Title: Effective Economic Management and Evaluation of Human-Elephant Conflict: Sri Lankan Empirical Evidence and Analysis
Authors: Dr. Ranjith Bandara and Prof Clem Tisdell
Human-elephant conflict (HEC) is recognised as a common problem across the entire area in which the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) ranges. Mitigating this conflict has become a major challenge in conserving this endangered species which has been listed on Appendix 1 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 1973.
Fragmentation and loss of natural habitat are considered to be the major factors contributing to HEC in Asia. The example of Sri Lanka is illustrative. There has been a loss of nearly 50 percent of its dense forest cover during the last five decades
This massive loss of forest cover, with concomitant fragmentation of the remaining elephant habitat, has exacerbated HEC across the entire elephant range in Sri Lanka. Although several policies have been implemented in response, they show no sign of resolving the HEC-related issues satisfactorily.
Thus, the issues involved with conservation of elephants and mitigation of HEC in Sri Lanka call for new strategies. This volume examines the economic issues involved in conservation of the Asian elephant, and mitigation of HEC in Sri Lanka in order to identify effective economic management strategies to ensure the long-term survival of this species of wildlife.
The fundamental argument presented in this volume builds on the view that Sri Lanka’s basic constraint in conserving elephants is that confinement of elephants to the existing protected area network is incompatible with the long-term survival of its wild elephant populations.
Their survival depends on some access to farmlands in the vicinity of the protected areas, for instance access to move across farmland from one isolated habitat to another. However, utilisation of such private lands inevitably results in conflicts with farmers.
Furthermore, such a policy can also have an adverse effect on elephants unless farmers are compensated adequately and promptly for the damage caused by elephants, to encourage farmers to allow elephants some access to their farming lands.
This proposition examines specifically whether by establishing a scheme financed by those who regard the elephant as an asset, it is possible to obtain a Paretian improvement in this situation.
It also explores whether farmers in the areas where wild elephants interfere with agriculture would be willing to contribute to such an insurance scheme and to what extent. These analyses are based on the results from two sets of contingent valuation surveys undertaken in Sri Lanka
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