Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Fauna & Flora Int'l Teams Up With AUA Acopian Center To Study Human-

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Fauna & Flora Int'l Teams Up With AUA Acopian Center To Study Human-

    FAUNA AND FLORA INTERNATIONAL TEAMS UP WITH AUA ACOPIAN CENTER TO STUDY HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT IN ARMENIA

    States News Service
    September 4, 2013 Wednesday

    WASHINGTON, DC

    The following information was released by Fauna & Flora International
    (FFI):

    The abundance of livestock and other foodstuff, coupled with proximity
    to wildlife habitats makes villages vulnerable to animals like wolves
    and bears. With very few exceptions, the threat is not directly
    against people but against their economic assets. Wolves kill sheep,
    cows and fowl, while bears damage fruit trees, destroy bee hives and
    deplete honey supplies.

    Over time these types of interactions can take a heavy economic toll
    on villages that, often, are already struggling to survive on meagre
    resources. It is no surprise, then, that the first response of the
    farmers is to resort to killing wolves or bears, dealing a significant
    blow to an already tattered ecosystem.

    Fauna and Flora International (FFI) has recently partnered with the
    American University of Armenia Acopian Center for the Environment (AUA
    Acopian Center) to launch a baseline study that will help scientists
    better understand conflicts between people and wildlife in Armenia
    and develop new approaches for mitigating them.

    The AUA Acopian Center researchers, all of whom are AUA students,
    will study nine rural communities across Armenia, as well as the
    habitat conditions of the wildlife. "It's important to recognise
    that there is no single solution across all communities in addressing
    this problem," says Dr Karen Aghababyan, chief scientist of the AUA
    Acopian Center and the manager of the project. "Each rural community
    has its own set of unique conditions that will impact the nature of
    the conflict and the availability of favourable solutions," he says.

    FFI has been involved in human-wildlife conflict mitigation projects
    for many years, working extensively in Africa, Southeast Asia,
    Eastern Europe and most recently in the Republic of Georgia.

    In Georgia, FFI worked very closely with the Tusheti people
    (traditional sheep farmers who move their flocks between summer and
    winter pastures) and has seen a marked improvement in the attitudes
    of livestock farmers towards wolves, thanks to a programme of direct
    intervention, awareness raising and market-based innovation. Much
    is yet to be done there, and FFI hopes, along with the Georgian NGO
    NACRES, to expand the programme to other parts of the country over
    the coming years.

    Grey wolves are most commonly found in packs, usually numbering around
    five to 12 related individuals. Credit: Gareth Goldthorpe/FFI.

    "Improving access to alternative markets is increasingly becoming a
    favoured approach to mitigating the negative impacts of human-wildlife
    conflict," explains Gareth Goldthorpe, FFI's technical coordinator
    for the Caucasus. "For the people involved, conflict with wildlife
    is primarily an economic issue; whether it is wild boar eating crops
    or wolves attacking sheep, there is a loss of earnings for the farmers.

    "However, in many cases there are other external factors that may
    be limiting access to markets and therefore incomes. Our approach
    is to take the whole system into account and explore ways that such
    access can be improved. By taking the pressure off the farmers in
    this respect, they are able to better tolerate reasonable losses from,
    in this case, large carnivores."

    FFI will draw on its extensive experience, both regional and
    international, to help the AUA Acopian Center develop and implement
    a rigorous and effective programme of work that will unravel the
    complexities of the system: from wildlife to farmer, and from market
    to consumer.

    The Armenian team has begun conducting pilot interviews with
    community members. Credit: Levon Demirchyan/AUA Acopian Center for
    the Environment.

    "For humans it is very easy to demonize other animals when they attack
    our interests. This is a morally blind and an ecologically dangerous
    tendency on our part. Wolves and bears often approach human communities
    for food because their habitats and food supplies have been destroyed,
    usually by humans. And the humans that do the destroying are often
    not the villagers but instead economic interests in logging, mining,
    agriculture, or urban sprawl," says Alen Amirkhanian, Director of
    the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment.

    "So, it's incumbent on us to figure out solutions both at the local and
    at the national level," suggests Amirkhanian. At later, more advanced
    stages of the study Amirkhanian will look to engage relevant regional
    and national authorities.

    To begin the process, the FFI team organised a kick-off meeting
    in Tbilisi, Georgia, where the gaps in knowledge, and the main
    information sources were identified. Following on from this, the
    Armenian team has developed a set of question sheets that will form
    the basis of interviews with targeted groups and individuals, and
    has begun piloting these in villages.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X