Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Amrit Science Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Aug 15;316:115276. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115276. Epub 2022 May 13.
Reducing conflict between humans and wildlife is considered a top conservation priority. However, increasingly human-induced disturbances across natural landscapes have escalated encounters between humans and wildlife. In Nepal, forests have been destroyed, fragmented, and developed for human settlements, agricultural production, and urban centers for decades. As a result, human-wildlife conflict, in the form of crop-raiding, livestock predation, and injuries to humans and wildlife, is common throughout the country. In particular, crop-raiding by macaques is an increasingly common form of human-wildlife conflict. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) have been identified as a top ten crop-raiding wildlife species in Nepal. In order to better understand the nationwide distribution and intensity of human-rhesus macaque conflict (HRMC), we conducted an extensive literature review of reported incidences of HRMC during the period 2000 to 2021 in Nepal. We also created an online survey to obtain nationwide data on the location and severity of HRMC, and modeled the set of ecological factors that affect habitat suitability for rhesus macaques. An ensemble of three different species distribution model (SDM) algorithms were used to analyze these data. We found that almost 44% of Nepal's land area contains suitable habitat for rhesus macaques, with less than 8% of all suitable habitat located in protected national parks. As humans continue to alter and fragment natural landscapes, HRMC in Nepal has intensified. At present, nearly 15% of the country's land area in which human settlements are permitted, is characterized by moderate or high rates of HRMC. We argue that prioritizing programs of forest restoration, strategic management plans designed to connect isolated forest fragments with high rhesus macaque population densities, creating government programs that compensate farmers for income lost due to crop-raiding, and educational outreach that informs local villagers of the importance of conservation and protecting biodiversity, offer the most effective solutions to reduce HRMC in Nepal.
减少人类与野生动物之间的冲突被认为是首要的保护重点。然而，自然景观中人类活动引发的干扰越来越多，导致人类与野生动物的接触不断增加。在尼泊尔，几十年来，森林一直在被破坏、碎片化和开发，用于人类住区、农业生产和城市中心。因此，农作物被盗、牲畜被捕食以及人类和野生动物受伤等形式的人与野生动物冲突在全国范围内很常见。特别是，猕猴的作物掠夺行为是一种越来越常见的人与野生动物冲突形式。猕猴（Macaca mulatta）已被确定为尼泊尔十大作物掠夺野生动物物种之一。为了更好地了解全国范围内的人与恒河猴冲突（HRMC）的分布和强度，我们对 2000 年至 2021 年期间尼泊尔报告的 HRMC 事件进行了广泛的文献综述。我们还创建了一个在线调查，以获取全国范围内有关 HRMC 地点和严重程度的数据，并对影响恒河猴栖息地适宜性的一系列生态因素进行建模。我们使用三种不同的物种分布模型（SDM）算法来分析这些数据。我们发现，尼泊尔近 44%的土地面积含有适合恒河猴生存的栖息地，而所有适宜栖息地中只有不到 8%位于受保护的国家公园内。随着人类继续改变和碎片化自然景观，尼泊尔的 HRMC 已经加剧。目前，在允许人类居住的尼泊尔土地面积中，有近 15%的地区存在中度或高度的 HRMC。我们认为，优先开展森林恢复计划、制定旨在将孤立的森林碎片与恒河猴高密度种群连接起来的战略管理计划、制定政府计划，为因作物被盗而损失收入的农民提供补偿，以及开展教育外展活动，让当地村民了解保护和保护生物多样性的重要性，这些都是减少尼泊尔 HRMC 的最有效方法。
