Abstract
Simple SummaryEfficiently addressing human-large carnivore conflicts is a conservation issue of increasing relevance, especially in human-dominated landscapes where impact on rural economies generates negative attitudes towards large carnivores and their conservation. We quantified patterns of bear impact on farms and the costs of compensation from 2005 to 2015 in the Abruzzo Lazio and Molise National Park (central Italy), an historical stronghold of the relict and highly imperiled Apennine brown bear population, where the park authority has been adopting conflict management approaches since the 1960s. Although the compensation program is rather costly (1490 ± 589 €/bear/year), the park policy has been increasingly integrated with prevention incentives, managing to effectively avert further increases in bear damages during the study period. Concurrently, local residents generally share a positive attitude towards bears, and the number of illegally killed bears decreased in the last decade. Despite this, our findings indicate there is still room for improvement in local conflict management, and that a more efficient use of conservation funds would benefit from increased monitoring, integrated prevention, conditional compensation, and participatory processes. Lessons learned from areas of historical coexistence between humans and large carnivores provide critical insights to design successful management strategies in areas of recent and future recolonisation by large carnivores.Human-carnivore conflicts are a major conservation issue. As bears are expanding their range in Europe’s human-modified landscapes, it is increasingly important to understand, prevent, and address human-bear conflicts and evaluate mitigation strategies in areas of historical coexistence. Based on verified claims, we assessed costs, patterns, and drivers of bear damages in the relict Apennine brown bear population in the Abruzzo Lazio and Molise National Park (PNALM), central Italy. During 2005–2015, 203 ± 71 (SD) damage events were verified annually, equivalent to 75,987 ± 30,038 €/year paid for compensation. Most damages occurred in summer and fall, with livestock depredation, especially sheep and cattle calves, prevailing over other types of damages, with apiaries ranking second in costs of compensation. Transhumant livestock owners were less impacted than residential ones, and farms that adopted prevention measures loaned from the PNALM were less susceptible to bear damages. Livestock farms chronically damaged by bears represented 8 ± 3% of those annually impacted, corresponding to 24 ± 6% of compensation costs. Further improvements in the conflict mitigation policy adopted by the PNALM include integrated prevention, conditional compensation, and participatory processes. We discuss the implications of our study for Human-bear coexistence in broader contexts.
Highlights
Conservation conflicts are a major issue affecting wildlife populations and rural communities, globally [1]
In addition to evaluating the impact and financial dimension of the Human-bear conflict as indicated by compensation costs and their trend across time, we investigated the potential drivers of brown bear damages at the local scale of analysis
We found that in the PNALM, compensation costed an average of 75,987 € per year, or 1490 ± 589 €/bear/year based on the 2011 population estimate [30]
Summary
Conservation conflicts are a major issue affecting wildlife populations and rural communities, globally [1]. In the humandominated landscapes of Europe, the development of rural economies and the conservation of large carnivore species are two aspects mandated by supranational legislation (EU Common Agricultural Policy; EU Habitats Directive; Bern Convention). With the ongoing bear expansion, Human-bear conflicts risk becoming increasingly exacerbated, especially in recently recolonised areas where local herding practices have changed and may no longer account for predator presence [4,6]. Such conflicts can hinder the growth of endangered populations, due to cultural and social resistance to bear presence leading to high human-related mortality and counterbalancing conservation efforts [7]
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