Wang Jing, Wang Xiaoqiong, Wang Qianqian, Zhou Jinfeng.
Summary:The intensification of human-animal conflict has become a global concern, and it has also hindered the coordination of biodiversity conservation on a global scale. To promote the effective implementation of the Kunming-Mongolia Framework and achieve the goal of biodiversity conservation, it is necessary to find appropriate strategies to effectively alleviate human-animal conflict. This paper analyzes the main causes and manifestations of human-animal conflict from four aspects: (1) the implementation of ecological and wildlife protection policies has led to the rapid growth of some animal populations and the increase of human-animal conflicts; (2) Human-animal conflicts brought about by the migration or migration of wild animals; (3) Human-animal conflicts caused by overlapping activity areas and unreasonable response measures; (4) Alien species, climate change, etc., causing human-animal conflicts. Combined with the current situation of human-animal conflict, this paper puts forward four suggestions for alleviating human-animal conflict: (1) promoting urbanization under the guidance of the concept of "Neighborhood Biodiversity Conservation (BCON)"; (2) Strengthen the construction of ecological corridors and long-term planning; (3) Attach importance to the important role of traditional cultural practices in ecological protection; (4) Strengthen science popularization and education, and improve citizens' scientific literacy on biodiversity conservation. In view of the above reasons and suggestions, this paper also analyzes and interprets specific cases, hoping to provide some useful references for the response to human-animal conflict and the implementation of biodiversity conservation measures.
Keywords:Human-Wildlife Conflict, Wildlife, Mitigation, Neighborhood Biodiversity Conservation, Culture.
Wang Jing, Wang Xiaoqiong, Wang Qianqian, Zhou Jinfeng. Analysis of the causes of human-animal conflict and coping strategies. Biodiversity conservation and green development. 100 schools. January 30, 2024. issn2749-9065
Introduction
Many animals have been on Earth longer than humans. Since the birth of human beings and their entry into primitive civilization, agricultural civilization and industrial civilization, animals and their relationship with human beings have always been in a state of mutual influence and constant change, and have left an indelible mark on each other in the course of each other's development. Animals are not only a threat and enemy of humans, but also friends and assistants of humans. With the process of industrialization, human beings have mastered more efficient science and technology, and have been able to expand and exploit the earth's resources in a wider area, so that they have also had closer and more frequent contact with wild animals, and human-animal conflicts have become more frequent, becoming a global problem that is both common and acute and needs to be effectively solved.
1. The main causes and manifestations of human-animal conflicts
Human-animal conflict refers to conflicts caused by the presence or behavior of wild animals that pose an actual or perceived direct threat to humans, often with negative impacts on humans and wildlife.
In general, it is easy to understand human-animal conflict as the damage or loss of wild animals to the human production and living environment, such as crops being trampled, domestic animals being hunted, and even attacking people and causing people**. Such conflicts can be wide-ranging, such as one or more villages and towns being preyed upon by wild animals; It can also be small-scale, such as the sudden appearance of a wild animal within a certain family range, or the chance encounter between a person and a certain wild animal.
The causes of human-animal conflict are also complex and multifaceted. This article analyzes it from four aspects:
(1) The implementation of ecological and wildlife protection policies has led to the rapid growth of some animal populations and the increase of human-animal conflicts.
In recent years, due to the strict implementation of China's policy of returning farmland to forest, natural shelter forests and wild animals, many wild animal populations have been restored, and these restored wild animal populations need more food and habitat. Take, for example, the conflict between wild boars and people. Due to the strong reproductive ability of wild boars, the rapid expansion of population density, coupled with the lack of natural enemies such as tigers, lions, and wolves at the upper end of their food chain, the number of wild boars has increased rapidly in some areas of China, and the increase in the number of wild boars will inevitably require more habitat areas and food access. Sichuan, Henan, Anhui and other places frequently occurred incidents of wild boars breaking into villages, destroying fields and injuring people. Wild boars move quickly, and often come together, the diet is wide and destructive, "spring arch planting, summer destruction of seedlings, autumn gnawing fruit", but because in the national "three haves" wildlife protection list, people can not shoot without authorization, although it has now been removed from the list, but the human-animal conflict it brings still exists.
Similarly, there is the human-monkey conflict. In June 2023, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Association (hereinafter referred to as the China Green Development Society, the Green Society), conducted a special investigation on the local animal conflict situation in Debao County, Baise City, Guangxi Province. According to the villagers, the problems brought by the monkeys to the local area are not only the problem of breaking corn and digging sweet potatoes in the crops during the harvest season, but also the main thing is that the monkeys will also destroy the crop seedlings, and sometimes there will even be a huge group of more than 100 monkeys, causing complete destruction of the crops. As for the monkeys that come and go like the wind, the farmers "can't catch or kill", and the dogs can't make up for the damage to the crops. [1]
(2) Human-animal conflicts brought about by the migration or migration of wild animals;
A typical example of this is the collective northward migration of 17 Asian elephants inhabiting the Mengyangzi Reserve in Xishuangbanna Prefecture in 2020. Although humans showed sufficient gentleness and tolerance in this incident, the reality of Asian elephants destroying crops and damaging houses along the way, disrupting the normal order of human life and production, and causing huge losses to the areas along the way, still exists.
In addition, the foraging behavior of birds during migration can also lead to human-animal conflicts. For example, the conflict between the Oriental White Stork and the owner of the fish pond in Tianjin on the migratory route. Tianjin is located in the northeast of the North China Plain and the lower reaches of the Haihe River Basin, and has a large number of rich wetland resources, which are important refueling stations on the eastern route of the global migratory bird flyway (East Asia to Australasia), providing key energy supply and security for more than 100,000 migratory birds every year, including the Oriental White Stork, a national first-class protected animal. At the same time, Tianjin has developed fishery resources and is an important fishery production area in the north. According to the research of the staff and volunteers of the Green Society, as a large wading bird, the Oriental White Stork eats a large amount of food every day, and has to eat about three catties of small fish, and flocks of Oriental White Stork come to the private fish pond to eat, which will bring greater economic losses to the fish pond owner, so although many fishermen know that this is a protected species and cannot be hunted, they will still set off firecrackers to drive it away.
(3) Human-animal conflicts caused by overlapping activity areas and unreasonable response measures;
On the one hand, the increase of population and the rapid advancement of urbanization, along with the continuous expansion of planting and domestication, have caused human activities to squeeze the habitat environment of wild animals, and the areas of human activities and wild animals have also been approaching or even overlapping, such as in the grasslands where humans and wild animals live together. On the other hand, the construction of nature reserves, forest parks, national parks and other nature reserves has been strengthened, and wildlife populations have been restored. Both of these aspects increase the frequency of human-animal conflicts.
Take the snow leopard, for example. China's snow leopard habitat area and population account for more than 60% of the world's total, and play an important and irreplaceable role in the protection of snow leopards, and the Altai Mountains, Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Altun Mountains, Karakoram Mountains and the Pamir Plateau in Xinjiang provide a good living environment for snow leopards and their prey, making Xinjiang an important snow leopard distribution area in China. As the apex predator of the highland ecosystem, the snow leopard generally preys on wild ungulate mammals such as ibex and rock goat, and occasionally on small mammals such as marmots and plateau rabbits. In addition to predation in the wild, snow leopards sometimes prey on domestic animals such as sheep and cattle raised by herders. Livestock are preyed upon by snow leopards, which is a huge loss for herders. To reduce this loss, herders hunt or poison the snow leopards in retaliation. This is the direct cause of the conflict between the local people and the beasts.
In addition, human-animal conflict can also take the form of organized and planned large-scale extermination by humans. For example, in March 2022, in order to control the grassland rodent infestation and ensure the forage of livestock**, in Shiqu County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, tens of thousands of cadres and masses jointly "started" the spring grassland rodent extermination conference - "The rodent extermination activity will last for a week, and will be carried out simultaneously in six townships and towns in the county, including Sexu Town, Xizha Town, and Derongma Township, and it is expected to put more than 69,000 kilograms of rodent poison bait, and the rodent extermination area will reach 1380,000 acres. "It is estimated that 80,000 plateau pikas can be eliminated and 200,000 kilograms ......of forage can be increased”2]
The occurrence of human-animal conflict often exacerbates the tension between humans and wildlife, and if it is not properly managed for a long time, it may lead to threats to human safety and damage to property, and then cause people in damaged areas in conflict areas to take inappropriate ways to attack and retaliate against wild animals in order to defend themselves, and on the other hand, it is also easy to have a destructive impact on local ecosystems and biodiversity. For example, this large-scale grassland rodent eradication activity, although it is to control the rodent infestation, but the plateau pika itself is also an organic part of the local natural ecosystem, and there are complex reasons behind the excessive number caused by their mass reproduction, and the way of exterminating a large number of chemical agents will also pose a threat to local biodiversity, and may even be overkill, causing some wild animals such as foxes, wolves, brown bears, etc., which feed on pikas to forage in human settlements due to lack of food.
(4) Alien species, climate change, etc., causing human-animal conflicts.
The main situations and cases of human-animal conflict in the above three aspects are relatively intuitive and visible, and the other kind of human-animal conflict that needs to be vigilant is indirect or more hidden. For example, the invasion of alien species is often triggered by human factors, which has an impact on the ecosystem and then brings harm to human production and life.
In 2022, the practice of draining the lake in Ruzhou, Henan Province, in order to capture two alligator gars, once caused heated discussions in the society. The alligator gar is an alien species native to North America, and can swallow air into the swim bladder in an oxygen-deficient environment, so it can survive on land for a short time, and the alligator gar growing in the wild can grow up to about 3 meters. The alligator gar feeds mainly on other fish and is ferocious by nature, and if it is not curbed by natural predators, there are few other fish in the waters where the alligator gar lives, which will also pose a serious threat to fishery production. In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other relevant departments issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Work Plan for the Prevention and Control of Invasive Alien Species, conducting a nationwide survey of 10 major alien aquatic organisms, including the alligator gar.
On 4 September 2023, an important statement on invasive alien species assessment released by the Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) identified two important statuses: invasive alien species play a key role in global plant and animal extinctions, accounting for up to 60%; The annual cost of invasive alien species has exceeded $423 billion, and the cost has more than quadrupled every decade since 1970. [3]
In particular, many invasive alien species are caused by human activities, such as the boom in the exotic pet breeding industry, which has led to the spread of many species from other places (including abroad) to other regions through market transactions, and after being discarded or released into the wild, they are harmed by the lack of natural enemies (such as alligator gars) or super reproductive ability (such as Brazilian tortoises). Invasive alien species can have a negative impact on the quality of human life, for example, by destroying food** and can also become a spreader of a disease or virus. This is also a manifestation of the conflict between man and beast.
In addition, the impacts of climate change (e.g., increasing severity and frequent droughts in some places) can also lead to changes in the habits, reproductive status or habitat extent of some species, which can have an impact on previously stable ecosystems. For example, the locust plague caused by a severe drought in southern Africa in 2019. The hot and rainy weather has expanded the locust's spawning grounds and allowed the locusts to grow rapidly, and the local vegetation in Africa is scarce, and the locusts soon began to migrate intercontinentally, flying over the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, ravaging more than 20 countries, including Pakistan and India, bringing serious harm to local agriculture and endangering global food security.
Human-animal conflict caused by these two factors has also exacerbated the deterioration of global biodiversity. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (the Kunming-Montreal Framework) also explicitly states that "...The direct drivers of natural change with the greatest global impacts are (in descending order from the most impactful) changes in land and sea use, direct use of living organisms, climate change, pollution and invasive alien species. ”
2. Suggestions for alleviating human-animal conflicts
Biodiversity is the foundation of sustainable human development. Alleviating human-animal conflict is of great significance for biodiversity conservation and harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
The IUCN Species Survival Committee (SSC) Guidelines on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence released in 2023 explore the ways of human-wildlife coexistence with the theme of human-wildlife conflict, and summarize the main characteristics of human-wildlife conflict into three aspects, namely: (1) direct and frequent interaction between humans and wildlife; (2) almost always due to human social conflicts over wildlife management; and (3) often involve the negative impacts of protected species on human well-being. [4] These three aspects are basically consistent with the main causes and manifestations of human-animal conflict listed above in this article.
Although human-animal conflict can cause damage to human life and property, on the whole, wildlife is in a vulnerable and passive state. The main reasons for the conflict are the expansion of human production and business activities and the invasion and destruction of wildlife habitats, and in the series of tough or mild measures taken by humans to deal with the conflict, wild animals can only be passively accepted.
Globally, conflict-induced killings affect more than 75% of the world's wild cats, as well as other terrestrial and marine carnivore species, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) et al. 2021 report, A Future for All – The Need for Humans and Wildlife to Coexist. [5] This is also an obstacle to global coordination of biodiversity conservation.
Although it is impossible to completely eliminate the conflict between humans and wild animals, positive measures can be taken to reduce and reduce the occurrence of such conflicts, so that they can become an organic component and positive factor in the construction of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. This paper argues that human-animal conflict can be alleviated from the following aspects.
(1) "Conservation of Neighborhood Biodiversity."bconThe concept is to promote urbanization construction under the guidance of the guide.
Proposed by Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the China Green Development Association, Neighborhood Biodiversity Conservation was selected as one of the top 50 solutions in the world by the Paris Peace Forum in 2023 and one of the seven solutions in the field of biodiversity. The concept aims to reduce the biodiversity footprint and carry out nature conservation in people's daily production and life, and attach importance to and emphasize that in population gathering areas, in the case of incomplete protection of nature, try to reduce the intrusion and disturbance of wild animals, help wildlife survive and develop, and coordinate sustainable livelihoods.
Urbanization is a global development trend, and the process of urbanization will inevitably have a significant impact on all dimensions of biodiversity, and will further increase the overlap and contact density between human activities and wildlife in the activity area. There are also clear cases in this regard. According to a case published by the Oceans & Wetlands platform, Ontario** plans to change land in Ontario's green belt to develop real estate, 50,000 new homes to be exact. This green belt is a comprehensive protected area of farmland, forests, wetlands and river basins, and is home to 78 endangered species. Clearly, if the plan does not take into account neighbourhood biodiversity, it will have a very negative impact on local wildlife habitat. For example, Wang Yanjing's ecological farm in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, attaches great importance to restoring the natural balance of the ecosystem with the help of natural forces, no longer relying on pesticides and fertilizers to ensure yields, but improving soil health and improving the adaptability of soil and crops by using the power of natural ecosystems. This farming method also allows the organisms on this soil to be more effectively guaranteed, forming a biological chain that maintains health constraints between each other, which will play a positive role in preventing the outbreak of pests and diseases in the farmland. [6]
In the process of urbanization, emphasizing the conservation of neighborhood biodiversity is of great significance to alleviate human-animal conflict and realize the coordinated development of economic development and ecological protection.
(2) Strengthen the construction of ecological corridors and long-term planning;
Ecological corridors can help link fragmented habitats, broaden the potential activity space and migration paths of wild animals, and effectively ensure the foraging range and mating behavior, thereby reducing the infiltration or passing of wild animals into human living areas and reducing human-animal conflicts.
For example, as the Asian elephant population grows under policy protection, the connectivity between its habitats in Xishuangbanna is particularly important. The establishment of ecological corridors for Asian elephants between different nature reserves can help reduce the movement of Asian elephants to human production areas, help alleviate human-elephant conflict, and also help promote genetic exchange between different populations of elephants.
In addition, long-term strategies and plans, such as land use planning, planting structure and industrial structure adjustment, are also important aspects of alleviating human-animal conflicts. Taking the northward migration of Asian elephants in Yunnan as an example, some experts believe that in the past two or three decades, Xishuangbanna has planted a large area of rubber trees, tea trees and other cash crops, resulting in large areas of rubber forests encroaching on the original natural forests and even tropical rainforests. This reduces elephants' access to food in protected areas or habitats, while elephant populations continue to increase and human-animal conflict leads to migration to forage for food or find suitable habitats for adequate food. The relationship between grassland carrying rate and livestock stock and wildlife in this situation also needs to be considered in terms of industrial structure and scale, so as to reduce the intensity of livestock competition for grassland and ensure the sustainable productivity of grasslands.
(3) Attach importance to the important role of traditional cultural practices in ecological protection;
The conflict between humans and wildlife has existed since ancient times. In primitive societies, people who live by fishing and hunting and wild animals have a relationship between hunting and being hunted; In agrarian societies, the contact between agricultural planting area and wildlife habitats will lead to human-animal conflicts, but due to the low social productivity, they are basically in a state of equilibrium. With the rapid development of modern industrialization, human beings have greatly improved their ability to obtain and utilize natural resources, and the resulting problems such as forest reduction, water depletion, and marine pollution have reduced or destroyed the traditional habitats of wild animals and become more and more serious, and human-animal conflicts have become increasingly serious. As described in "Wolf Totem", the conflict between humans and wolves and the impact of modern agricultural production on the survival of steppe wolves.
In fact, China's traditional culture and ethnic minority areas all have the concept and custom of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. For example, in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, the Dai people are the main ethnic group in the area, and the whole people believe in primitive polytheism, believing that their ancestors came from the forest, and that the souls of people must return to the places where their ancestors lived after death. Therefore, in the vicinity of their villages and Jianmeng (tribes), they should choose a forest, build "Zhai God Forest" and "Mengshen Forest", and worship ceremoniously every year. Therefore, all the flora and fauna, land, and water sources in the "Ryulin Forest" are sacrosanct, and it is strictly forbidden to cut down, gather, hunt, and reclaim, and even the dead branches and leaves in the forest must be allowed to rot. Nearby villages and other ethnic groups are also forbidden to hunt and dig in the "Ryulin". Therefore, "Ryu Forest" is a small nature reserve (point) protected by the religious beliefs of the Dai people and the township rules and regulations in history. The existence of the Ryu Forest plays a positive role in protecting the "tropical monsoon forest" distributed in the upper layer of the tropical forest, and also provides shelter for the wildlife that inhabits it. [7]
Human-wildlife conflict is a complex issue of "nature-society-culture" interconnectedness [8]. At present, it is relatively easy for people to recognize human-animal conflict from the natural and physical levels, but further attention needs to be paid to the social and cultural level, especially in giving full play to the excellent traditional culture and customs of indigenous peoples to alleviate human-animal conflict. This is also in line with the Kun-Mongol Framework's Goal 5 to "respect and protect customary sustainable use by indigenous peoples and local communities".
(4) Strengthen science popularization and education, and improve citizens' scientific literacy on biodiversity conservation.
The improvement of public awareness of biodiversity conservation will help regional biodiversity conservation measures and human-animal conflict mitigation measures to be more effectively promoted and implemented.
According to the survey of "Research on the Status and Management of Human-Wolf Conflict in Zoige", as one of the three major wetlands in China, Zoige Wetland has a wide distribution of wetlands and grasslands, rich biodiversity and developed animal husbandry, but in recent years, the incident of wolves (canis lupus) killing livestock has also led to tension between local people and animals. The research project's questionnaire on 83 administrative villages in 13 townships and towns in Zoige County showed that the majority of respondents (669%) believe that the number of wild wolves in Zoige County has increased in the past five years; But for wolves, the vast majority of herders (850%) prefer financial compensation or eviction measures, and only a few herders (94%) want to take measures to kill them; Among the factors influencing herders' preference for wolf accident management measures, education level, age, ethnicity and the number of killed livestock had a significant effect. [9]
The improvement of the scientific quality of biodiversity conservation can help people correctly understand the complex and close relationship between natural elements such as humans and wild animals, wild animals and plants, animals and plants, and water, air, and soil, so that they can correctly and comprehensively understand the direct or indirect impact of human behavior on wild animals, as well as the underlying reasons behind the formulation and implementation of relevant national policies, which will help fully mobilize the public to accept and adopt a more scientific way to alleviate human-animal conflicts. It is of great significance to help national and regional human-animal conflict response measures to be more systematic and in-depth.
ThreeConclusion
A good coexistence between humans and wildlife is an important part of building a harmonious social environment between man and nature. All in all, human-animal conflicts are complex, diverse and dynamic, and differences in wildlife species, geographical environment, cultural traditions, production and management methods, etc., will form different types of human-animal conflicts. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to all types of human-animal conflicts, and finding appropriate and feasible solutions requires a case-by-case analysis of specific problems, as well as an assessment and adjustment of solutions in light of the dynamics of conflicts, while paying attention to the initiative of local residents and developing long-term resolution mechanisms.
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Text: Wang Jing, Wang Xiaoqiong, Wang Qianqian, Zhou Jinfeng, Review: Sherry
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