Conflicts of human land-use, conservation areas, and expanding rubber plantations: The case of Asian elephants in Southern Thailand

Conflicts between humans and wildlife have rapidly increased in numbers over the last decades. This increase is mainly due to a rising human population and subsequently expanding areas of human land-use. Extensive food- and cash-crop cultivations have recently fragmented and reduced areas set aside for wildlife and biodiversity protection. Our project is aimed at mitigating conflicts that have developed between farmers and wildlife sharing the same natural resources in areas adjacent to protected land and to study the ecological importance of elephants for forest ecosystems. We plan to assess elephant density and movement patterns through transect walking, spoor plot monitoring and camera trapping. We further aimed at quantifying and analyzing the food resources available to elephants, their feeding preferences, and identifying current and potential zones of crop raiding.Based on interviews with villagers and socio­economic assessments of crop losses and financial compensation possibilities we will also suggest mitigation strategies such as an appropriate design of buffer zones. These strategies will include changes in land-­use patterns, early-­warning systems for crop-­raiding elephants, and a community ­based management approach of the protected elephant populations. Additionally, we will quantify the ecosystem services and functions with respect to tourism (economic benefit) and biodiversity (ecological benefit) that elephants and other endangered large mammals provide to humans in southern Thailand. In particular, we want to investigate the seed dispersal potential of Asian elephants for fruiting trees and vines such as Dilleniaindica.With this research we want to contribute to a long ­term sustainable use of natural resources and to conservation of the high faunal biodiversity in important biodiversity hotspot areas in Thailand.