Perspectives of traditional Himalayan communities on fostering coexistence with Himalayan wolf and snow leopard

Abstract

Abstract The Himalayan wolf Canis sp. and snow leopard Panthera uncia are found in the Nepalese Himalayas where conservation efforts target the latter but not the former. We conducted semistructured questionnaire surveys of 71 residents in upper Humla, upper Dolpa, and Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA) during 2014–2016 to understand people's knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and interactions with these two carnivores. We fitted a cumulative link mixed model to predict Likert scale ordinal responses from a series of Generalized Linear Mixed Models. Overall, attitudes were more positive toward snow leopards than wolves. Livestock depredation was the main predictor of the general negative attitude toward wolves (Estimate = −1.30873; p = .029866) but there was no evidence for an effect for snow leopards (Estimate = −0.3640; p = .631446). Agropastoralists had more negative attitudes than respondents with other occupations toward both carnivores and men had more positive attitudes than women. Among our study areas, respondents in the community‐owned KCA had the most positive attitudes. Our findings illustrate the need to reduce human–carnivore conflict through a combined approach of education, mitigation, and economic cost‐sharing with respectful engagement of local communities. Specifically, to encourage more villagers to participate in livestock insurance schemes, they should be improved by including all large carnivores and adjusting compensation to the market value of a young replacement of the depredated livestock type. Carnivore conservation interventions should target the whole predator guild to achieve long‐term success and to protect the Himalayan ecosystem at large.

Keywords

• compensation
• conservation education
• depredation
• Himalaya
• human–carnivore coexistence
• Nepal