A safe system approach to Human wildlife conflict Vijay Moktan DPG Meeting, UN HOUSE 26th April, 2018

Why do we need a strategy? Conservation success will lead to increased conflict Increased conflict leads to decreased community support

What’s so good about this strategy anyway? Why don’t we just use the existing projects and scale them up? Many of them have some really great lessons, but often the projects are in isolation and have minimal impact to the conflict context overall. Why don’t we use existing guidelines by IUCN, FAO etc. and WWF network? They are also all quite isolated in the way they are designed. They deal with symptoms across sites and not the root causes. …and ours is a SAFE SYSTEM approach…

Current actions are not integrated Responding to symptoms No long-term direction for a ‘better’, safer future Understanding the conflict Monitoring Mitigation Hotspot mapping; community attitude surveying; impact and severity monitoring. Interim relief schemes; compensation and insurance programs; alternative livelihoods programs. HWC program performance measurement. Prevention Response Policy and legislation HWC policy mainstreaming; coordination; legal protocols to manage conflict animals. Fencing; barriers; trenches; deterrents; early warning systems. Rapid response teams; first aid; and crowd management.

A safe system approach ensures integration It looks at the whole system – every element, to make the whole system safer

What is a safe system approach? It’s a guide – it sets a minimum standard for that area to become SAFE

What is a safe system approach? Holistic, inclusive, and forgiving Involves everyone and their interactions Seeks to minimize conflict knowing that it could never be zero due to the people and wild animals involved

How do safe systems perform? # vehicles # fatalities In transport sector this is the typical performance. In transport sector as number of vehicles rise, the number of deaths and crashes decreases due to the system being safe This is what we want to achieve with wildlife conservation

Rapid assessment for hwc How do we know how a safe a system / site / landscape is? Conduct RAPID ASSESSMENT Purpose of the RA Tool: To determine how safe the site is. To determine the unsafe parts of the site. To determine how to make the site safer. Helena Telkanranta/WWF

In HWC: We know how to make the system safer Does not hunt Wildlife friendly farming Can fund prevention Reports HWC Complies with law Has alternative livelihoods Separated from wildlife Guarded and fenced Early warning systems And the situation is exactly the same in HWC. Each part of the system – people, wildlife, habitat and assets (crops and livestock) – can be made safe And we have years of lessons on how to make each part safe… Is protected from clearing, fragmentation, encroachment Managed in accordance with a land use plan Is protected Has space Cannot access crops/livestock Is separated from people Is a positive contribution to local livelihoods

Understanding how safe the system is. RA Methodology Safe Person: …………………. Criteria 1: ………………  Criteria 2: ……………… Criteria 3: ……………… Criteria 4: ………………  Criteria 5: ……………… Safe Assets: …………………. Criteria 4: ……………… Safe Wildlife: …………………. Criteria 3: ………………  Criteria 5: ………………  Safe Habitat: …………………. Criteria 1: ………………  Criteria 2: ………………  Criteria 3: ……………… Criteria 4: ………………  Criteria 5: ……………… Monitoring : …………………. Criteria 2: ……………… Criteria 3: ………………  Criteria 5: ………………  =2/5 =40% =3/5 =60% =1/5 =20% =4/5 =80% All the products that can be developed as part of the safe system for HWC Understanding how safe the system is. =4/5 =80%

Summary of results from 9 sites in Bhutan (2016) Not meeting the criteria Meeting the criteria

Bhutan overall results from 9 sites (2016) Strong policy & effective law enforcement. Potential loss of tolerance for wildlife. High risk of retaliatory killing. High chance if regular conflicts. Assets unsafe and continue to be lost. Monitoring is weak. Low monitoring levels may have led to low focus on assets.

Launching of Safe System Strategy, 24th Feb. 2017, Paro What needs to be done at national level? Response Teams M&E Alt and diversify livelihoods Insurance schemes Species research and management

RESULTS FRAMEWORK Expected progress against the SAFE Baseline as a result of Strategy implementation

HWC Safe System strategy holistic – inclusive - forgiving