Few animals elicit such drastically different human emotions, so do elephants. Elephants capture the affection of people but also inspire animosity and fear at the same time. This is because there are conflicts with p...Few animals elicit such drastically different human emotions, so do elephants. Elephants capture the affection of people but also inspire animosity and fear at the same time. This is because there are conflicts with people over space, critical resources, costs of damages and general insecurity to people. This paper examined field evidence and interviewed expert key informants on current intensity and frequency of human-elephants in Amboseli Ecosystem. According to them, generally, the most prevalent (score of 1 lowest to 10 highest) threats to elephants were competition for critical resources (6.32 ± 0.44) followed by blocking of migration (6.24 ± 0.46), harassment of elephants (4.83 ± 0.75), poaching (4.57 ± 0.37), and retaliatory killings (3.78 ± 0.31). For threats that elephants pose to people, the most prevalent one was crop raiding (6.95 ± 0.26) followed by environmental degradation (6.71 ± 0.46), general insecurity to people (5.76 ± 0.65), property destruction (5.16 ± 0.41), injury and death to livestock (3.78 ± 0.37), and injury and death to people (2.71 ± 0.27). For the severity of the threats, the highest score was given to crop raiding whose average score was 7.90 ± 0.24 followed by environmental destruction and degradation (6.89 ± 0.43), injury and death to people (6.72 ± 0.44), injury and death to livestock (6.36 ± 0.50), property destruction (5.78 ± 0.49), general insecurity to people (5.62 ± 0.64). Severity levels followed the same trend or varied slightly. These drivers of human-elephant conflicts need to be addressed decisively to protect both people and elephants. There is a need to ensure local people’s benefit from elephants through ecotourism investments such as wildlife sanctuaries, leasing critical space for elephants’ dispersal on acceptable terms, through appropriate compensation schemes for elephant costs, and supporting local community wildlife rangers to prevent conflicts.展开更多
The problem of wild elephants, or human-elephant conflict (HEC), influences the daily life of local communities and hinders the conservation of wild elephants.The perception and attitudes of local communities who inha...The problem of wild elephants, or human-elephant conflict (HEC), influences the daily life of local communities and hinders the conservation of wild elephants.The perception and attitudes of local communities who inhabited the frontiers between human activities and wild elephant movement are important to the mitigation of the HEC and conservation of wild elephants. To analyze the perception and attitudes of local communities, the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was used in the investigation of 423 interviewees from 22 villages in Xishuangbanna from July 2009 to February 2010. The results indicated that local communities had their views on the elephant-related problems. In field survey, we found that 66.5% of interviewees were willing to support, participate in, and assist in the conservation of wild elephants;33.5% of interviewees were opposed or indifferent to such conservation, because their livelihoods and even their lives were endangered by wild elephants. These views and attitudes were influenced by local communities′perception of HEC, education level, gender and self-interest. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the diverse views among local communities and balance profits and costs in addressing HEC.展开更多
文摘Few animals elicit such drastically different human emotions, so do elephants. Elephants capture the affection of people but also inspire animosity and fear at the same time. This is because there are conflicts with people over space, critical resources, costs of damages and general insecurity to people. This paper examined field evidence and interviewed expert key informants on current intensity and frequency of human-elephants in Amboseli Ecosystem. According to them, generally, the most prevalent (score of 1 lowest to 10 highest) threats to elephants were competition for critical resources (6.32 ± 0.44) followed by blocking of migration (6.24 ± 0.46), harassment of elephants (4.83 ± 0.75), poaching (4.57 ± 0.37), and retaliatory killings (3.78 ± 0.31). For threats that elephants pose to people, the most prevalent one was crop raiding (6.95 ± 0.26) followed by environmental degradation (6.71 ± 0.46), general insecurity to people (5.76 ± 0.65), property destruction (5.16 ± 0.41), injury and death to livestock (3.78 ± 0.37), and injury and death to people (2.71 ± 0.27). For the severity of the threats, the highest score was given to crop raiding whose average score was 7.90 ± 0.24 followed by environmental destruction and degradation (6.89 ± 0.43), injury and death to people (6.72 ± 0.44), injury and death to livestock (6.36 ± 0.50), property destruction (5.78 ± 0.49), general insecurity to people (5.62 ± 0.64). Severity levels followed the same trend or varied slightly. These drivers of human-elephant conflicts need to be addressed decisively to protect both people and elephants. There is a need to ensure local people’s benefit from elephants through ecotourism investments such as wildlife sanctuaries, leasing critical space for elephants’ dispersal on acceptable terms, through appropriate compensation schemes for elephant costs, and supporting local community wildlife rangers to prevent conflicts.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.30870431)
文摘The problem of wild elephants, or human-elephant conflict (HEC), influences the daily life of local communities and hinders the conservation of wild elephants.The perception and attitudes of local communities who inhabited the frontiers between human activities and wild elephant movement are important to the mitigation of the HEC and conservation of wild elephants. To analyze the perception and attitudes of local communities, the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was used in the investigation of 423 interviewees from 22 villages in Xishuangbanna from July 2009 to February 2010. The results indicated that local communities had their views on the elephant-related problems. In field survey, we found that 66.5% of interviewees were willing to support, participate in, and assist in the conservation of wild elephants;33.5% of interviewees were opposed or indifferent to such conservation, because their livelihoods and even their lives were endangered by wild elephants. These views and attitudes were influenced by local communities′perception of HEC, education level, gender and self-interest. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the diverse views among local communities and balance profits and costs in addressing HEC.
