Mapping human‒wildlife conflict hotspots in a transboundary landscape, Eastern Himalaya

Global Ecology and Conservation

Kabir Uddin¹  Tandin Tandin²  Kailash Singh Gaira²  Khadga Basnet²  Prashanti Sharma³  Nakul Chettri³  Rajesh Joshi³  Yadav Uprety³  Kesang Wangchuk³  Namgay Wangchuk³  Aseesh Pandey⁴  Vishwas Sudhir Chitale⁴  Tashi Dorji⁴  Sonam Wangdi⁵  Eklabya Sharma⁵ 

[1] Corresponding author. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, GPO Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal.;G B Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment (NIHE), Sikkim Regional Centre, Gangtok, India;International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal;Nature Conservation Division, Department of Forests and Park Services, Thimphu, Bhutan;Research Centre for Applied Science and Technology (RECAST), Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal;

关键词: Maximum entropy;    Geographic information system;    Anthropogenic factors;    Kangchenjunga landscape;    Climate change;    human‒wildlife conflict;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The Kangchenjunga Landscape, an important repository of biodiversity, faces several challenges owing to various drivers of change. Human‒wildlife conflict (HWC) is one of such issue that transcends social, economic, environmental, as well as national and international borders among the three participating countries – Bhutan, India, and Nepal – making it a complex, transboundary issue. Based on the existing literature, earth observation data, and geographic information system, we used maximum entropy along with relevant environmental predictor variables to model and map HWC hotspots. The results suggested that about 19 per cent of the area within the landscape is at high risk of human‒wildlife conflict, with an anthropogenic factor ‒ distance to roads ‒ as the top predictor. Some protected areas are at higher risk than others. The Himalayan subtropical pine forest ecoregion is a high HWC zone (~63 per cent), followed by the Terai‒Duars savannah and grasslands ecoregion (~43 per cent). They also revealed that the low- and mid-elevation zones are prone to conflict due to greater forest fragmentation; patchy protected areas are disconnected from each other, and not big enough for large mammals like elephants and tigers. Human-wildlife conflict is observed to vary across different elevation and climate region of the landscape and highly correlated with forest fragmentation of the midhills. Hence, a holistic approach at the landscape level is needed for tackling human‒wildlife conflict. Connecting good habitats by restoring fragmented inter and intra-country areas would be an effective measure to mitigate human‒wildlife conflict.

【 授权许可】

Unknown