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

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

3. 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…

4. 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.

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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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%

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

13. 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.

14. 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

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

16. HWC Safe System strategy
holistic – inclusive - forgiving