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- Convenors:
-
Sian Waters
(Durham University)
Erin Riley (San Diego State University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 27 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel will showcase research on the human-primate interface and the importance of understanding the embeddedness of people-primate relations within local social, cultural, and political economic contexts when developing conservation activities.
Long Abstract:
In the contemporary era, as anthropogenic modification of habitats expands, human communities are increasingly encountering and living in close proximity to wildlife. People's relations with said wildlife typically vary in relation to a number of factors, including the wildlife species and ecological, sociocultural, and political economic contexts. Gaining an understanding of these relations and how wildlife are treated by people may facilitate the development of successful conservation strategies. This is particularly true of human and nonhuman primates (hereafter primates) where complex, often ambiguous relations exist, as people's perceptions, attitudes, and behaviour toward primates can shift dramatically in relation to where and how the primates are encountered, thereby indicating the place-based nature of people-primate relations. Research on the human-primate interface across an array of settings has shown that people-primate relations are shaped by social and cultural factors and failure to understand the motivations for people's behaviour towards primates may result in unforeseen negative consequences for primate conservation strategies. Moreover, such relations are not fixed but dynamic, changing in response to diverse factors sometimes related to the conservation activities being implemented. Our panel, consisting of up to eight short presentations of five minutes each, will include speakers from the Madagascar, India, UK, USA who will discuss their work on the human-primate interface and the value of understanding people-primate relations when developing conservation activities. The panel will be followed by discussion inspired by the presentations and supplemented with pre-formulated questions regarding related issues.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 27 October, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
A local worldview attributing shared origins to people and lemurs does not prevent hunting of lemurs. Eulemur collaris is valued as a favoured food; Hapalemur meridionalis is viewed unfavourably. People’s practices towards each species varied according to land productivity and conservation regime.
Paper long abstract:
With 96% of lemur species classified as threatened in the IUCN Red List, they are a high priority for global conservation efforts. But how does this fit with local people’s views about lemurs in rural Madagascar? We conducted qualitative research in two communes in Tsitongambarika Protected Area to investigate how forest-dependent villagers interacted with and valued two lemur species. Local people have an origin story that tells how humans descended from halo – southern bamboo lemur (Hapalemur meridionalis) and variky – red-collared brown lemur (Eulemur collaris). Despite this common ancestry, they are among the most harvested animals in the area. We found that the two species of lemur are not considered related as in western taxonomy, and whereas E. collaris is highly valued as a favoured food source, H. meridionalis is regarded unfavourably because it forages on rice shoots. People’s practices towards bamboo lemurs varied between our two study sites. Where agricultural land was relatively productive and enforcement of conservation rules minimal, most farmers used projectiles or scarecrows to deter them. By contrast, where agricultural land was less fertile and conservation initiatives had disrupted traditional livelihoods, farmers trapped bamboo lemurs, despite their meat being considered poor quality. Statutory protection of both species had little effect on people’s views about them, and only the fear of repercussions influenced their hunting practices. Our research illustrates the need for conservationists to appreciate local residents’ complex viewpoints in their socio-cultural context instead of simply assuming the importance of species from a western perspective.
Paper short abstract:
Puerto Viejo is a puri-urban, eco-tourism-centered, and expatriates-dominated coastal community where people live closely with mantled howler monkeys. This paper will report a sense of place linked to local human-wildlife relationships learned in a participatory design-build project.
Paper long abstract:
In 2017 I conducted a participatory design project that revealed that local people generally see monkeys and other animals as part of their "paradisal" living environment. This idea guided the course of the participatory design and drove the local people to take ownership of the participatory design workshops and expanded it into an environmental meeting. For many residents, just as people needing a safe pedestrian environment, monkeys need a safe way to cross the highway and powerlines. Now the two needs were hindered by the same urbanization problems and inflowing tourists. According to observations and interviews, the diverging interests are marching around Puerto Viejo residents' desire for a peaceful life in paradise and national tourists' need to enjoy a holiday cookout on the beach. My informants often mentioned monkeys along with other animals and enjoy seeing them around their properties. They pride Puerto Viejo's abundant wildlife presence as uniquely "Walaba," which translates to the old harbor and Spanish-Puerto Viejo. Monkeys and other animals and larger ecological environments were regarded as an integral part of Puerto Viejo. Though the expatriates and the earlier residents describe the sense of place from a different perspective, they all trace back to the "green," "intimate," and "free" identity of Puerto Viejo. So the human-wildlife relationship in Puerto Viejo forms a sense of place similar to that voiced by the local social media channel-"Keep Puerto Viejo Green and Weird."
Paper short abstract:
This presentation will highlight work that fosters ground level collaboration between conservation practitioners and oil palm growers to conserve orangutans and other primates in the floodplain lowlands of Eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
Paper long abstract:
In the mature oil palm/fragmented forest matrix of the Kinabatangan floodplain in Eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, wild orangutans are at a critical tipping point. Given that oil palm monoculture dominates this landscape today, without the cooperation of oil palm growers, conservation of wild orangutans in this region will not be possible. This presentation will highlight work to foster ground level collaboration between conservation practitioners and oil palm growers to conserve orangutans and other primates in this former ideal habitat. We have found fundamental misperceptions exist on both sides. Chief among these are a lack of updated ecological knowledge of the primate species encountered, misunderstandings about what conservation means and the core belief that exclusion of wildlife is a central tenet of industrial agriculture.
Paper short abstract:
YouTube is a social media platform that can drive new traffic to conservation agencies and greatly increase public awareness, but can also inadvertently send the wrong message about wild animals. For primates, the use of young animals and human-animal interaction leads to negative viewer response.
Paper long abstract:
Conservation organizations rely on social/internet media platforms to raise awareness and fundraise. Social media is a double-edged sword: it can be a wide-reaching and effective tool for education and fundraising, but can also have counter-productive impacts on public views toward wildlife and understanding of wildlife conservation. For example, depicting humans interacting with wildlife in media may increase video popularity, but animals shown in anthropogenic contexts are also viewed as appealing pets. We examine this in social media posts by orangutan rescue and rehabilitation organizations (ORRs), which rely on social media for fundraising and awareness-raising. Our goal is to provide data and recommendations to guide conservation organizations in building media with positive conservation impact while minimizing potential negative effects. Using YouTube analytics and sentiment analysis of comments on 119 videos, we ask how viewer responses to videos vary with 1) the amount of human-orangutan interaction depicted, 2) the ages of the orangutans featured, and 3) the mention of threats to orangutans. Videos with longer human-orangutan interaction time were viewed more, but comments on them were significantly more likely to be negative toward Indonesian/Malaysian people. Comments on orangutan rescue/rehabilitation videos were more likely to be categorized as negative for orangutan conservation compared to videos about orangutans generally, and within these, so were comments on videos featuring infant and juvenile orangutans. Based on our findings, we make recommendations for conservation organizations featuring animals in their YouTube videos and other social media.