BALANCING THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE:
When Wildlife Damage Crops and Prey on Livestock
Adrian Treves: University of Wisconsin-Madison
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WHETHER ONE CONSIDERS LIONS, tigers
and bears preying on livestock or
elephants, parrots and deer feeding on
crops, conflicts arise when the activities
of wild animals coincide with those of
people. Although damages by wildlife do
not have the regional impact that drought
and disease have, they do have critical,
political and environmental significance
for the conservation of biodiversity. They
also can have catastrophic economic
consequences for vulnerable households.
The fringes of protected areas and
landscapes with a mix of human
development and wild land see most
human-wildlife conflicts (HWC). Each
year, thousands of people lose their lives
and billions of dollars are lost in property
because of HWC globally. Traditionally,
people respond to wildlife threats by killing
“problem” animals and eliminating wild
habitat to prevent further losses. The scale
of biodiversity and economic costs is hard
to estimate for developing countries, but data
from developed nations are indicative. The US
government responds to roughly $1 billion in
agricultural damage nationwide by killing
approximately 2.5 million wild animals annually.
In 2004, this included 107,044 wild carnivores,
of which about 3% were threatened or
endangered species or killed unintentionally
when other species were targeted.
There is no evidence that agricultural damages
by wildlife are decreasing in the United States,
but in the developing world conditions are
more volatile. On the one hand, severe habitat
loss has diminished wildlife populations,
reducing the number of households affected by
HWC, at great cost to biodiversity. On the
other hand, where nature protections have
succeeded, threatened wildlife may recover
and cause property damage or loss of life for
households once far from wild lands, at great
cost to rural economies. Recent advances in
HWC research and management promise to
interrupt the wasteful spiral in either direction
This LTC Brief draws from experience on three continents to outline
recent advances in understanding and managing human-wildlife conflicts,
with twin objectives of biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation.
NO. 7; AUGUST 2007
This work was funded with the generous support of the American people
through the Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement
No.EPP-A-00-06-00014-00 for implementation of the TransLinks project.
The contents of this report are the responsibility of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the United States government.
People and wildlife—2
and simultaneously promote biodiversity
conservation and poverty alleviation.
Over the past two decades, scientific research
has identified a handful of principles of HWC
and distilled a number of recommendations for
management. This brief outlines the wildlife
dimensions of HWC, reviews our understanding
of affected people’s perceptions of risk and
resolution, traces paths to successful
intervention through participatory planning
and co-management, and examines the key
role of research in the resolution of HWC