Human-wildlife conflicts in Patagonia: ranchers´ perception of guanaco (Lama guanicoe)abundance and its relation to the social-ecological context

FLORES, CELINA; LICHTENSTEIN, G.; SCHIAVINI,A

ORYX

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2023

0030-6053

Human conflicts over wildlife have become widespread as people moveto areas previously home to wildlife and wild populations recover. InPatagonia, one of the main threats to guanaco (Lama guanicoe)conservation is sheep ranchers’ animosity towards it. As keystakeholders in guanaco conservation, we assessed rancher´s perceptionregarding guanaco abundance in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego,Argentina. We contrasted these perceptions with actual estimatedguanaco abundances, explored socio-ecological factors influencingperceptions, and explored how perceptions of overabundance are rootedin contextual factors rather than in actual abundances. We performedsemi-structured interviews with ranchers from Isla Grande, andestimated guanaco abundances independently using density surfacemodelling. Ranchers were divided into three perception categoriesdepending on their perceived guanaco abundance: “too many”, “many”,and “normal”. The “many” and “normal” perceived guanaco abundanceswere overall similar to the actual abundances, whereas guanacos wereoverestimated by the “too many" category. The perceived issuesaffecting livestock production varied between categories, although feraldogs emerged as the main problem. Negative perception towardsguanaco was related to how ranchers believed that the species affectedlivestock receptivity and forage availability, and to disappointments inthe way the government addressed livestock production concerns. Agreater understanding and integration of the human dimension toconservation is needed to design more inclusive and resilientmanagement plans.