Complex Ecological Pathways Underlie Perceptions of Conflict Between Green Turtles and Fishers in the Lakshadweep Islands
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255910112 Complex ecological pathways underlie perceptions of conflict between green turtles and fishers in the Lakshadweep Islands Article in Biological Conservation · November 2013 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2013.07.014 CITATIONS READS 4 105 4 authors, including: Nachiket Kelkar Teresa Alcoverro Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and t… Spanish National Research Council 27 PUBLICATIONS 107 CITATIONS 111 PUBLICATIONS 2,692 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE M. D. Madhusudan Nature Conservation Foundation 62 PUBLICATIONS 973 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: Rohan Arthur letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 15 September 2016 Biological Conservation 167 (2013) 25–34 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biological Conservation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon Complex ecological pathways underlie perceptions of conflict between green turtles and fishers in the Lakshadweep Islands a,b, a a,b a Rohan Arthur ⇑, Nachiket Kelkar , Teresa Alcoverro , M.D. Madhusudan a Nature Conservation Foundation, 3076/5, Gokulam Park, Mysore 570002, India b Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CSIC), Accés a la Cala St. Francesc, 14, Spain article info abstract Article history: Managing human–wildlife conflict is often complicated by apparent mismatches between community Received 5 January 2013 perceptions and measures of directly incurred losses. Fishers in Agatti Island (Lakshadweep, India) asso- Received in revised form 2 July 2013 ciate recent increases in green turtle (Chelonia mydas) populations with declining fish catches, resulting in Accepted 12 July 2013 targeted killing of turtles. We compared fisher perceptions in Agatti with a very similar atoll, Kadmat, with much lower turtle densities. Nearly 90% of Agatti fishers interviewed blamed turtles for declining catch compared with 20% in Kadmat and proposed two mechanisms for this decline: direct interference Keywords: (e.g., turtles damaged gear) which we define as first order conflict, and indirect mechanisms (second Human–wildlife conflict order conflict): turtles overgrazed seagrasses, thereby reducing fish catch. We evaluated the magnitude Conflict perceptions Indirect pathways of gear loss with interviews and tested proposed indirect mechanisms with a turtle density gradient, Green turtles before–after comparisons (taking advantage of an increase in turtles in Kadmat and concurrent decrease Fisheries in Agatti) and a natural herbivore exclosure. These complementary approaches supported fisher-pro- Seagrass meadows posed second-order mechanisms: at high densities, turtles heavily grazed seagrasses, significantly reduced canopy heights, lowered fish recruit abundance, food fish biomass and catch. Estimates of losses 1 1 incurred in Agatti show that first-order conflict cost fishers USD 0.6 fisherÀ yearÀ , while second-order 1 1 pathways accounted for USD 887 fisherÀ yearÀ . Our results show that local perceptions are fueled by often-complex mechanisms that, though not always straightforward to measure, are very important in generating conflict. Reconciling the human–wildlife interface requires an adequate accounting of direct and indirect mechanisms to more completely reflect true losses communities bear for living with wildlife. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction 2007; White et al., 2009). Ecological factors underlie foraging decisions made by animals, which, in may turn, directly affect As resource demands grow and natural habitats shrink, the un- humans or inflict material damage to their production systems. easy coexistence between humans and wildlife is becoming While economics helps contextualize such damage as monetary increasingly fragile (Messmer, 2009). While wildlife depredation loss and is useful in assessing its impact, a suite of cultural fac- takes a considerable toll on human lives and livelihoods, species tors determines how humans respond to such losses (Dickman, continue to decline as a direct result of conflict-related reprisals 2010; McCoy, 2003). Yet, without unifying interdisciplinary (Thirgood et al., 2005; Woodroffe et al., 2005b). More significantly, frameworks, our understanding of conflict remains fragmentary human–wildlife conflict erodes goodwill and support for wildlife at at best. Conflict management recommendations continue to be large (Peterson et al., 2010), making conflict management a critical based on a partial and reductionist understanding of the prob- challenge for conservation (Sillero-Zubiri et al., 2007; Woodroffe lem by practitioners of different disciplines, or are governed by et al., 2005b). the expediencies of those managing conflicts in the field. Unsur- Human–wildlife conflict involves a complex interplay of ecol- prisingly, many authors emphasize the ineffectiveness or unsus- ogy, economics and culture (Dickman, 2010; Marshall et al., tainability of conflict alleviation measures (Gore et al., 2008; Thirgood et al., 2005; Webber et al., 2007; Woodroffe et al., Corresponding author. Address: Nature Conservation Foundation, 3076/5, 4th 2005a). ⇑ Cross, Gokulam Park, Mysore 570002, India. Tel.: +91 821 2515601; fax: +91 821 A particular challenge posed by a fragmented understanding of 2513822. conflict is the chasm between peoples’ perception of conflict and E-mail addresses: [email protected] (R. Arthur), [email protected] its scientific measurement. Often, the intensity of these responses (N. Kelkar), [email protected] (T. Alcoverro), [email protected] (M.D. Madhu- may appear quite disproportionate to the extent of directly sudan). 0006-3207/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.07.014 26 R. Arthur et al. / Biological Conservation 167 (2013) 25–34 measurable losses, often leading to targeted killing of implicated 2. Materials and methods species. Such reactions are usually considered aberrant, but a clo- ser analysis suggests that they sometimes arise from critical indi- 2.1. Study area and study design rect costs that remain unseen and unmeasured (e.g., crop guarding, reduced sense of security, etc., see Dickman, 2010). The Lakshadweep Archipelago, Indian Ocean, comprises 12 cor- Understanding conflict perceptions is vital since they ultimately al atolls enclosing 27 small islands (8°N–12°N, and 71°E–74°E, drive stakeholder responses. Despite increasing robustness in Fig. 1). Local fishing communities depend on oceanic skipjack tuna quantifying conflicts, we remain quite ignorant about factors as a primary income source (Silas et al., 1986). A few atolls have underlying conflict perception (Kretser et al., 2009; Manfredo extensive seagrass meadows, confined to shallow lagoons (Jagtap, and Dayer, 2004; Marshall et al., 2007), rarely treating them as 1991, 1998). These meadows support a subsistence fishery which serious inputs into scientific understanding and conflict resolution. becomes a primary protein source during the stormy monsoon Although easy to dismiss as merely idiosyncratic or ‘less rational’ months (Hoon et al., 2003). Fishers predominantly use demersal representations of the problem, these disproportionate reactions set-gillnets in the meadow. Although green turtles have always may well conceal a nuanced understanding of the human–wildlife occasionally occurred here, using beaches to nest, the scant past interface, synthesized from a community’s lived experience of it surveys indicate that they have never been abundant in Agatti over space and time. since the 1970s (Bhaskar, 1978; Tripathy et al., 2002, 2007). In We examined the underlying drivers of perceived human–wild- the last 15 years however, turtle densities in Agatti have substan- life conflict in a fishing community in the Lakshadweep Archipel- tially increased (Lal et al., 2010), concurrent with similar increases ago, India. Fishers at one of the Lakshadweep atolls (Agatti) across the Indian Ocean and elsewhere (Bourjea et al., 2007; Laur- associate fish catch declines from lagoonal seagrass meadows to et-Stepler et al., 2007; Scott et al., 2012). This has precipitated a vo- an increase in resident green turtle (Chelonia mydas) densities since cal conflict with fishers in Agatti including persecution and killing around 2000, putatively as a result of highly successful local and of adult turtles and targeted destruction of nests (personal regional conservation measures across the Indian Ocean (Bourjea observations). et al., 2007; Lal et al., 2010; Lauret-Stepler et al., 2007). This has We interviewed fishers to identify perceived drivers of con- led to clandestine killing of adult turtles, destruction of nests and flict, classifying them based on whether they involved direct open hostility against green turtles in Agatti (personal observa- interactions between fishers and turtles or invoked more com- tions). To understand the drivers of this conflict, we compared per- plex indirect mechanisms. We compared perceptions in Agatti ceptions in Agatti with Kadmat, an atoll similar to Agatti in most with Kadmat, an atoll similar in size, fisher density, meadow ex- socio-ecological metrics except that it had very low densities of tent, and other human use variables (Table 1), but with much resident green turtles in seagrass meadows. We interviewed fish- lower green turtle densities reported until 2010 (Bhaskar, 1978; ers to understand the mechanisms they perceived linking herbivo- Tripathy