Wildlife and Conservation Economics Laboratory, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada;
Food and Resource Economics, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Feb 23;118(8). doi: 10.1073/pnas.1921338118.
Reducing the costs from human-wildlife conflict, mostly borne by marginal rural households, is a priority for conservation. We estimate the mean species-specific cost for households suffering damages from one of 15 major species of wildlife in India. Our data are from a survey of 5,196 households living near 11 wildlife reserves in India, and self-reported annual costs include crop and livestock losses and human casualties (injuries and death). By employing conservative estimates from the literature on the value of a statistical life (VSL), we find that costs from human casualties overwhelm crop and livestock damages for all species associated with fatalities. Farmers experiencing a negative interaction with an elephant over the last year incur damages on average that are 600 and 900 times those incurred by farmers with negative interactions with the next most costly herbivores: the pig and the nilgai. Similarly, farmers experiencing a negative interaction with a tiger over the last year incur damage that is on average 3 times that inflicted by a leopard and 100 times that from a wolf. These cost differences are largely driven by differences in the incidence of human death and casualties. Our estimate of costs fluctuates across reserves, mostly due to a variation of human casualties. Understanding the drivers of human casualties and reducing their incidence are crucial to reducing the costs from human-wildlife conflict.Most of the tales were about animals, for the Jungle was always at their door. The deer and the pig grubbed up their crops, and now and again the tiger carried off a man at twilight, within sight of the village gates. "Tiger! Tiger!" (Rudyard Kipling, , Collins Classics, 2010).
减少由边缘农村家庭承担的人兽冲突成本是保护的优先事项。我们估计了印度 15 种主要野生动物之一对家庭造成损害的平均物种特定成本。我们的数据来自对印度 11 个野生动物保护区附近的 5196 户家庭的调查，自我报告的年度成本包括作物和牲畜损失以及人员伤亡（受伤和死亡）。通过采用文献中关于生命统计价值（VSL）的保守估计，我们发现，所有与死亡相关的物种的人员伤亡成本都超过了作物和牲畜损失。在过去一年中与大象发生负面互动的农民平均遭受的损失是与下一个最昂贵的食草动物（猪和印度野牛）发生负面互动的农民的 600 倍和 900 倍。同样，在过去一年中与老虎发生负面互动的农民平均遭受的损失是与豹子的 3 倍，是与狼的 100 倍。这些成本差异主要是由于人类死亡和伤亡的发生率不同造成的。我们对成本的估计在保护区之间波动，主要是由于人员伤亡的变化。了解人员伤亡的驱动因素并降低其发生率对于减少人兽冲突的成本至关重要。
大多数故事都是关于动物的，因为丛林总是在他们的家门口。鹿和猪在他们的庄稼上挖洞，时不时地，老虎在黄昏时分从村庄门口带走一个人。“老虎！老虎！”（拉迪亚德·吉卜林，柯林斯经典版，2010 年）。
