“Locals showed high levels of support for almost all the alternative attributes presented to them, which means they are willing to support prevention and mitigation strategies in and want to see a change from the status quo,” the authors note.īroadly, community members preferred alternatives such as the design of a community-based program - ecotourism based on elephant watching, for example - to foster coexistence and also support local livelihoods. Image by Bernard Dupont via Flickr ( CC BY-SA 2.0). Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve is one of four locations identified as key to their survival in the country. It’s estimated there are only around 100 Asian elephants remaining in Vietnam. Elephants can quickly become habituated to such interventions, the study notes, which reduces their effectiveness. Crucially, community members also preferred alternatives to the current system of management, which relies on patrols and traditional methods of keeping elephants away from farms.
“In general, local people prefer strategies that seek to cultivate coexistence with elephants,” the study authors write. Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve covers 969,993 hectares (2.4 million acres) and is home to around 15 elephants, for which is it designated a priority conservation area. Habitat destruction and human-wildlife conflict are the current main threats facing the species. In total, 440 households were surveyed and offered different approaches to solving the problem.Įstimates of Vietnam’s wild elephant population vary, but it’s thought that there are around 100, mainly distributed along the border with Cambodia and Laos. Researchers carried out choice-based questionnaires with residents of four villages - Phu Ly, Ma Da, Thanh Son and Ta Lai - where human-elephant conflict is known to occur. That’s according to a new study published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation that looks to understand community perspectives on how to solve human-elephant conflict. People living around Vietnam’s Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve, however, want to foster coexistence with elephants, not conflict. Solving human-wildlife conflict is a complex issue and a pressing concern for a wide variety of endangered species, none more so than the Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus).
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