A cost-effective approach to mitigate conflict between ranchers and large predators: A case study with jaguars in the Mayan Forest

Abstract

Conflicts between humans and large carnivores are exacerbated in poor rural areas where people's livelihood depends on livestock ranching. Here we present a pseudo-experimental and co-participatory approach to test the effectiveness of a program to mitigate conflicts with jaguars (Panthera onca) in Mexico's Mayan Forest. We worked with eleven ranchers with a recent history of livestock predation by jaguars to codesign, implement, and evaluate changes in their husbandry practices intended to reduce the risk of predation and to increase livestock productivity. We used four parameters to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and found that (1) the use of electric fences and night enclosures greatly reduced the rate of predation on the livestock; (2) the cost of building such protection infrastructure was financially offset by the lack of losses to predation; (3) the application of more science-based husbandry practices led to an overall increase in livestock productivity; and (4) jaguar presence in at least seven of the eleven ranches, showing that the lack of predation was not due to jaguar absence. Our neat results show that conflict between local communities and large carnivores can be largely mitigated through ranchers' capacity building and applying evidence-based husbandry techniques. This approach leads to win-win situations for both jaguars and the local communities and hence can be scaled up to promote coexistence between people and large carnivores in the Mayan Forest and elsewhere.