Human-wildlife conflict mitigation in Peninsular Malaysia : lessons learnt, current views and future directions

Abstract: Among the wild animals in peninsular Malaysia tigers and elephants seem to be the most threatened species after the Malaysian rhinoceros which have dwindled to critically low numbers. Agriculture expansion and palm oil production is the main driving force that affects natural habitat of these magnificent mammals bringing people in conflict with wild animals. Human-Wildlife conflicts is not a new phenomenon and tend to occur when wildlife requirements overlap with those of human populations, creating costs to residents and wild animals. Mitigation methods try to minimize these unwilling conflicts which have negative impacts to farmers’ livelihood and animals’ population. Governmental agencies as well as NGOs attempt to organize communities in order to prevent potential problems due to mismanagement of natural resources. In this study, participant observation, interviews with conservation agencies and online survey will attend to show the effectiveness of different methods for HWC mitigation. Collaboration among environmental agencies and communities and education seem to be the best method towards environmental conservation.