IUCN SSC Guidelines

on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence

What are IUCN Guidelines?

The IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. Their guidelines publications are globally relevant reference documents which provide those working in conservation and related sectors with practical strategies to address key conservation issues. Each Guidelines document is compiled by leading experts for the given field and they are widely acknowledged as representing the current best practice in conservation action.

What are the Guidelines on Understanding and Managing Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence?

Human-Wildlife Conflict is a global conservation and development issue of growing concern affecting a wide range of peoples and terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. It is described by the IUCN Human-Wildlife Conflict Task Force as the struggles that emerge when the presence or behaviour of wildlife poses actual or perceived, direct and recurring threat to human interests or needs, leading to disagreements between groups of people and negative impacts on people and/or wildlife. Extensive efforts to understand and manage human-wildlife conflicts have revealed that these situations tend to be complex, dynamic and multi-layered and, consequently, that effective, practical methods for preventing the impacts of wildlife on people and their livelihoods (such as livestock predation or crop raiding), as well those which reduce retaliatory or preventive persecution of wildlife by people, can be hard to find.

To support efforts to reduce human-wildlife conflicts worldwide, the IUCN SSC Guidelines on Understanding and Managing Human-Wildlife Conflict are currently being written by the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict Task Force. The Guidelines will synthesise the current knowledge on how best to understand and reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Importantly, they will take an interdisciplinary perspective, outlining the necessity of exploring and addressing both the human- and wildlife-related aspects of human-wildlife conflicts. The guidance presented will be global in scope and applicable across diverse human-wildlife conflict contexts, providing conservationists (and other groups working to address human-wildlife conflict) with the approaches and tools needed to find long-term solutions.

Contents of the Guidelines on Understanding and Managing Human-Wildlife Conflicts

The Fundamentals of Human-Wildlife Conflict

The complexities and levels of conflict
Stakeholders and Underlying Issues (who is involved?)
Physical and natural drivers (when and where do HWCs occur?)
The Conservationist’s Role in HWCs

Understanding Human-Wildlife Conflicts

Assessing the direct and indirect impacts of living with wildlife
Perspectives from animal behaviour and behavioural ecology
Understanding livelihoods, poverty and wellbeing
Governance and how it affects HWC
Legal frameworks and HWC
The political ecology of HWC
The cultural component of HWC
HWC Histories
The role of traditional and indigenous knowledge in HWC
Key concepts from social psychology

Planning

When to act
Theory of change and planning action
Designing stakeholder processes
Community engagement
Social research methods for HWC
Spatial and ecological research methods for HWC
Avoiding unintended outcomes of interventions
Designing HWC management plans
Monitoring and evaluation

Action: Addressing Human-Wildlife Conflicts

Spatial and landscape planning
Damage reduction techniques
Animal behaviour interventions
Lethal control instruments
Capture and translocation
HWC response teams
Financial instruments: compensation, insurance and others
Behaviour change and social marketing
Working with the media
Implementing Stakeholder processes
Policy and governance instruments
Working with traditional knowledge to resolve HWC
Improving livelihoods and benefits from conservation
Conflict resolution: working with difficult/intractable conflicts

Resources

An overview of further resources and networks
Advice for funding applications for HWC projects