Rethinking the study of human-wildlife coexistence.

Although coexistence with wildlife is a key goal of conservation, little is known about it or how to study it. By coexistence we mean a sustainable though dynamic state in which humans and wildlife coadapt to sharing landscapes, where human interactions with wildlife are effectively governed to ensure wildlife populations persist in socially legitimate ways that ensure tolerable risk levels. Problems that arise from current conflict-oriented framing of human-wildlife interactions include reinforcing a human-nature dichotomy as fundamentally oppositional, suggesting coexistence requires the absence of conflict, and skewing research and management toward direct negative impacts over indirect impacts and positive aspects of living with wildlife. Human behavior toward wildlife is framed as rational calculus of costs and benefits, sidelining emotional and cultural dimensions of these interactions. Coexistence is less studied due to unfamiliarity with relevant methodologies, including qualitative methods, self-reflexivity and ethical rigor, and constraints on funding and time. These challenges are illustrated with examples from fieldwork in India and Africa. We recommend a basic approach to case studies aimed at expanding the scope of inquiries into human-wildlife relations beyond studies of rational behavior and quantification of costs and benefits of wildlife to humans.

Replanteamiento del Estudio de la Coexistencia Humano-Fauna Resumen A pesar de que la coexistencia con la fauna es una meta de suma importancia para la conservación, todavía se conoce muy poco sobre ella y cómo estudiarla. Cuando hablamos de coexistencia nos referimos a un estado sustentable, pero a la vez dinámico en el cual los humanos y la fauna están coadaptados a compartir paisajes en los que las interacciones entre humanos y animales están regidas de manera efectiva para asegurar que las poblaciones de fauna persistan de maneras socialmente legítimas que aseguren niveles tolerables de riesgo. Los problemas que surgen de las actuales estructuraciones orientadas hacia la resolución de conflictos en las interacciones humano-fauna incluyen el reforzamiento de una dicotomía humano-naturaleza como fundamentalmente opositora, lo que sugiere que la coexistencia requiere de una ausencia del conflicto y la desviación de la investigación y el manejo hacia los impactos negativos directos por encima de los impactos indirectos y los aspectos positivos de la convivencia con la fauna. El comportamiento humano hacia la fauna está conceptualizado como un cálculo racional de costos y beneficios, haciendo a un lado las dimensiones emocionales y culturales de estas interacciones. La coexistencia está poco estudiada debido a la poca familiarización con las metodologías relevantes, incluyendo los métodos cualitativos, el rigor ético y autorreflexivo y las restricciones al financiamiento y al tiempo. Estos retos se encuentran ilustrados mediante ejemplos tomados del trabajo de campo en la India y en África. Recomendamos un enfoque básico para los estudios de caso centrado en la expansión del espectro de las indagaciones en las relaciones humano-fauna más allá de los estudios del comportamiento racional y la cuantificación de los costos y beneficios de la fauna para los humanos.

Hunting down the chimera of multiple disciplinarity in conservation science.

The consensus is that both ecological and social factors are essential dimensions of conservation research and practice. However, much of the literature on multiple disciplinary collaboration focuses on the difficulties of undertaking it. This review of the challenges of conducting multiple disciplinary collaboration offers a framework for thinking about the diversity and complexity of this endeavor. We focused on conceptual challenges, of which 5 main categories emerged: methodological challenges, value judgments, theories of knowledge, disciplinary prejudices, and interdisciplinary communication. The major problems identified in these areas have proved remarkably persistent in the literature surveyed (c.1960-2012). Reasons for these failures to learn from past experience include the pressure to produce positive outcomes and gloss over disagreements, the ephemeral nature of many such projects and resulting lack of institutional memory, and the apparent complexity and incoherence of the endeavor. We suggest that multiple disciplinary collaboration requires conceptual integration among carefully selected multiple disciplinary team members united in investigating a shared problem or question. We outline a 9-point sequence of steps for setting up a successful multiple disciplinary project. This encompasses points on recruitment, involving stakeholders, developing research questions, negotiating power dynamics and hidden values and conceptual differences, explaining and choosing appropriate methods, developing a shared language, facilitating on-going communications, and discussing data integration and project outcomes. Although numerous solutions to the challenges of multiple disciplinary research have been proposed, lessons learned are often lost when projects end or experienced individuals move on. We urge multiple disciplinary teams to capture the challenges recognized, and solutions proposed, by their researchers while projects are in process. A database of well-documented case studies would showcase theories and methods from a variety of disciplines and their interactions, enable better comparative study and evaluation, and provide a useful resource for developing future projects and training multiple disciplinary researchers.

The challenge of compassion in predator conservation.

This paper argues that compassion for wild animals and the humans living alongside them should be integral to wildlife conservation. Nowhere is this more apparent than in predator conservation, and case studies are used to explore the consequences of wild animal attacks for human victims. Some arguments for extending compassionate consideration to animals seen as individuals are considered, along with the challenges these pose for predator conservation. A way forward from this apparent impasse is suggested, drawing on the capacity approach to embrace human with animal actors. The paper concludes with implications for predator conservation and recommendations, including incident responses sensitive to the traumatic impacts of attacks, and more collaborative approaches to handling human-wildlife interactions taking account of the capacities of local humans and wildlife.

High pathogen prevalence in an amphibian and reptile assemblage at a site with risk factors for dispersal in Galicia, Spain.

Ranaviruses are agents of disease, mortality and population declines in ectothermic vertebrates and emergences have been repeatedly linked to human activities. Ranaviruses in the common midwife toad ranavirus lineage are emerging in Europe. They are known to be severe multi-host pathogens of amphibians and can also cause disease in reptiles. Recurrent outbreaks of ranavirus disease and mortality affecting three species have occurred at a small reservoir in north-west Spain but no data were available on occurrence of the pathogen in the other amphibian and reptile species present or at adjacent sites. We sampled nine species of amphibians and reptiles at the reservoir and nearby sites and screened for ranavirus presence using molecular methods. Our results show infection with ranavirus in all nine species, including first reports for Hyla molleri, Pelophylax perezi, Rana iberica, and Podarcis bocagei. We detected ranavirus in all four local sites and confirmed mass mortality incidents involving Lissotriton boscai and Triturus marmoratus were ongoing. The reservoir regularly hosts water sports tournaments and the risks of ranavirus dispersal through the translocation of contaminated equipment are discussed.

Don't forget to look down - collaborative approaches to predator conservation.

Finding effective ways of conserving large carnivores is widely recognised as a priority in conservation. However, there is disagreement about the most effective way to do this, with some favouring top-down 'command and control' approaches and others favouring collaboration. Arguments for coercive top-down approaches have been presented elsewhere; here we present arguments for collaboration. In many parts of the developed world, flexibility of approach is built into the legislation, so that conservation objectives are balanced with other legitimate goals. In the developing world, limited resources, poverty and weak governance mean that collaborative approaches are likely to play a particularly important part in carnivore conservation. In general, coercive policies may lead to the deterioration of political legitimacy and potentially to non-compliance issues such as illegal killing, whereas collaborative approaches may lead to psychological ownership, enhanced trust, learning, and better social outcomes. Sustainable hunting/trapping plays a crucial part in the conservation and management of many large carnivores. There are many different models for how to conserve carnivores effectively across the world, research is now required to reduce uncertainty and examine the effectiveness of these approaches in different contexts.

Pressed flowers: notions of indigenous and alien vegetation in South Africa's Western Cape, c. 1902-1945.

In the early twentieth century, botanists in South Africa's Western Cape sought urgently to popularise and protect the region's unique indigenous Fynbos flora. Plants imported from the 1840s, some of which proved invasive, became a physical and symbolic focus for their advocacy. The botanists' efforts resonated with political attempts to forge a common white South African national identity that drew on notions of landscape and the indigenous flora for symbolism and that consciously exploited the politically integrative potential of the new science of ecology. Introduced by overseas-trained experts, ecological theory was, however, inappropriate for the local flora, and had unfortunate consequences for the scientifically-informed research and management particularly of the fire-maintained Fynbos. While botanists and conservationists were united in defending the local flora against invasive introduced plants, they drew distinctions between what was 'indigenous' and what was 'natural' that further complicated their attitudes to the local flora. These historical debates illuminate agendas and policies on introduced ('alien') and indigenous flora in the region today.