Session: OS-B2
People-primate interactions: understanding ‘conflicts’ to facilitate coexistence

Early studies of people-primate interactions (often termed people-primate conflict) focussed largely on documenting crop types targeted by non-human primates and estimating the economic value of lost crops, to understand the impact on local people of sharing space with these, sometimes protected, species. These studies were initiated mainly in response to conservation concern about the long term survival of these primate populations against... [ view more ]

Early studies of people-primate interactions (often termed people-primate conflict) focussed largely on documenting crop types targeted by non-human primates and estimating the economic value of lost crops, to understand the impact on local people of sharing space with these, sometimes protected, species. These studies were initiated mainly in response to conservation concern about the long term survival of these primate populations against a background of increasing habitat destruction, human encroachment into ‘wildlife’ areas, and the inevitable increase in competition and thus ‘conflict’ between people and non-human primates. While it was recognised that the farmers’ viewpoint was key to developing effective conflict mitigation strategies, these interactions were mainly characterised as being about crop loss or property damage, and farmers concerns and anxieties over impacts on livelihoods. However, people-wildlife relationships are not just about how people and wildlife interact, or how people exploit animals as a resource. Animals have symbolic significance, distinct from their utilitarian value or bodily presence, and these culturally constructed meanings influence individual and group understandings, and therefore values and agendas around wildlife. An awareness of an animal’s symbolic importance as well as how different groups use particular species or wildlife constructions to explain an environmental problem is necessary to understanding conflicts around wildlife. In this symposium the authors each consider how their analysis of specific people-primate interactions, from a range of different species, sites, and perspectives can contribute to creating greater coexistence between humans and their non-human primate relatives, and perhaps to better coexistence between humans and wildlife more generally. [ view less ]