HUMAN – WILDLIFE CONFLICT (SABAH)

There are not many species involved in human – wildlife conflict in Sabah. Obvious ones include elephants and macaques, to which porcupines, wild pigs and orangutans can be added in some agricultural contexts, along with some mustelids and viverrids in animal farming contexts. Those mammals come into conflict with humans because of a combination of three main factors: (a) mammals, like all life, strive to reproduce – that is what they have evolved to do, (b) to do that, they need nutritious food, (c) the residual habitats in which residual clusters of these mammals exist are too small or of too low quality to supply sufficient year-round daily food to sustain reproduction. There are only two approaches to solving human – wildlife conflict. One is to limit growth in numbers of the existing cluster of individuals, by culling or contraception. The other is to provide alternative food sources that are at least as good those cultivated or farmed foods managed by humans for human use. In either case, human society has to accept that there will be an upper limit to the number of individuals of the target wildlife species alive at any one time. There are no other options to solving human – wildlife conflict: either keep the numbers of individuals at an agreed, low number, or provide extra food forever. Any other form of purported method aimed to solving human – wildlife conflict will either fail, or make a small but unsustainable dent in the conflict. Methods to manage wild elephants and macaques are outlined as examples.
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DATUK DR. JOHN PAYNE

Borneo Rhino Alliance

U.K-born tropical biologist Dr. John Payne has resided in Malaysia and Indonesia since 1975, including 25,000 hours living within tropical rain forest. He headed the nature conservation NGO WWF in Sabah from 1982 to 1998. Now, as head of a small, specialist NGO, Borneo Rhino Alliance (www.bringingbackourrareanimals.org), his aim is to highlight that knowledge of and actions to enhance demography, spatial distribution and reproductive performance are the vital parameters required to prevent extinctions. His current work involves the application of simple methods to increase carrying capacity of forest-plantation landscapes for endangered large mammals.