Implications of forest loss and degradation on human-grivet monkey co-existence: challenges and current mitigation strategies in Southwestern Ethiopia.

Natural forest loss because of agricultural land expansions intensifies the conflicts between humans and grivet monkeys. This study examined the implication of forest loss on the human-grivet monkey's co-existence challenge and existing mitigation strategies in East Wollega zone, southwestern Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was implemented, utilizing a purposive sampling method to select Sasiga district from 17 districts within the zone. Four villages were purposively selected using simple random sampling to select 204 households. In this study, the combination of geospatial technologies and a household survey was used. The land use and land cover (LU/LC) change was analyzed using geospatial technologies, while the household survey was investigated using descriptive statistics. For prioritizing the current human-grivet monkey conflict mitigation approaches, the weighted average index with a 6-point Likert scale was used. Results revealed that agricultural land is increasing considerably, while forests, grasslands, and shrublands were declining, which can reduce the availability of the grivet monkey diet in the natural habitat. The declining of diet availability leads to resource competitions with local communities. About 57.8% of the local communities reported the declining of the grivet monkey diet in the forest due to agricultural land expansions. Results indicate that the human-grivet monkey conflict is more severe than previously thought. To minimize human-grivet monkey conflict, the local communities were using scarecrows, crop guarding, chasing, and guarding dogs as the best mitigation approaches. This study underscores the need for scale-up multiple mitigation strategies to minimize human-grivet monkey conflict.