Coexistence 101: A Review Of Global Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Strategies
Faculty Mentor Information
Dr. Neil H. Carter
Abstract
People and wildlife are increasingly sharing landscapes around the world, giving rise to conflicts that hinder wildlife conservation and detrimentally affect human well-being. Despite its importance, knowledge on what coexistence strategies are most effective under different circumstances is lacking. To help fill this gap, we conducted a comprehensive literature search and analysis of 50 studies from around the globe to examine the effects of a range of conservation interventions on human-wildlife coexistence. We focused on studies that implemented a conservation action and related the outcomes to various factors, including: land use, human activities, and conflict behavior. We found that agricultural landscapes are a frequent source of competition between farmers and wildlife. Farmers in Botswana, for example, have experimented with resolutions including better fencing, crop guarding strategies, and using hot chili peppers to deter elephants, rather than reverting to retaliatory methods. Retaliatory killing or lethal control was used as a common response to conflict in 50% of cases studied, however, upon implementation of non-lethal interventions, 62% of articles studied resulted in win-win outcomes. Our research suggests that it is possible to achieve sustainable coexistence, and the insights from this work can help promote solutions to a growing problem in conservation worldwide.
Coexistence 101: A Review Of Global Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation Strategies
People and wildlife are increasingly sharing landscapes around the world, giving rise to conflicts that hinder wildlife conservation and detrimentally affect human well-being. Despite its importance, knowledge on what coexistence strategies are most effective under different circumstances is lacking. To help fill this gap, we conducted a comprehensive literature search and analysis of 50 studies from around the globe to examine the effects of a range of conservation interventions on human-wildlife coexistence. We focused on studies that implemented a conservation action and related the outcomes to various factors, including: land use, human activities, and conflict behavior. We found that agricultural landscapes are a frequent source of competition between farmers and wildlife. Farmers in Botswana, for example, have experimented with resolutions including better fencing, crop guarding strategies, and using hot chili peppers to deter elephants, rather than reverting to retaliatory methods. Retaliatory killing or lethal control was used as a common response to conflict in 50% of cases studied, however, upon implementation of non-lethal interventions, 62% of articles studied resulted in win-win outcomes. Our research suggests that it is possible to achieve sustainable coexistence, and the insights from this work can help promote solutions to a growing problem in conservation worldwide.