Wildlife meat, the meat procured from free-ranging animals, is harvested and consumed throughout the world for economic, cultural, ecological, and nutritional reasons. Although culture is recognized as a major factor influencing the harvest and consumption of wildlife meat, research on the relationship between culture and consumption of wildlife is lacking. Additionally, institutions govern how wildlife meat is obtained, used, and distributed determining who benefits from wildlife meat and in what manner. Thus, institutions can mediate the relationship between culture and wildlife consumption. Markets in wildlife meat and the policies that govern them are a contentious institution in wildlife conservation and public health.I use the ecosystem services framework to identify how wildlife meat contributes to culture. Chapter 2 explores previous research to construct a comprehensive assessment of ecosystem services and disservices provided by wildlife meat, establishing the theoretical underpinnings for this dissertation. Wildlife meat provides a unique example of a synergistic relationship between two ecosystem services: wildlife meat is a provisional ecosystem service (in the form of food; ornamental resources; or biochemicals, natural medicines, and pharmaceuticals) that simultaneously provides cultural ecosystem services (in the form of social relations, cultural identity, cultural heritage, spiritual and religious, knowledge systems, sense of place, and recreation and tourism). Chapters 3 and 4 uses interviews with hunters in Michigan and Sweden to explore how wildlife meat provides cultural ecosystem services under differing governance systems. Sixty interviews with Michigan deer hunters and 32 interviews with Swedish large ungulate hunters were analyzed using provisional, attribute, in vivo, and descriptive coding. Wildlife meat provided hunters cultural ecosystem services in the form of social relations, identity, cultural heritage, education, knowledge systems, spiritual and religious, and recreation and tourism. This finding emphasizes the cultural importance of wildlife meat, and more broadly wildlife, to society. Chapter 5 uses the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to compare the complex systems of wildlife meat use and distribution in Michigan, USA and Sweden in order to explore the influence of governance on the creation and distribution of benefits from wildlife meat. In Michigan and Sweden formal and informal institutions determine who has access to wildlife meat. Informal institutions, however, had greater influence on how wildlife meat was actually distributed. The provisional and cultural ecosystem services hunters derive from wildlife meat appear ubiquitous regardless of the presence or absence of markets for wildlife meat. In Sweden, the presence of formal markets in wildlife meat appears to increases access to wildlife meat for non-hunters and provides additional cultural ecosystem services in the form of recreation and tourism. Findings from this dissertation provide insights for wildlife conservation and public health. My study is novel in its application of the cultural ecosystem services framework to wildlife meat and the demonstration that the cultural ecosystem services framework is an effective tool for recognizing and articulating the many and complex cultural components of wildlife meat. Additionally, this is the first study to identify cultural ecosystem services provided by wildlife meat to license purchasing hunters in the United States and Sweden. Using the cultural ecosystem services framework allows for systematic interpretation of the relationship between culture and consumption advancing understanding of the benefits wildlife meat, and more broadly wildlife, provide society. Identifying the influences of governance (i.e., the presence or absence of markets) on the creation and distribution of benefits from wildlife meat contributes to current debates and is needed to inform science-based policy.
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