Understanding residents’ preferences for adaptive capacity in human-wildlife coexistence: a case study from Nepal’s biodiversity hotspot

Arockia E J Ferdin, Abhinaya Pathak, Mahirah Kamaludin, Babu Ram Lamichhane, Shyam Kumar Shah, Udit Chandra Aryal & Nagarajan Baskaran

Human-wildlife conflicts are exacerbated by the triple planetary crisis, as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss push wildlife into human-dominated landscapes, leading to increased competition for resources and heightened conflict. Thus, fostering human-wildlife coexistence in human-dominated landscapes, where wildlife has adapted to people, is of paramount importance. The people, who share space and resources with wildlife, face economic losses and threats to their well-being, through crop, and livestock depredations, human casualties, and psychological stress from safety concerns, yet exhibit remarkable behavioural plasticity. Understanding and implementing their preferences in coexistence will provide new insights that enhances mutual co-adaptation. With that in mind, this study aims to understand buffer zone residents’ trade-offs using a discrete choice experiment in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Our findings indicated a compelling preference among buffer zone residents to improve the current state of coexistence. The random parameters logit model revealed that grassroots-level awareness programmes, promoting sustainable economic opportunities, integrating science with indigenous knowledge, and rapid response teams were the most preferred strategies to enhancing the adaptive capacity of communities to coexist with wildlife. We anticipate that our findings will aid the Chitwan National Park management in fostering successful co-adaptation strategies that benefit both buffer zone residents and the wildlife sharing these human-dominated landscapes.

Publication European Journal of Wildlife Research. 2025

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