CIFOR scientist Linda Yuliani gives an overview of human-wildlife conflict in Asia, focusing on orangutan conservation to explore reasons for the continuing conflict and ways to avoid it in conservation. She gave this presentation at the ‘Linking Great Ape Conservation with Poverty Alleviation’ workshop hosted by CIFOR in January 2012.

1. Human-wildlife conflict in Asia:
implications for orangutan
conservation
Elizabeth Linda Yuliani
THINKINGbeyond the canopy

2. Asia’s forests
• Forests: 17.8% of land
area
• Natural:
– Tropical rainforests
– Moist forests
– Peat forests
– Temperate/boreal
forests
• Planted

3. Asia’s forests
• 500-600 million of people living in or
near forest reserves in Asia (Lynch &
Talbot 1995)
• Home to high biodiversity including
charismatic megafauna

4. Human-wildlife conflict in Asia
• Increasing conflict
• Involves protected and non-protected species
• In protected and non-protected areas, in various
ecosystems
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5. Some examples
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6. Tigers
• Area occupied by Asian
tigers: declining 41%
between mid 1990s-mid
2000s
• Increasing attacks:
– In Sundarban, West Bengal,
India: 30% increase over the
past decade
– In Sumatra, Indonesia: 57
people were killed between
1998-2011 Source: Wild Tiger Conservation. Save The Tiger Fund.
Retrieved 2009-03-07.

7. Tigers
Declining tiger population:
• In India: 40,000 a century ago;
3,642 in 2002; 1,411 in 2008
• Sumatran tiger: approx. 400
(early 1990s); 250 (1998-2007);
at least 51 tigers per year were
killed from 1998-2002 — 76%
for trade, 15% in human-tiger
conflict (Shepherd & Magnus
2004)
• Bali tiger P. t. balica and Javan
tiger P. t. sondaica became
extinct in the past 50 years
• Dave Salmoni in http://abcnews.go.com/International/tigers-elephants-attacking-humans-india/story?id=12932647#.TwvvooH9YsY
• Linkie, M, Wibisono, HT, Martyr, DJ & Sunarto, S 2008, ‘Panthera tigris ssp. Sumatrae’,in IUCN 2011, ‘IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species’, Version 2011.2, <www.iucnredlist.org>, downloaded on 10 January 2012.
http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/15966/0
• Ministry of Forestry 2007, National strategy and action plan on tiger conservation

8. Asian elephants
• Human elephant conflict in north-east
India: > 1,150 humans and 370 elephants
died between 1980 and 2003
(Choudhury 2003)
• Reports of people injured and killed
caused by elephant attacks in Sumatra
(scattered data)
• Declining elephant population:
– Asian: at least 50% over the last three Source of map: Dr. Raman Sukumar in Murdoch (2008)
generations (60–75 years) http://www.elephanttag.org/General/range_asia.html
– Sumatran: at least 80%
– Entire elephant population in Riau
and Lampung have disappeared; nine
populations in Lampung have been
lost since mid 1980s

9. Orangutans
• Out of the populations extant in 1900:
– 7% of the Bornean orangutan (Pongo
pygmaeus)
– 14% of the Sumatran orangutan (P. abelii)
population survived the 20th century
(Rijksen & Meijaard 1999)
• Wich et al. 2008:
– Sumatran orangutan in the wild: 6,624
– Bornean orangutan:
• P. pygmaeus subsp. pygmaeus 3,000–
4,500
• P. pygmaeus subsp. wurmbii at least
34,975 Map: Caldecott, J & Miles, L (eds.) 2005, World Atlas
of Great Apes and Their Conservation, UNEP and
• P. pygmaeus subsp. morio 15,800 WCMC
(4,800 in East Kalimantan, Indonesia,
and 11,000 in Sabah, Malaysia)

10. Human-orangutan conflict
• Attack to human <<< tigers and elephants. Two local people injured (Sebulu -
March 2000, Central Kalimantan - Jan 2010) + local tour guides attacked after
being too close + unreported cases.
• Meijaard et al. 2011:
– Between 750 and 1,790 orangutans were killed in 2010 and between 1,970
and 3,100 in 2004
– High rate of conflict and killings:
• area with high deforestation rates and rapid plantation development
• especially in the part once an area of very high orangutan densities but
very little natural forest habitat remains
– Reported reasons for orangutan killings:
• food (54%)
• self-defence (14%)
• don’t know (11%)
• pest of crops (10%)
• other reasons (combined 11%)
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11. Interconnected driving factors of HWC
• Competition over space and resources: human population growth + land-
use conversion -> habitat loss, degradation, fragmentation
• Large-scale development projects inside and around protected areas (e.g.
monoculture plantations, road, mining, settlement)
• Market opportunity and demand -> illegal trade
• Stochastic events (e.g. fire)
• Considered pests — one palm oil company paying Rp. 150,000 (around
$17) for every orangutan ‘pest’ killed (Buckland 2005)
• Often involve human-human conflict
• Abundance and distribution of wild prey (for carnivores) and dietary plants
(for herbivores and omnivores)
• Increasing livestock populations
• Increasing wildlife population as a result of conservation program
• Climate change
(Madden 2004; Moeliono et al. forthcoming; Rijksen & Meijaard 1999)
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12. Programs to mitigate and
prevent HWC, e.g.:
• Policies
• National strategy and action
plans
• Natural and artificial barriers
• Guarding
• Patrolling
• Compensation/incentives/
economic activities
• Wildlife translocation
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13. But:
• HWC keeps increasing, protected species’ population and their
habitat keep declining
• All the good things stopped when project ended
WHY?? WHAT ARE THE GAPS?
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14. The gaps:
• Business as usual! Business-as-usual processes -
> business-as-usual solutions
• Repeating the same mistakes, e.g.:
– Social science, methods and approaches not
sufficiently understood or involved in
community development and related studies
– Imbalanced views and reports of local
people’s roles, perceptions, values, culture
and tradition (e.g. threat or supporter) ->
misleading solutions
– Compensation/incentive schemes leading to
inequity and human-human conflict
– Global – local linkages: one-size fits all
– Failure to involve key actors beyond
conservation
– Learning processes rarely apply learning
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theories and tools 14

15. The gaps (continued….)
• Decision-makers’ priority: short-term
economic return, not conservation
• Protected species outside protected
areas: government conservation
agency do not have authority over
land-use policies
• Local stakeholders’ lack of capacity to
deal with conflict, or to prevent conflict
Aerial photo taken by Greenpeace and WALHI,
February 2009
• Training for forest rangers and
government conservation staff: mostly
command-control leading to conflict,
rather than building collaboration and
communication -> pro-conservation
turned into opposition
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16. The questions of orangutan
conservation
• High rate of conflict, killings and trade
found in deforested areas and
plantations: is poverty the key driver?
• Understanding the characteristics and
the key drivers of human-orangutan
conflict -> what’s next?
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17. Recommendations
• Prioritise conservation goals,
revival of traditional norms, pride
of natural heritage, education and
awareness-raising programs.
• Conservation activities should
NOT be driven by economic
motivation. Economic benefits will
follow as part of ecosystem
functions delivered from
conservation.
• Business as usual??? Come on….
go out from your comfort zone,
and be creative, be innovative!!!
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18. Thank you
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