1. Globally, large terrestrial carnivores (Carnivora) have suffered precipitous declines in population and range. Today, they must persist in increasingly isolated natural habitat patches within a human-dominated matrix. Effective conservation aimed at supporting carnivores in such landscapes requires species-specific understanding of habitat requirements. 2. We present results from a review of the published literature to assess the current state of knowledge regarding habitat preferences of the African lion Panthera leo, with the aim of identifying common drivers of habitat use across contexts. 3. Using the Web of Science, we identified 154 usable articles and extracted information relating to study topic, location, habitats described, land-use type, and any documented habitat preferences. 4. Only 31 studies documented evidence of habitat use, and collectively, they suggested that preferences for specific habitat types were varied and contextspecific. The importance of prey abundance and proximity to water was highlighted in multiple studies. Anthropogenic factors interfered with expected patterns of habitat use. There was evident bias in study locations: 83% of the habitat-use studies were based in only three countries, and 70% were focussed on protected or managed areas. 5. Our synthesis suggests that lions demonstrate behavioural plasticity in habitat use in response to anthropogenic pressures. To understand the limits of this plasticity and to manage Africa's changing landscapes effectively for roaming lions, future research should be focussed on analysis of habitat use outside protected areas, taking into account gradients of distance to water, prey abundance, and anthropogenic risk.

1. Reconciling conflicts between wildlife conservation and other human activities is a pervasive, multifaceted issue. Large carnivores, such as the African lion Panthera leo are often the focus of such conflicts as they have significant ecological and cultural value but impose severe social and financial costs on the communities that live alongside them. 2. To effectively manage human-lion conflict, it is vital to understand stakeholder decision-making and preferences regarding mitigation techniques and coexistence strategies.3. We used a novel experimental game framed around lions and livestock protection, played across eight villages in Tanzania, to examine stakeholder behaviour in response to three incentive structures: support for non-lethal scaring, and individual-and community-level subsidies for provision of wildlife habitat. 4. We found that non-lethal deterrent methods were the preferred mitigation strategy and that individual subsidies most increased the provision of wildlife habitat. Subsidies that were conditional on other community members' decisions were less effective at increasing habitat choices. Player characteristics and attitudes appeared to have little influence on game behaviour. However, there was some evidence that gender, wealth, perceptions of respect, and the behaviour of other players affected decision-making.5. Achieving success in managing conservation conflicts requires genuine stakeholder participation leading to mutually beneficial results. Our findings suggest that, while incentive-based instruments can promote pro-conservation behaviour, these may be more effective when targeted at individuals rather than groups. We demonstrate how experimental games offer a practical and

Paying resource users to preserve features of their environment could in theory better align production and conservation goals. We show, however, that across a range of conservation dilemmas, they might not. We conduct a synthesis of dynamic games experiments built around collective action dilemmas in conservation, played across Europe, Africa, and Asia. We find, across this range of dilemmas, that while payments can encourage pro-conservation behavior, they often fail to capitalize on the potential for jointly improving productive and environmental outcomes, highlighting the more nuanced challenge of reconciling livelihoods with conservation goals. We further find production (yield) and the joint production-environment product (i.e., a measure of agricultural production multiplied by a measure of pro-conservation practice) are better preserved in groups that are more educated, more gender diverse and that better represent women. We discuss how the design of incentive programs can better align livelihood and environment goals.