit strong public reactions and normative conflict. We focus on three such policies: thinning, trap–neuter–return (TNR), and regulation against wild-animal feeders. These policies often evoke public controversy, as they are grounded in ethical, societal, or cultural values that shape urban environmental conflict. Using a quantitative, large-scale, time-series public opinion survey, we analyze the case of wild boars on Mount Carmel and the Haifa Municipality across two political moments: pre- and post-local elections. We find that both human-wildlife interaction and political incentives shape support for local environmental morality policies. Implications for local environmental governance and local politics are discussed.