Towards coexistence: Can people's attitudes explain their willingness to live with Sumatran elephants in Indonesia?

Abstract

Understanding coexistence between humans and threatened wildlife is a central focus in conservation. Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra Island, Indonesia, harbors one of the largest populations of the critically endangered Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus). The people who live alongside this population are affected by intensive crop foraging. Our study investigated the factors which influenced attitudes toward elephants. We then evaluated the implications of reported attitudes for future willingness to live with elephants. We surveyed 660 respondents in 22 villages around the park. People generally reported positive attitudes toward elephants (smartness 95%, usefulness 62%, importance 57%, and pleasantness 53%), apart from where human safety was concerned (safety 11%). Each dimension of attitude was explained by different factors including age, gender, knowledge of elephants, and distance to crop foraging locations. Most respondents (62%) expressed no willingness to coexist with elephants. Such willingness was lower when elephants were perceived to be more dangerous, but higher if beliefs in the benefits of elephants were greater. Efforts to improve crop foraging mitigation practice and to increase people's awareness of elephant benefits may promote support for their conservation. Through this study, we advocate the integration of social science to promote human-wildlife coexistence strategies, an approach that is currently limited in Indonesia.

Identifying the potential for sustainable human–wildlife coexistence by integrating willingness to coexist with habitat suitability models

“…Compared to elephants, willingness-to-coexist with rhinos was higher and closer to the notional attitudes toward rhinos. The threat to their lives people perceived from living with elephants was the main factor reducing willingness-to-coexist, which is consistent with results reported for Asian elephants (Ardiantiono et al, 2021). This suggests that perceived threats to human life (Dickman, 2010; Zimmermann et al, 2020), can potentially serve as a proxy for willingness-to-coexist in spatial planning, and that targeted conservation interventions addressing this perception of risk can enhance overall potential for sustainable coexistence.…”

“…Cretois et al 2021) thus limits the practicability of potential conservation interventions. In addition to the assessments of wildlife needs and constraints, it is therefore necessary to incorporate the perpectives of the people coexisting with wildlife into conservation research and policies (Ardiantiono et al, 2021; Bruskotter & Wilson, 2014; Frank & Glikman, 2003; St John et al, 2010).…”

Can Humans and Elephants Coexist? A Review of the Conflict on Sumatra Island, Indonesia

“…Most people around elephant habitats have considered elephants as pests, aggressive and dangerous wildlife [70]. For instance, most people around Way Kambas National Park have no willingness to coexist with elephants [27]. Negative perception towards elephants is mainly driven by community economic conditions where most of the communities living around the elephant habitat live in poverty [70].…”

“…A proposed concept to reduce HEC is to create a harmonious coexistence between humans and elephants. To develop a harmonious coexistence, it is important to consider elephant ecology, the basic needs of and the interactions between humans and elephants, and existing regulations [26][27][28]. In this study, we reviewed and collected information on elephant bio-ecology, the main driver of HEC, and the impact of HEC on both humans and elephants.…”

Megafauna extinctions produce idiosyncratic Anthropocene assemblages

“…Southeast Asia is an ideal setting to study dynamic conservation threats because it retains high megafauna diversity yet suffers from extreme deforestation and poaching and has the highest percentage of threatened megafauna globally (4,17). While it is often assumed or argued that extant megafauna remains largely confined to remote areas characterized by intact forests and minimal anthropogenic pressure (2,3), there are numerous Southeast Asian examples of small protected areas near human settlements that retain high megafauna richness (18)(19)(20). The region also has a unique geological, climatic, and anthropogenic history that includes the Quaternary period's largest volcanic super-eruption [Toba Caldera Complex ~75,000 years ago (21)], several dramatic changes in sea level that connected and separated Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula as recently as ~10,000 years ago (8,9), and more than 60,000 years of continued human existence, including the earliest pronounced human population expansion outside Africa (22).…”