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Crop raiding by wild boars is a growing problem worldwide with potentially damaging consequences for rural dwellers’ cooperation with conservation policies. Still, limited resources inhibit continuous monitoring, and there is uncertainty about the relationship between the biophysical realities of crop raiding and humans’ perceptions and responses. By integrating data from camera traps, remote sensors, and household surveys, this study establishes an empirical model of wild boar population density that can be applied to multiple years to estimate changes in distribution over time. It also correlates historical estimates of boar population distribution with human-reported trends to support the model’s validity and assess local perceptions of crop raiding. Although the model proved useful in coniferous and bamboo forests, it is less useful in mixed broadleaf, evergreen broadleaf, and deciduous forests. Results also show alignment between perceptions of crop raiding and actual boar populations, corroborating farmers’ perceptions which are increasingly dismissed as a less reliable source of information in human–wildlife conflict research. The modeling techniques demonstrated here may provide conservation practitioners with a cost-effective way to maintain up-to-date estimates of the spatial distribution of wild boar and resultant crop raiding.
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Crop-raiding by wildlife and cropland abandonment as feedback from nature-based solutions: lessons from case studies in China and Nepal
Abstract Conservation efforts under the nature-based solutions (NbS) framework aim at better management of ecosystems and improvement of human well-being. Policies targeting forest-based livelihoods align well with the NbS principles, but their social-ecological outcomes are often confounded by complex human-environment interactions. In this study, we identify one major feedback effect of the ecosystem dynamic on people’s livelihoods based on datasets collected from two study areas in China and Nepal. Our methodology integrates satellite remote sensing, household surveys, and statistical models to investigate households’ cropland abandonment decisions under the influence of crop-raiding by wildlife. Results show that cropland parcels that have experienced crop-raiding are more likely to be abandoned in the following years. The more damage the crops have suffered on a given parcel, the more likely it is that the parcel will be abandoned. Parcels in proximity to natural forests, farther away from the house location, and with poorer access to paved roads bear a higher risk of being abandoned. These effects are robust and consistent after controlling for multiple parcel features and household characteristics at different levels and using the dataset from each study area separately. We conclude that policymakers need to consider this undesirable feedback of the ecological system to the livelihoods of local people to better achieve co-benefits for ecosystems and human society.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2108238
- PAR ID:
- 10554305
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research Letters
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 1748-9326
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 124029
- Size(s):
- Article No. 124029
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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