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 58: Creating a Future for Clouded Leopards with Chrishen Gomez, DPhil Student, WildCRU, University of Oxford
Episode 57: Exploring the Conservation of Borneo’s Primates and Felines with Susan Cheyne, Borneo Nature Foundation International
Episode 56: Safeguarding the Mammals of the Eastern Ghats with Dr. Vikram Aditya, Principal Scientist at the Centre for Wildlife Studies
Episode 55: Reviving India’s Seagrass Meadows for Dugong Conservation with Elrika D’Souza from Nature Conservation Foundation
Episode 54: Creating an Encyclopedia of India’s Wildlife with RoundGlass Sustain
Episode 53: Bringing back the Markhor with Tanushree Srivastava from Wildlife Trust of India
Episode 52: Understanding Amphibian Conservation and the IUCN Red List with Dr. Sanjay Molur, Founder of Zoo Outreach Organization
Episode 51: Conserving India’s Wildlife through Nature Writing with Neha Sinha
Episode 50: Tackling human-wildlife conflict in the Western Ghats with Dr. Sanjay Gubbi, Wildlife Biologist
Episode 49: Conserving Gujarat’s Sloth Bears with Nishith Dharaiya, Founder of WCB Research Foundation
Episode 47: Rewilding Scotland with Peter Cairns, Executive Director, SCOTLAND: The Big Picture
Episode 46: Protecting Rainforests with Bioacoustics and Artifical Intelligence with Bourhan Yassin, Founder of Rainforest Connection
Episode 45: Uncovering India’s Free Ranging Dog Problem with Chandrima Home
Episode 44: Saving Gorillas, Elephants and Marine Turtles with Adam Henson, Wild Earth Allies
Episode 43: Protecting Asia's Rhinos with Markus Hofmeyr, Director of the Rhino Recovery Fund
Episode 42: Conserving Arctic's Polar Bear with Krista Wright, Executive Director, Polar Bears International
Episode 41: Painting a Bright Future for Africa's Wild Dogs with Gregory Rasmussen, Founder of Painted Dog Research Trust
Episode 40: How do we restore the world's forests?
Episode 39: Creating a future for the Iranian Cheetah with Morteza Pourmirzai, CEO at Iranian Cheetah Society
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