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Managing the return of a charismatic species in an urban environment

Singapore is a city-state in southeast Asia that has undergone large-scale urbanisation. In 2022, it ranked as the world’s third most densely populated country. Remarkably, in the late 1990s, the smooth-coated otter Lutrogale perspicillata, absent for three decades due to extensive habitat loss, made a resurgence by taking up residence in Singapore. Since then, otters have been spotted across the island, making use of the coastlines and waterways. They have even been found in the highly-urban city centre.

In response to these circumstances, the Otter Working Group was formed in 2013 and formalized in 2016, comprising government agencies, institutions, NGOs, and members of the public. The primary objective of this group is to monitor otter-related issues and address them through a multidisciplinary approach. This case study aims to detail the establishment and activities of the Otter Working Group.

Facilitating a transboundary governmental approach to address the threats to a species

The snow leopard Panthera uncia inhabits twelve countries in central and south Asia, which include Afghanistan, the Kingdom of Bhutan, China, India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

This initiative aimed to protect the critical ecosystems used by the snow leopard, leading to the endorsement of the Bishkek Declaration on Snow Leopard Conservation, and launch of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystems Protection Program (GSLEP and hereafter “the Program”) implemented by all aforementioned nations at this meeting. This case study delves into the transformative efforts of the GSLEP towards fostering unity among range country governments, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, local communities, and the private sector through a transboundary holistic approach and a collective embraced vision to conserve snow leopards and their valuable high-mountain ecosystems, including addressing conservation conflicts.

Navigating cultural narratives to provide meaning to a human-wildlife conflict situation

Encompassing an area of 1067 km2 in southwestern Guinea-Bissau, the Cantanhez National Park, situated in the peninsula of Cubucaré, incorporates mangroves, forests, and savannahs, but also cultivated land. People with different cultural and religious backgrounds and ethnicity live in the national park. The national park also contains small-scale farming areas interspersed with forested areas in a dynamic landscape. Groups of chimpanzees Pan troglodytes verus inhabit various patches of forests within the park. Their presence means they often lived in close proximity to the inhabitants of Cantanhez. As a result, the chimpanzees sometimes foraged on the inhabitants’ crops. Although direct interactions between chimpanzees and the inhabitants were rare, when they did occur, they could result in physical injury and death to either the inhabitants or the apes.

In 2009, a PhD student conducted research in Cantanhez National Park to explore the human-wildlife interface and the people-park interface from the perspective of the park’s inhabitants. This case study focuses on how these investigations revealed that encounters between chimpanzees and people, as described by the park’s inhabitants, generated two parallel narratives. Two narratives coexist—one attributing the actions of a chimpanzee to a person who supposedly shape-shifted into a chimpanzee, while the other attributes the chimpanzee’s actions as a response attributable to the conservationists.

Preserving and nurturing deeply interconnected cultural relationships to facilitate coexistence

The Dibang Valley (Chithu Huluni in the Idu language), located in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is the ancestral homeland of the Idu Mishmi people. The Valley has mixed vegetation, including tropical and sub-tropical forest and bamboo, as well as temperate broad-leaved and conifer forests. The elevation rises from 100 m to above 5000 m across its 13000 km2 mountainous geography. The forests host diverse wildlife species, including tiger Panthera tigris, common leopard Panthera pardus, clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa, wild dog Cuon alpinus, Mishmi takin Budorcas taxicolor and Himalayan musk deer Moschus chryogaster. The Idu Mishmi are traditional animists for whom “human dispositions of consciousness, intentionality, and mortality belong to all beings, including animals and spirits”. According to Idu origin stories, tigers are their elder brothers. Consequently, harming or killing a tiger is the most serious taboo, one that invites grave danger to the “murderer”.

Between 2013 and 2015, a team of researchers and local Idus conducted the first ever scientific camera trap study on tigers in the Dibang Valley. The study revealed a higher tiger population in the Dibang Valley than in many of the government-managed tiger reserves. This unique phenomenon was attributed not to park guards and a top-down management approach, but rather to the protective influence of the Idu culture. Shortly afterwards, a team of government scientists conducted camera trap surveys in Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected area located in the northern part of the Valley. The sanctuary was declared in 1998, apparently without local consent.

This case study covers the historical background to these relationships between the Idu Mishmi people and tigers, exploring how external interventions – specifically, the implementation of a top-down tiger reserve model – may lead to unintended negative outcomes for both the Idu Mishmi and the tiger population, and it will examine ongoing efforts to maintain these intricate relationships.

Investigating the potential and economic feasibility for a compensation in advance scheme

Upper Lusatia in Saxony is one of Germany’s largest pond regions, consisting of around 1000 ponds. The building of fishponds and their use for fish farming has been a tradition in the region for over 800 years, providing an essential secondary habitat for several endangered species. One of these species is the European otter Lutra lutra, boasting a population of 400-500 individuals in the region, constituting one of the largest populations in central Europe in 2003. However, the presence of otters impacted the region’s 150-180 fish farmers, particularly those operating small ponds. To mitigate negative interactions between otters and fish farmers, the state of Saxony introduced a type of damage compensation scheme in 1997 to reimburse farmers for their economic losses. In 2003, the Framework for Biodiversity Reconciliation Action Plans (FRAP) project (hereafter the “project”) was initiated with the goal of creating a framework between the conservation of large vertebrates and the use of biological resources by humans. Coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, the project involved 13 partner organisations in nine European countries. The project used fisheries and fish eating vertebrates to illustrate successful approaches for conflict reconciliation. One of the examples used was that of otters in Saxony.

This case study will focus on one activity of the project’s work, which investigated the possibility of providing compensation in advance to fish farmers, where payments are made based on estimated expected losses, rather than payments after the damage had occurred (ex-post compensation).

Using traditional governance systems to manage competition over natural resources

In the Gourma region of Mali, south of Timbuktu, a small population of approximately 350 “desert-adapted” African elephants Loxodonta africana undertake an annual migration circuit spanning over 32 000 km2 driven by the widely dispersed natural resources in the region. Their migration primarily responds to the availability of water, food and refuge throughout the year, while avoiding areas of high human activity.

Started in 2006, following three years of scientific studies the Mali Elephant Project (hereafter “project”) sought to understand the threats to the elephants as arising from the multiple relationships within the social-ecological system, and then try to shift key factors affecting those relationships so the net result would be a reduction in threat for both humans and wildlife. This case study outlines how this approach translated into action. It describes an iterative, adaptive approach of deepening understanding (ecological and socio-economic surveys), coupled with community engagement and action.

Developing a management plan while balancing divergent stakeholder objectives

In northeast Scotland, there has been a history of conflict between seal conservation and salmon fisheries in the Moray Firth, a large area covering approximately 5 230 km2. Seals prey on salmon migrating into the river estuaries and around coastal netting stations, impacting fishing activities.

Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, harbour seals Phoca vitulina, and grey seals Halichoerus grypus were all listed, presenting a challenge for seal and salmon management alike as the protection of one species potentially impacted the status of the other. However, this challenge presented an opportunity for the various stakeholders to come together and develop the Moray Firth Seal Management Plan. This case study follows the process of developing this plan.

Integrating community response and stewardship to de-escalate conflict situations

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is the most populated in India, with nearly 200 million people. The state contains four tiger reserves, Dudhwa, Pilibhit, Amangarh and Ranipur, which provide essential protected habitats for tigers Panthera tigris and leopards Panthera pardus, as well as other endemic and endangered species. However, these big cats often leave the protected areas, moving through the forest fragments and human-dominated areas to find new territories. Leopards have been widely documented as surviving in scant vegetation mosaics outside of the protected areas, and in some parts, tigers have also been observed raising their litters in agricultural mosaics. As a result, negative interactions occur between local communities and big cats which often lead to injuries and deaths of humans, as well as more frequent cases of livestock depredation.

Big cats have been observed travelling long distances and causing many human fatalities and injuries. They are often killed during these interactions when the communities retaliate or during the melees which ensue during the conflict management.

To manage this situation, in 2009, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department initiated the Terai Tiger Project (hereafter “the project”). The project established a mobile veterinary service, which primarily used capture and translocation of problematic animals as their main approach to resolving ongoing conflict situations. The mobile veterinary service’s primary role was to intervene in these negative interactions, rescue, treat and subsequently release the problematic animal back into the wild. Despite successfully capturing and releasing big cats, this success was limited to a small number of individual animals.

At the same time, local communities, through poisoning or even by lynching, were consequently killing more big cats in retaliation. The project evolved to take a more holistic and pragmatic approach, aiming to address the root causes by requiring the wide participation of the local community.

This case study will outline the establishment of primary response and rapid response teams to manage these negative situations between local communities and wildlife.

Providing community support after traumatic incidents

Between 2013-2016, a series of shark-human interactions occurred on the coast of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, that led to a number of surfer fatalities. This situation triggered significant community concern, attracting international media attention and calls for shark culling.

In 2015, the NSW Government commissioned an independent review, led by Cardno, an environmental consulting services company, to investigate new and emerging technologies to mitigate shark-human interactions. This review was followed by a stakeholder summit held at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and included shark experts from across the globe, to determine the technologies to be trialled in NSW waters. This led the NSW Government to develop the NSW Shark Management Strategy (SMS), 2015-2020.

Prior to the Shark Management Strategy (SMS), the NSW Government responded to serious and fatal shark incidents solely in accordance with its Shark Incident Response Plan, whereby the focus was to catch and euthanise the shark thought responsible for the incident. The SMS, however, saw a shift to catch, tag and release sharks from the area of the incident. It also provided an opportunity to focus more on the human part of the shark-human interaction through research and the establishment of a dedicated community and stakeholder engagement team, and a process by which that team could support those affected by shark incidents. This case study will focus on the development of the community engagement team and the process that takes place after a serious or fatal shark incident in NSW.

Spatial planning to ensure future coexistence between wildlife and people

In north-western Botswana, the Okavango River flows for approximately 100 km, from the Namibian border, along what’s called the “panhandle” before reaching the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Panhandle area is home to around 35 000 people, who share space and resources with approximately 20 000 resident African elephants Loxodonta africana.

As a result, elephants often have to move through communal lands to travel from foraging areas to the river. Within these expanding communal lands, local people live, plant subsistence crops, herd livestock, gather resources, and walk to and from schools. This growing overlap of people and elephants can lead to an ever more frequent competition for natural resources, resulting in negative confrontations and impacts for both parties.

In 2013, the Ecoexist Trust (hereafter ‘Ecoexist’) was founded by a multidisciplinary team to support the lives and livelihoods of people who share space with elephants, while concomitantly taking into consideration the elephants’ needs and habitats. Ecoexist takes a holistic approach to its work: working with communities, government and the private sector to achieve its aims and promote coexistence.

This case study will focus on one of the most crucial aspects of Ecoexist’s holistic approach to support land use planning and guarantee that land for agriculture is not allocated to regions which elephants frequently use, ensuring elephants have free movement to access water and the resources they need from the Okavango Delta whilst minimising the ensuing impacts on subsistence farmers.

Planning for human-wildlife coexistence

The Iguaçu National Park (INP), in Brazil, and its sister park Iguazú National Park in Argentina constitute one of the most significant remaining remnants of the Interior Atlantic Forest on the Argentina-Brazil border. The Iguaçu National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site of roughly 185 000 ha, located in the State of Paraná, in southern Brazil. The national park contains semi-deciduous, sub-tropical rainforests and many charismatic species, including jaguar Panthera onca, puma Puma concolor and the tapir Tapirus terrestris. The area around the national park has mainly been altered due to heavy logging and the intensification and expansion of agriculture (mostly corn and soy), and rural settlements. On the national park’s boundaries, wildlife comes into contact with people with negative interactions arising. In 2018, Projeto Onças do Iguaçu (the Jaguars of Iguaçu Project, and hereafter “the project”) was initiated, to continue the jaguar population surveys carried out by previous projects, such as “Carnívoros do Iguaçu,” and expand outreach activities, including providing technical assistance to ranchers, engaging with local communities and providing education regarding jaguars in the region.

This case study will cover the process of planning for coexistence undertaken by this project.

Understanding animal behaviour patterns for long-term solutions to human-wildlife conflict

In Zimbabwe, Chacma baboons Papio ursinus cause large-scale damage to commercial pine plantations, creating a severe problem for the timber industry due to losses in the value of timber as a result of the damage they cause. Historically, baboons in Zimbabwe have been treated as vermin and considered a problem species, with bounty hunting encouraged by the District Commissioners.

While successful at reducing damage, within two years, new troops would move back into the area with damage reoccurring. This case study follows the long-standing research and experiences of a wildlife manager, who had initially been tasked with conducting the lethal control, but through observations of the baboon’s behaviour, identified what might be driving their behaviour and how the behaviour was transferred between individual troops. Consequently, they could determine how the situation should be managed in the long-term, removing the need for lethal control of baboons on a large scale.