Over the last few years, the world has celebrated the recovery of various species of large carnivores from the cusps of extinction. This includes the brown bears and gray wolves of North America and Europe, the tigers of South Asia, and the lions and leopards of Africa and Asia. However, much of this recovery has occurred despite rampant habitat fragmentation and degradation.
As large carnivores require large territories with an abundance of prey, habitat fragmentation has resulted in significant overlap of the range of large predators and rural communities. With increasing overlapping ranges, human-carnivore conflict is inevitable. Carnivores are more like to predate upon livestock, which results in huge financial losses for the affected rural communities. In retaliation, large carnivores are often murdered by these communities. It is therefore critical to foster human-wildlife coexistence by socially and financially uplifting the communities living with wildlife. This can be in the form of alternative livelihood projects, such as wildlife ecotourism, and utilizing tourism revenue for community development.
In this interview, I speak to Dr. Andrew Stein who has extensively studied human carnivore conflict in Africa. He is also the founder of CLAW Conservancies and is working on coexistence projects, involving lions, leopards, and wolves. Tune in to learn more!
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Episode 48: The Growing Challenges of Human Carnivore Conflict with Dr. Andrew Stein, Founder and Director of CLAW Conservancies