Human–Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence

Summary

This report summarizes many aspects of human-wildlife interaction and conflict, including factors that contribute to conflict, approaches that mitigate conflict, and present day trends and debates on how to go about peaceful coexistence, as will be necessary in the context of changing community compositions. The history of human-wildlife interaction is mired in conflict, with human goals of controlling numbers and types of various species shaping how we interact with wildlife today. It is difficult to extract specific values which instigate this, as human-human conflict often drives human-wildlife conflict indirectly. Size and perceived threat of animals, capability for disease transmission, and interference with human interests (e.g. agricultural pests) are common motivations for human-wildlife conflicts. The vast types of conflict call for different mitigation approaches, ones that walk a fine line balancing the protection of endangered species with the needs of local communities and people. The report outlines urbanization, agricultural intensification, habitat loss and degradation, transportation, and energy consumption and production methods as common large-scale, human-based causes of conflict, which are also all major causes of biodiversity and ecosystem health decline. Age, sex, social learning, situational accessibility, geography, risk perception, media coverage, and economy are identified as indicators of how different people will treat and/or approach wildlife interactions. On controls used or to be used on wildlife, the report outlines lethal (e.g. hunting, traps, poison, etc) versus nonlethal (e.g. translocation, guarding, repellent, barriers) forms of control. On how to manage human action, policy and governance and economic incentives are deemed paramount. The report acknowledges the need to synthesize human-animal conflict data across nations and regions in order to gain a better understanding of what drives how we interact with wildlife across various ecosystems, in order to best equip people with tools on how to conserve wildlife populations and propagate coexistence in today’s human-dominated landscapes.