| Capacity-building | The IUCN SSC Guidelines on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence were published in March 2023. They provide a global, authoritative and impartial guidance to understanding and resolving human-wildlife conflict. They highlight essential foundations and principles for good practice, with clear guidance on how best to tackle conflicts and enable coexistence with wildlife. They have been developed for use by conservation practitioners, community leaders, decision-makers, researchers, government officers, and others. Focussing on approaches and tools for analysis and decision-making, they are not limited to any particular species nor region of the world. They can be used by any individual, organisation, community or government trying to manage human-wildlife conflict and achieve coexistence. The Guidelines aim to improve the management of human-wildlife conflict globally, supporting efforts to be pursued through well-informed, holistic and collaborative processes that take into account underlying social, cultural and economic contexts. The Guidelines centre around 5 foundational Principles of understanding and managing human-wildlife conflicts, complemented by a Good Practice Checklist and elaborated further in 32 Chapters. These short chapters cover the full range of important angles and aspects, including: role of the conservationists, animal behaviour, how histories shape interactions, resolving conflicts between people, planning across landscapes, preventing damage, policy instruments and many more. | Completed |
| Capacity-building | The IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has been developing sets of case studies with the aim of covering the process projects have taken to understand, plan and address various aspects of a human-wildlife conflict situation. The first set of case studies can be downloaded below and will be linked with the forthcoming IUCN SSC Guidelines on Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence. | On-going |
| Convene stakeholders/Networking | In March 2023, the International Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence was held in Oxford, UK. Organised by the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group (HWCCSG), and co-hosted with the GEF-funded and World Bank-led Global Wildlife Program, and WildCRU of Oxford University, the conference was attended by more than 500 delegates, from 70 countries and six continents. The conference brought together participants from non-profit, government, academic, and donor backgrounds from around the world, providing a forum for exchanging knowledge and interdisciplinary discussions. The programme consisted of 48 sessions of scientific presentations, panel debates, keynotes and interactive discussions from diverse fields such as ecology, animal behaviour, psychology, policy, conflict analysis, mediation and peacebuilding, resource mobilisation and anthropology. Several of the sessions focused on human-wildlife conflict at the global and national levels with interactive sessions of the role of policies in mitigating human-wildlife conflict and next steps for human-wildlife conflict in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework with both sessions involving government panelists. The conference organisers recorded all keynotes, symposia, speed talks and major panel sessions, which have been compiled in a video library for catch-up viewing, sharing and as a resource for all delegates and those unable to attend the conference. The video library can be accessed here: www.hwctf.org/conference-videos | Completed |
| Education/Communication/Raising awareness | In June 2022, in collaboration with IUCN, the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group published an Issues Brief on Human-Wildlife Conflict that covers what the issue is, why it is important and what can be done.
In addition to the production of the case studies, the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group (HWCCSG) organised a series of webinars as part of the Learning in Practice Webinar Series which provided an opportunity to link theory of principles in human-wildlife conflict engagement with practical experience and insights from projects on the ground. You can see the webinars at https://www.hwctf.org/case-studies
In December 2022, the Chair published an article in The Conversation on "UN biodiversity conference: what does living in harmony with nature look like?", highlighting the difficulty of measuring HWC as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework but also providing suggestions on how this could be done. The Chair and members of the SG have also participated in a number of webinars and online events where they raised awareness about the importance of HWC. | Completed |
| Policy influencing/advocacy | In January 2023, the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group's Policy Officer started their role with the aim of supporting the Chair and the Specialist Group in ongoing science-policy bridging work, including coordinating and engaging on policy matters with the major biodiversity conventions, as well as governments around the world in their efforts to develop national policies for the management of human-wildlife conflict.
The Policy Officer organised a session at the International Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence and has been working on establishing a network of focal points in governments who can bring to the Specialist Group's attention needs identified by their government and collaborate in fostering science-policy links and participate in HWC-related aspects of the Kunming-Monreal Global Biodiversity Framework implementation. At the time of writing the report, 28 governmental focal points to the SG have been secured. The Policy Officer has been coordinating regular communications with Focal Points, providing information, inviting to events and answering any queries.
A dedicated page on HWC policy resources was created on the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group’s website and is being regularly updated.
| On-going |
| Policy influencing/advocacy | The Chair and members of the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group participated in many meetings and discussions in the build-up to CBD COP15 to support discussions on the inclusion of human-wildlife conflict within the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Chair was part of the IUCN delegation who attended COP15. Human-wildlife conflict and coexistence has now been included under Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. | Completed |
