WCS 3-Sentence Science

Why Can’t We All get Along (Like Namibia’s Pastoralists and Wildlife?)

May 1, 2019

Photo credit: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present Joel Berger’s work on how the actions of pastoralists in Namibia contribute to our understanding of reducing human-wildlife conflict:

1. Conflicts between humans and wildlife are escalating worldwide due to human population growth, urbanization, growth of agricultural and industrial activities, and, in certain areas, increasing wildlife populations.
2. Scientists interviewed pastoralists in Namibia’s Namib Desert to see how they felt about conflicts with wildlife, which can include lions and cheetahs preying on livestock and elephants and zebras eating crops.
3. Though high rates of conflicts were reported, pastoralists were generally tolerant of wildlife, including predators, and indicated this in their proposed management solutions, which offers insights into the complex issue of human/wildlife conflict.

Study and Journal: “Using pastoral ideology to understand human–wildlife coexistence in arid agricultural landscapes” from Conservation Science and Practice
WCS Co-Author(s): Joel Berger, WCS Americas Program

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.