Combining Patterns Of Human-wildlife Conflicts And Ecosystem Services For More Efficient Conservation Management

Human-wildlife conflicts (HWC) and ecosystem services (ES) are two of the most important and challenging human-wildlife interactions that scientists and conservation managers face, whether from the perspective of biodiversity conservation or human wellbeing. Understanding these interactions is particularly important in China, where the conservation needs for a highly biodiverse nation exist alongside a large human population, and so the opportunities for human-wildlife interactions are numerous. To better understand these interactions, work in the literature has often focused on one single interaction at a time. Whilst acknowledging the benefits of this approach, this thesis argues that without considering multiple human-wildlife interactions simultaneously within a single system we may risk missing opportunities for more efficient and effective conservation. Here, a systematic literature review identified only 36 papers containing keywords related to both HWC and ES. Whilst this literature offers insight into how and why these interactions might be considered in combination, a clear framework outlining how to combine patterns of HWC and ES to inform management, has yet to be designed and tested. To address this, this thesis, using environmental, socio-economic and attitudinal data collected from two case study protected areas in southern China, investigated the use of multiple indicators to measure the combined patterns of HWC and ES within a single system. This understanding was then used to inform real conservation problems.Methods were designed to ensure maximum applicability to local context and management plans. However, the most accurate techniques for measuring these interactions are not always adopted if the necessary time, skills and data are not available. Therefore the thesis first tested the use of six different approaches (with two different land use land cover maps each together with three economic valuation techniques) in valuing ecosystem services across space, and highlighted implications for how these results are interpreted for management. These different approaches varied with ease of data access (from either robust social survey techniques or previously acquired datasets) and scale (local or global), and represented data and techniques accessible to users on the ground (i.e. Nature Reserve staff). The differences in value across the six approaches were striking, and when used to inform management, could result in contradictory interpretations. Differences in value were largely influenced by the classifications of forest and farmland and how they corresponded with valuation coefficients.To then begin testing this combined approach at the protected area scale, HWC losses were estimated from compensation scheme data and ecosystem service value (ESV) was estimated using the six valuation approaches tested previously. The aim was to identify similarities between the environmental characteristics determining the spatial distribution of HWC and ESV. Using a statistical modeling approach, proximity to the national border and water, and elevation were identified as important environmental parameters in explaining the spatial distribution of both HWC and ESV. Next, at the household scale, one-month recall data on indicators of HWC and ESV was collected from a total of 198 households in the two case study sites. This set of indicators allowed identification of monthly expenditure, distance of farmland from homes and proportion of crops grown in highly protected management zones as key household characteristics significantly associated with both HWC and ES dynamics. These findings were used to identify which areas or households had associations with low ES benefits and high HWC losses, and so might be classified as "vulnerable". Vulnerabilities may also result from the misalignment of attitudes towards HWC and ES between different stakeholder groups within a system. Furthermore, revealing and understanding such attitudes are highlighted in the literature as crucial for the management of these human-wildlife interactions. Attitudinal responses towards statements focused on topics central to the work of this thesis (human-wildlife coexistence, protected areas and ecosystem services) were collected from local people (n=171) and Nature Reserve staff (n=59) in one study site. The majority of attitudes relating to protected areas (60%) and coexistence (100%) were statistically similar between the two groups, unlike 25% of responses relating to ecosystem services. Where disparity was observed, associations between responses and socio-economic and demographic characteristics of each group were tested. Few characteristics of staff were statistically associated with their attitudes, whereas responses from local people were frequently associated with location of residence. These results were interpreted in terms of potential for resultant human-human conflicts following misalignment of attitudes.This thesis demonstrates the value of combining patterns of HWC and ES to better represent real-world situations, to handle multiple human-wildlife interactions simultaneously and finally to use this understanding to inform specific management plans for the two case study sites:As well as highlighting vulnerabilities (associated with high HWC losses and low ESV gains, or with attitudinal misalignment), management opportunities for multiple benefits were also outlined (e.g. maintaining lower HWC costs and higher ESV benefits). The experience from these two case study sites is used to help design a clear framework for how multiple human-wildlife interactions might be combined within a single study and how this can be done to ensure maximum applicability to management. This thesis strongly encourages conservation scientists and practitioners to take a similar scientific and applied combined approach, where human-wildlife interactions are better understood, and as a result management decisions are better informed.