World Wildlife Day – Ecosystem Restoration through Reduction of Human-Wildlife Conflicts

World Wildlife Day refocuses the debate towards ecosystem restoration through reduction of human-wildlife conflicts. The theme of “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration”, draws attention to the conservation status of some of the most critically endangered species of wild fauna and flora, and to drive discussions towards imagining and implementing solutions to conserve them.

Human Wildlife Conflict drives the Loss of Wild Species

For a long time, human wildlife conflict has been one of the main threats to the continued survival of many wild species in the ecosystem. As human populations increase, the natural habitats shrink due to invasion by humans, triggering conflicts over living space and food. From wildlife attacking people, to destroying crops, to livestock. Humans lose their crops, livestock, property and sometimes lives.

The wildlife involved, many of which are endangered, are often killed in retaliation in order to prevent future conflicts. The impacts are always huge as this has driven the decline of the once-abundant species and is pushing others to the brink of extinction causing a misbalance in the ecosystem.  For instance, when a carnivore is killed, there is an increase in the number of herbivores in the ecosystem, leading to low levels of vegetation. The decrease in natural vegetation causes wildlife to visit farms in search for food, and may lead to food insecurity amongst humans.

“In combination with other threats, human- wildlife conflict has driven the significant decline of wild species that were once abundant, pushing them to the brink of extinction. Unless urgent action is taken, this devastating trend will only worsen.” Says Dr. Judy Kimaru, Board Member for Eco Clubs of Kenya. To ensure ecosystem restoration, there is need to control human wildlife conflict through;

• Employment of different mitigation techniques such as erection of natural barriers.
• Education to farmers on crops that they can adopt to deter some wild animals. Elephants are known to be attracted to sugar canes but may not come close to chilli, turmeric or ginger.
• Land preservation so as to ensure that humans and animals have adequate space to thrive.
• Reassessment of the direct interactions—between humans and wildlife by adoption of approaches that identify causes of conflict while developing solutions with affected communities being active participants in the process in order to coexist peacefully in future.
• Allocation of resources to address the issue at the scale required.

Stemming Habitat Loss to save endangered species

Another idea to minimize human-wildlife conflicts, we can look at the agroecology farming approach inspired by natural ecosystems, combines local and scientific knowledge and focuses on the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment. The scale of livestock agriculture contributes to climate change and biodiversity loss, and more needs to be done to stem the degradation and loss of ecosystems and wildlife habitats. We all need this to happen as people. Degradation and loss of species and their habitats and ecosystems is not suitable for the human race as a whole. People need wildlife and biodiversity-based resources for food, clothing, medicines, culture, and health. We need to reimagine our livestock food systems to meet our needs without destroying the planet. This World Wildlife Day, go ahead and get involved in activities that can help in ecosystem restoration and recovery of the key endangered species in the ecosystem.