Wetland Management Quality as a Determinant of Human-Wildlife Conflict Intensity
Evidence from Rajasthan's Wetland Ecosystems
Keywords:
human-wildlife conflict, wetland management, crop damage, conservation economics, wildlife managementAbstract
Human-wildlife conflict is a major problem for conservation in semi-arid places, especially if wetlands are damaged and animals have to move into farming areas. This research investigates the correlation between the quality of wetland management and the level of human-wildlife conflict in 46 wetlands located in Rajasthan, India. We looked at incidences of crop damage, economic losses, and conflict patterns between species in connection to five management categories, from good to no active management. The results show that wetlands that were well-managed had 96% fewer crop damage events (28 vs. 623 per year) and 96% lower economic losses (₹12.4 vs. ₹289.7 lakhs/year) than wetlands that weren't maintained. Species-specific analysis demonstrated a consistent decrease in conflicts ranging from 79% to 87% across seven significant animal species when the quality of wetland habitats was preserved. An economic analysis showed that investments in integrated wetland management had an 8.3:1 benefit-cost ratio because they reduced conflicts. This saved ₹393.5 lakhs a year compared to an investment of ₹47.5 lakhs. Community opinion surveys indicated that 87% of inhabitants in protected areas supported conservation, despite encountering some conflict. Additionally, targeted interventions in high-conflict interface zones (2-5 km from wetlands) were crucial for sustaining social tolerance. These results show that protecting wetlands is a good way to reduce conflict that is also good for the economy and the community. It also helps conserve biodiversity and rural livelihoods.
Downloads
References
Agrawal, A., & Narain, S. (1997). Dying wisdom: Rise, fall and potential of India's traditional water harvesting systems. Centre for Science and Environment.
Balmford, A., & Whitten, T. (2003). Who should pay for tropical conservation, and how could the costs be met? Oryx, 37(2), 238-250.
Baral, N., & Heinen, J. T. (2007). Resources use, conservation attitudes, management intervention and park-people relations in the Western Terai landscape of Nepal. Environmental Conservation, 34(1), 64-72.
Barua, M., Bhagwat, S. A., & Jadhav, S. (2013). The hidden dimensions of human-wildlife conflict: Health impacts, opportunity and transaction costs. Biological Conservation, 157, 309-316.
Bennett, N. J., Roth, R., Klain, S. C., Chan, K., Christie, P., Clark, D. A., ... & Wyborn, C. (2017). Conservation social science: Understanding and integrating human dimensions to improve conservation. Biological Conservation, 205, 93-108.
Berkes, F. (2004). Rethinking community-based conservation. Conservation Biology, 18(3), 621-630.
Bibby, C. J., Burgess, N. D., Hill, D. A., & Mustoe, S. (2000). Bird census techniques (2nd ed.). Academic Press.
Boardman, A. E., Greenberg, D. H., Vining, A. R., & Weimer, D. L. (2006). Cost-benefit analysis: Concepts and practice (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall.
Chambers, R. (1994). The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal. World Development, 22(7), 953-969.
Costanza, R., d'Arge, R., De Groot, R., Farber, S., Grasso, M., Hannon, B., ... & Van Den Belt, M. (1997). The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387(6630), 253-260.
Cowardin, L. M., Carter, V., Golet, F. C., & LaRoe, E. T. (1979). Classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the United States. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Davidson, N. C. (2014). How much wetland has the world lost? Long-term and recent trends in global wetland area. Marine and Freshwater Research, 65(10), 934-941.
Dickman, A. J. (2010). Complexities of conflict: The importance of considering social factors for effectively resolving human-wildlife conflict. Animal Conservation, 13(5), 458-466.
Finlayson, C. M., & van der Valk, A. G. (Eds.). (1995). Classification and inventory of the world's wetlands. Springer.
Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Walker, B., Scheffer, M., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., & Holling, C. S. (2004). Regime shifts, resilience, and biodiversity in ecosystem management. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 35, 557-581.
Fox, A. D., Ebbinge, B. S., Mitchell, C., Heinicke, T., Aarvak, T., Colhoun, K., ... & Stroud, D. A. (2005). Current estimates of goose population sizes in western Europe, a gap analysis and an assessment of trends. Ornis Svecica, 15(1), 13-31.
Government of India Planning Commission. (2011). Faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth: An approach to the twelfth five year plan. Government of India.
Hansen, A. J., & DeFries, R. (2007). Ecological mechanisms linking protected areas to surrounding lands. Ecological Applications, 17(4), 974-988.
Hill, C. M. (2000). Conflict of interest between people and baboons: Crop raiding in Uganda. International Journal of Primatology, 21(2), 299-315.
Hoare, R. E. (1999). Determinants of human-elephant conflict in a land-use mosaic. Journal of Applied Ecology, 36(5), 689-700.
Infield, M., & Namara, A. (2001). Community attitudes and behaviour towards conservation: An assessment of a community conservation programme around Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda. Oryx, 35(1), 48-60.
Jhala, Y. V. (1993). Predation on blackbuck by wolves in Velavadar National Park, Gujarat, India. Conservation Biology, 7(4), 874-881.
Jhala, Y. V. (1997). Seasonal effects on the nutritional ecology of blackbuck Antilope cervicapra. Journal of Applied Ecology, 34(6), 1348-1358.
Johnsingh, A. J. T., Prasad, S. N., & Goyal, S. P. (2004). Conservation status of the Asiatic lion. Biodiversity and Conservation, 13(11), 2171-2183.
Junk, W. J., Brown, M., Campbell, I. C., Finlayson, M., Gopal, B., Ramberg, L., & Warner, B. G. (2006). The comparative biodiversity of seven globally important wetlands: A synthesis. Aquatic Sciences, 68(3), 400-414.
Kaltenborn, B. P., Bjerke, T., & Nyahongo, J. W. (2006). Living with problem animals—self-reported fear of potentially dangerous species in the Serengeti region, Tanzania. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 11(6), 397-409.
Karanth, K. U., & Nichols, J. D. (1998). Estimation of tiger densities in India using photographic captures and recaptures. Ecology, 79(8), 2852-2862.
Karanth, K. K., Gopalaswamy, A. M., DeFries, R., & Ballal, N. (2013). Assessing patterns of human-wildlife conflict and compensation around a central Indian protected area. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e57285.
Kingsford, R. T., & Basset, A. (2012). Wetlands: Conservation's poor cousins. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 22(6), 743-745.
Kumar, A., Sati, J. P., Tak, P. C., & Alfred, J. R. B. (2005). Habitat utilization by birds in Tal Chhapar Sanctuary, Rajasthan, India. Zoos' Print Journal, 20(8), 1952-1958.
Lindenmayer, D. B., & Likens, G. E. (2010). The science and application of ecological monitoring. Biological Conservation, 143(6), 1317-1328.
Linkie, M., Dinata, Y., Nofrianto, A., & Leader-Williams, N. (2007). Patterns and perceptions of wildlife crop raiding in and around Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra. Animal Conservation, 10(1), 127-135.
MacArthur, R. H., & Pianka, E. R. (1966). On optimal use of a patchy environment. The American Naturalist, 100(916), 603-609.
Macdonald, D. W. (1983). The ecology of carnivore social behaviour. Nature, 301(5899), 379-384.
Mackenzie, C. A., & Ahabyona, P. (2012). Elephants in the garden: Financial and social costs of crop raiding. Ecological Economics, 75, 72-82.
Madhusudan, M. D. (2003). Living amidst large wildlife: Livestock and crop depredation by large mammals in the interior villages of Bhadra Tiger Reserve, south India. Environmental Management, 31(4), 466-475.
Maji, A. K., Reddy, G. P. O., & Sarkar, D. (2010). Degraded and wastelands of India: Status and spatial distribution. Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
Manfredo, M. J. (2008). Who cares about wildlife? Social science concepts for exploring human-wildlife relationships and conservation issues. Springer.
Meriggi, A., & Lovari, S. (1996). A review of wolf predation in southern Europe: Does the wolf prefer wild prey to livestock? Journal of Applied Ecology, 33(6), 1561-1571.
Mitsch, W. J., & Gosselink, J. G. (2015). Wetlands (5th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Naidoo, R., Balmford, A., Costanza, R., Fisher, B., Green, R. E., Lehner, B., ... & Ricketts, T. H. (2006). Global mapping of ecosystem services and conservation priorities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(28), 9495-9500.
Newmark, W. D., Leonard, N. L., Sariko, H. I., & Gamassa, D. G. M. (1994). Conservation attitudes of local people living adjacent to five protected areas in Tanzania. Biological Conservation, 63(2), 177-183.
Nyhus, P. J. (2016). Human-wildlife conflict and coexistence. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41, 143-171.
Nyhus, P. J., Osofsky, S. A., Ferraro, P., Madden, F., & Fischer, H. (2005). Bearing the costs of human-wildlife conflict: The challenges of compensation schemes. In R. Woodroffe, S. Thirgood, & A. Rabinowitz (Eds.), People and wildlife: Conflict or coexistence? (pp. 107-121). Cambridge University Press.
Ogra, M. V., & Badola, R. (2008). Compensating human-wildlife conflict in protected area communities: Ground-level perspectives from Uttarakhand, India. Human Ecology, 36(5), 717-729.
Palmeira, F. B., Crawshaw Jr, P. G., Haddad, C. M., Ferraz, K. M., & Verdade, L. M. (2008). Cattle depredation by puma (Puma concolor) and jaguar (Panthera onca) in central-western Brazil. Biological Conservation, 141(1), 118-125.
Plumptre, A. J. (2000). Monitoring mammal populations with line transect techniques in African forests. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37(2), 356-368.
Prasad, S. N., Ramachandra, T. V., Ahalya, N., Sengupta, T., Kumar, A., Tiwari, A. K., ... & Vijayan, L. (2002). Conservation of wetlands of India—a review. Tropical Ecology, 43(1), 173-186.
Pretty, J. (2003). Social capital and the collective management of resources. Science, 302(5652), 1912-1914.
R Core Team. (2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/
Rao, K. S., Maikhuri, R. K., Nautiyal, S., & Saxena, K. G. (2002). Crop damage and livestock depredation by wildlife: A case study from Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India. Journal of Environmental Management, 66(3), 317-327.
Redpath, S. M., Young, J., Evely, A., Adams, W. M., Sutherland, W. J., Whitehouse, A., ... & Gutiérrez, R. J. (2013). Understanding and managing conservation conflicts. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 28(2), 100-109.
Scheffer, M., Carpenter, S., Foley, J. A., Folke, C., & Walker, B. (2001). Catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. Nature, 413(6856), 591-596.
Sitati, N. W., & Walpole, M. J. (2006). Assessing farm-based measures for mitigating human-elephant conflict in Transmara District, Kenya. Oryx, 40(3), 279-286.
Sitati, N. W., Walpole, M. J., Smith, R. J., & Leader-Williams, N. (2003). Predicting spatial aspects of human-elephant conflict. Journal of Applied Ecology, 40(4), 667-677.
Stephens, D. W., & Krebs, J. R. (1986). Foraging theory. Princeton University Press.
Sukumar, R. (1991). The management of large mammals in relation to male strategies and conflict with people. Biological Conservation, 55(1), 93-102.
Sutherland, W. J., Pullin, A. S., Dolman, P. M., & Knight, T. M. (2004). The need for evidence-based conservation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 19(6), 305-308.
Thirgood, S., Woodroffe, R., & Rabinowitz, A. (2005). The impact of human-wildlife conflict on human lives and livelihoods. In R. Woodroffe, S. Thirgood, & A. Rabinowitz (Eds.), People and wildlife: Conflict or coexistence? (pp. 13-26). Cambridge University Press.
Treves, A., & Karanth, K. U. (2003). Human-carnivore conflict and perspectives on carnivore management worldwide. Conservation Biology, 17(6), 1491-1499.
van Eeden, L. M., Eklund, A., Miller, J. R., López-Bao, J. V., Chapron, G., Cejtin, M. R., ... & Crowther, M. S. (2018). Carnivore conservation needs evidence-based livestock protection. PLoS Biology, 16(9), e2005577.
Vijayan, V. S. (1991). Keoladeo National Park ecology study: 1980-90. Bombay Natural History Society.
White, P. C., & Runge, M. C. (1995). The emergence and development of participatory rural appraisal. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 46(3), 315-338.
Woodroffe, R., & Ginsberg, J. R. (1998). Edge effects and the extinction of populations inside protected areas. Science, 280(5372), 2126-2128.
Woodroffe, R., Thirgood, S., & Rabinowitz, A. (Eds.). (2005). People and wildlife: Conflict or coexistence? Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
-
Download PDF
Abstract Views: 4, 
Download PDF: 3
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Inventum Biologicum: An International Journal of Biological Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
