ECOS 43 (3.3.1)- Living with Tigers- Coexistence with large carnivores

Authors: Hannah L Timmins, Sue Stolton, Nigel Dudley, Smriti Dahal and Mike Belecky

Suggested citation: Timmins, Hannah et al. “ECOS 43 (3.3.1)- Living with Tigers- Coexistence with large carnivores” ECOS vol. 43 (3.3.1), ECOS 43 (3.3), British Association of Nature Conservationists, www.ecos.org.uk/?p=12396.

Introduction

Our species’ relationship with large carnivores has always been complex. At our hands, most have experienced substantial population declines and range contractions.1 However, carnivores also hold an important place in our collective psyche. None more so than the tiger. Largest of the big cats; national animal of India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and South Korea; sacred in Bhutan;2 inspiration for folklore and legend from Europe to China; and featuring prominently in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Figure 1: Tiger by Kishi Ganku. 1756-1839- Kishi Ganku was a celebrated Japanese painter famous for his paintings of tigers. Image credit: Wikimedia

We have grown up with the tiger in our movies and books and adverts. But while the tiger thrived in our shared mythology, it was being decimated in the wild. By 2010, tiger populations had collapsed to about 3-4% of their populations just a century before.3 In response, the thirteen tiger range countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam) and their partners made an ambitious pledge: to increase global populations to more than 6000 by 2022 under the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP).4

The Living with Tigers report

Last year, population estimates showed a potential increase to around 4,500 individuals,5 but population gains are fragile: the species remains the world’s most threatened cat, occupying less than six per cent of its historic habitat. So, organizations supporting the GTRP show no signs of slowing down their ambition: by August 2022, analyses were being published on the potential of significantly expanding tiger range, while reconnecting fragmented tiger landscapes (Figure 2).6 That is, reverse the range decline during the next GTRP period (2023-2034), in the manner that population decline was reversed during the first period (2010-2022).

Figure 2: Current and former tiger range countries – the ecological potential for tiger recovery (reproduced in Living With Tigers). Image credit: WWF7,8

However, expanding tiger populations may not always be welcomed by people living where wild tigers roam. In an appraisal of the human side of increasing tiger populations and the expansion of the tiger range, WWF published the Living With Tigers (LWT) report in 2022.9 LWT examines how people have learned to live alongside tigers and other large cat species, to develop lessons of coexistence that can be applied and scaled across the tiger range. Other variables in coexistence are analysed in detail, for example, the role of culture and faith in shaping people’s attitudes to large predator species. The LWT report also highlights the wider benefits of tiger conservation, such as the ecosystem services that come from tiger landscapes, building on two of the authors’ previous study on the economic benefits of tiger landscapes.10 As the tiger population has increased in some areas, humans and tigers have often come into more frequent contact and another major focus of LWT is on the practical steps that can help to manage risk.

This review aims to highlight key components of the report, detail some of the case studies featured and connect these lessons to the recent ‘Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’ (GBF) decisions.

Managing Human-Tiger Conflict: A prerequisite for coexistence

It is especially impressive that whist South Asia is one of the most densely human-populated regions in the world, it has also accounted for the vast majority of the world’s tiger population increase. However, whilst enthusiasm for tiger population increase is easy for people living far from tiger habitat, 47 million people are estimated to live within the boundaries of current tiger range, over 33.8 million of these people are in India and Nepal alone (Figure 3).11 These human populations are also increasing and for many that share spaces and resources with these large carnivores, Human-Tiger Conflict (HTC) is a very real risk.

After lions and African elephant, tigers have the third highest incidence of reported conflicts.12 Conflicts can result in human death, injury, psychological or economic impacts, livestock damages, tiger mortality, removal from the wild,13 and increased negative attitude towards tigers and their conservation.

Ensuring the principles of equitability, inclusivity, and respect of local people, Target 4 of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) aims to not only conserve and recover threatened species, such as the tiger, but also to effectively manage and minimize human-wildlife conflict, placing conflict prevention and mitigation high on the agenda.

The LWT report advocates for the holistic and integrated Safe Systems Approach to HTC:

  1. Understanding the conflict – drivers, socio-ecological variables, landscape planning, habitat overlap and risk, local perceptions of the species and conflict, economic and psychological consequences etc.,
  2. HTC prevention measures – predation risk mapping, healthy tiger prey densities, predator alert systems and fencing, community conflict prevention training, local wildlife guardians and land use planning etc.
  3. Responding to HTC – Rapid Response Teams (RRTs), rapid incidence verification and compensation etc.
  4. Mitigation of HTC impacts – livelihood diversification, rigorous and fairly applied compensation and insurance payments for all HWC that are linked with good husbandry
  5. Standardised HTC monitoring across the entire tiger range to analyse patterns of HTC and the effectiveness of HTC management interventions

CASE STUDY: WildTeam’s Village Tiger Response (VTRT), Bangladesh

VTRT is an RRT established by the NGO WildTeam in 2007, in the Chandpai range of the Sundarbans, Bangladesh. VTRTs manage HTC in their respective villages and collect HTC data for WildTeam’s centralised database. They raise awareness, support compensation claims, and conduct animal rescues. Between 2007 and 2018, VTRTs helped rescue and release three tigers, and around 350 other wild animals, managed 30 stray tiger incidents and returned them to the forest, provided emergency first-aid to seven people injured by tiger attacks, recovered 27 bodies of tiger victims, conducted almost 3,000 village meetings to raise awareness on HTC management and helped the Forest Department and firefighters in 12 fire incidents. The success of the initial two teams has led to establishment of a further 47 teams covering 80 per cent of the border villages in the four ranges of the Sundarbans. The teams now consist of 340 volunteers incentivized by the social status they receive from being on the teams and the active role they play in conservation and responding to conflict.14

Figure 3: Human population densities across the tiger range (prepared for the LWT report). Image credit: WWF15

The LWT report also analysed a number of other variables for HTC frequency, severity and impact that may forecast future challenges: whilst rural depopulation may increase tiger habitat, increased food demands, agricultural expansion and urbanization will reduce it. Road density increases and climate change will likely diminish habitat quality and bring tigers more frequently into human areas as they search for depleting resources. Culture, views and ambitions of communities living with tigers are also dynamic and should be taken into account. In short, we cannot assume tolerance for tigers and other carnivores is linear; an increase in conflict can reverse goodwill that has been carefully built up over a long period. Thus, action should be taken to manage conflict throughout the tiger range overlapping with people.

Ensuring benefits flow to local people

The growing tiger population and efforts to increase tiger populations in densely populated areas of Nepal and India,16 and reintroduce tigers in countries such as Kazakhstan17 and Cambodia,18 may not be welcomed locally. However, LWT warns against an exclusive focus on negative conflict which may miss the positive benefits and opportunities of tiger presence for local people. Ensuring these benefits outweigh the costs is essential for coexistence.

The concept of coexistence is growing in recognition and describes a dynamic state in which the interests and needs of both humans and wildlife are generally met and although there may be some level of impacts to both, coexistence is characterised by tolerance on the human side.19 Mutual benefits for both tigers and people, ensuring that the people sharing a landscape with tigers are not disproportionately bearing conservation costs, will be key for ensuring coexistence. These benefits could be in the form of jobs, tourism,20 sustainable business support or even direct payments for coexistence.

Case Study: Payments for coexistence in Lion Landscapes, Tanzania

The pastoralists of Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, share the landscape with multiple carnivores. The Ruaha Carnivore Project initiated a community trapping programme,21 through which community trap officers, typically ex-poachers with strong expertise on wildlife presence, are trained and paid to manage the camera traps. Every image of a wild animal captured generates a certain number of points based on conflict risk and species conservation status (e.g., dikdik = 1,000pts, lion = 15,000pts, African wild dog = 20,000pts).

The 21 participating villages compete for wildlife points and every quarter a winner holds a celebration known as ‘Sherehe’ and the benefits are distributed. The winning village receives US$2,000 worth of community benefits (split between their top priorities: healthcare, vet medicines, and education). Second place gets US$1,500, third US$1,000 and fourth US$500.

This programme provides data on wildlife populations, engages communities, generates conservation and human benefits and has now led to community-conservation initiatives such as putting local bans on lion and elephant hunting.22 However, it is important to note that this programme depends on reliable external funding sources which may not be available in other carnivore landscapes.

The LWT report details a further five payments for coexistence programmes and teases out key lessons from each.

Figure 4: A lioness resting after a hunt, East Africa. Image credit: Jack Hewson

Integrating communities into tiger conservation planning

A 2018 protected area management effectiveness survey found that management related to community issues was weak across the whole tiger range and less than 30 per cent of sites had involved stakeholders on management planning.23 And according to some metrics human rights in tiger range countries have collectively regressed between 2010-2021.24

Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs) are going to be critical in achieving the GBF’s Target 3 and in order to ensure the expansion of protected and conserved areas is equitable and inclusive, such groups need to be supported and empowered.

The LWT report advocates for governments accelerating the formal recognition of ICCAs where they are already delineated by communities and building the enabling conditions for interested communities to establish new conservation areas, particularly in areas that have tigers, or the potential for their reestablishment. Progress could lead to significant connectivity gains for tigers in important landscapes outside the traditional protected areas system.

Case Study: Devolving conservation to Indigenous people, India

In 2014, nine Vazachal Indigenous settlements received titles for a joint Community Forest Resource area (CFR) under India’s Forest Rights Act.25 The Vazachal CFR stretches across 400 km2,includes all nine settlements and the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, and, as the first CFR to be recognised in Kerala State, constituted a major devolution of power and resources from the Forest Department to local people.26

Together these settlements have formed the Vazhachal CFR Coordination Sangham (VCFRCS) to manage the area for conservation and sustainable use in coordination with the Forest Department.27 All members of the settlements have equal rights to the CFR and all adult members from the settlements are members of the VCFRCS. In recent years, the VCFRCS has been fighting a proposed hydro-electric project which would submerge 104 ha of forest and displace Kadar communities from their traditional lands. In 2021, the hydro plans were withdrawn,28 demonstrating the effectiveness of local communities in protecting and managing their forests and biodiversity when supported legally.

Lessons for the future conservation of tigers

On December 19th, Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the GBF, including 23 targets for achievement by 2030. Target 4 explicitly aims to recover threatened species whilst minimizing human-wildlife conflict. Target 3 pertains to protecting and conserving 30 per cent of the planet by 2030 through, among other qualifiers, well-connected systems of equitable and inclusive protected and conserved areas.

The LWT report maps out how large carnivore recovery can occur equitably and inclusively. Standard setting systems like Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) are working across many tiger landscapes to help implement better, more equitable and inclusive management and governance.29 This is an area which needs far more attention: if we are to succeed in further tiger population and range increases, it will be through promoting coexistence: ensuring local conservation movements are supported, people’s rights are respected, local people are benefiting from the presence of tigers, and growing and nurturing cultures of tolerance that hold carnivores in a position of admiration and respect (see article “Retrofitting carnivores into British culture: Lessons from Africa and Asia” by Hannah L Timmins).

People are inextricable from the future of tigers. While some conflict is inevitable, the concept of coexistence offers a shift in perspectives on human-wildlife interactions and paints a picture of people and wildlife not only existing in proximity to each other but benefiting from one another.

Figure 5: A tiger crosses a river at sunset, Corbett National Park, India. Image credit: Kate Vannelli, WWF

References

1Ripple, J.W. et al. 2014. Status and Ecological Effects of the World’s Largest Carnivores. Science. 343:151.

2DoFPS. 2015. Counting the Tigers in Bhutan: Report on the National Tiger Survey of Bhutan 2014-2015. Department of Forests and Park Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Thimphu, Bhutan. DOI: 10.13140/ RG.2.2.19373.33764

3Global Tiger Initiative Secretariat. 2010. Global Tiger Recovery Program 2010-2020. The World Bank, Washington DC

4Piyakhun, P. 2010. Tiger range countries and their partners make new conservation commitments in Thailand. The World Bank. Retrieved from: www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2010/01/29/tiger-range-countries-partners-make-new-conservation-commitments-thailand

5Sheppard, S.W. 2022. Global Tiger Population is Stable and Potentially Increasing despite Extreme Threats, According to new IUCN Assessment led by Panthera. Panthera website. Retrieved from: https://panthera.org/newsroom/global-tiger-population-stable-and-potentially-increasing-despite-extreme-threats#:~:text=New%20data%20suggests%20a%20potential,the%20species’%20numbers%20in%20decades.

6Gray, T.N.E., Chapman, S., and Hehmeyer, A., 2022. Restoring Asia’s Roar: Opportunities For Tiger Recovery Across Their Historic Range, WWF International, Switzerland.

7Gray, T.N.E., Chapman, S., and Hehmeyer, A., 2022. Restoring Asia’s Roar: Opportunities For Tiger Recovery Across Their Historic Range, WWF International, Switzerland.

8Hails, C., O’Connor, S. and Soutter, R. 2022. Securing a Viable Future for the Tiger. Flora and Fauna International, IUCN, Panthera, TRAFFIC, WCS and WWF, Cambridge, UK. Retrieved from: https://www.wwf.de/fileadmin/fm-wwf/Publikationen-PDF/Asien/Tiger-Coalition-Vision-WWF-TRAFFIC- IUCN-Panthera-WCS-Fauna-and-Flora- International.pdf

9Belecky, M., Stolton, S., Dudley, N., Dahal, S., Fei Li, M and Hebert, C. 2022. Living with Tigers: How to manage coexistence for the benefit of tigers and people, WWF International, Switzerland

10WWF. 2017. Beyond the Stripes: save tigers, save so much more. WWF International, Gland, Switzerland. 74 pp.

11Data sources: Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World, Version 4. Species: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-4. Http:// www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on Jan. 2022. Map: © WWF, 2022. Map produced with WWF-SIGHT.org.

12Torres, D.F., Oliveira, E.S. and Alves, R.R.N. 2018. Conflicts between Humans and Terrestrial Vertebrates: A Global Review. Tropical Conservation Science 11: 1-15. DOI:10.1177/1940082918794084.

13Cursino, M. 2022. Tiger that killed nine people in India shot dead. BBC News. Retrieved from: www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-63193114?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Bbbc.news.twitter%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D&at_medium=custom7&at_campaign=64&at_custom4=5BFC028E-47E0-11ED-86A1-68B64744363C&at_custom3=%40BBCWorld&at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&at_custom2=twitter

14https://www.equatorinitiative.org/2020/04/24/solution10986/ (accessed 16 January 2023).

15Data sources: Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World, Version 4. Species: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2021-4. www.iucnredlist.org  Downloaded on Jan. 2022. Map: © WWF, 2022. Map produced with WWF-SIGHT.org

16Hails, C., O’Connor, S. and Soutter, R. 2022. Securing a Viable Future for the Tiger. Flora
and Fauna International, IUCN, Panthera, TRAFFIC, WCS and WWF.

17WWF-Russia. Undated. Tiger reintroduction programme in Kazakhstan. https://wwf. ru/en/regions/central-asia/vosstanovlenie- turanskogo-tigra/

18Launay, F., Cox, N., Baltzer, M., Tepe, T., Seidensticker, J. et al. 2013. Preliminary
Study of the Feasibility of a Tiger Restoration Programme in Cambodia’s Eastern Plains.
A report commissioned by WWF. Retrieved from: http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/feasibility_study_reintroduction_ jan_2013__1_.pdf

19Gross, E., Jayasinghe, N., Brooks, A., Polet, G., Wadhwa, R. and Hilderink-Koopmans, F. 2021. A Future for All: The Need for Human-Wildlife Coexistence. WWF, Gland, Switzerland.

20Stolton, S., Timmins, H. and Dudley, N. 2021. Making Money Local: Can Protected Areas Deliver Both Economic Benefits and Conservation Objectives?, Technical Series 97, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal. 108 Pages.

21FAO and IUCN SSC HWCTF. 2022. Co- developing a community camera trapping programme to deliver benefits of living with wildlife. FAO, Rome, Italy. Retrieved from: https://www.fao.org/3/cb8759en/cb8759en.pdf 

22http://www.ruahacarnivoreproject.com/benefits/community-camera-trapping/

23Dudley, N., Stolton, S., Pasha, M., Baltzer, M., Yap, W., Sharma, M. et al. 2020. How effective are tiger conservation areas at managing their sites against the Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS)? PARKS 26. DOI:10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020.PARKS-26-2ND.en

24CIVICUS Monitor. 2019. People Power under Attack. Retrieved from: https://civicus.contentfiles.net/media/assets/file/GlobalReport2019.pdf

25Government of India. 2006. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Retrieved from: https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/8311/1/a2007-02.pdf 

26https://www.iwgia.org/en/india

27Springate-Baginski, O., Sarin, M., Ghosh, S., Dasgupta, P., Bose, I., Banerjee, A. et al. 2009. Redressing ‘historical injustice’ through the Indian Forest Rights Act 2006. A historical institutional analysis of contemporary forest rights reform. IPPG Discussion Paper Series, 27.

28https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/kerala-government-abandons-controversial-athirappilly-hydroelectric-project-amid-widespread-protests-79564#:~:text=The%20Kerala%20government%20has%20called,confirmed%20state%20electricity%20board%20officials

29www.conservationassured.org/cats.html

Cite:

Timmins, Hannah “ECOS 43 (3.3.1)- Living with Tigers- Coexistence with large carnivores” ECOS vol. 43 (3.3.1) ECOS 43 (3.3), British Association of Nature Conservationists, www.ecos.org.uk/ecos-43-3-3-1-living-with-tigers-coexistence-with-large-carnivores/.

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