Emergent conservation conflicts in the Galapagos Islands: Human-giant tortoise interactions in the rural area of Santa Cruz Island

作者：Francisco Benitez‐Capistros, Giorgia Camperio, Jean Hugé, Farid Dahdouh‐Guebas, Nico Koedam · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0202268 · 被引用次数：45 · 研究领域：Wildlife Ecology and Conservation、Primate Behavior and Ecology、Human-Animal Interaction Studies

The conservation of biodiverse areas around the world has contributed to the protection and recovery of endangered species. This has been the case for 11 species of Galapagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) that today are successfully maintained over six islands: Española, Santiago, Pinzon, Isabela, San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. A favourable state of conservation will depend however on future development in the islands. In Santa Cruz Island the development of the agricultural areas has encroached on the migratory routes of the southwestern species C. porteri and may be an emergent conflict for tortoise conservation. We investigated the social and ecological inter-linkages using two methods framed under a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approach: semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to study farmers' perceptions and attitudinal factors regarding giant tortoises; as well as the associated socio-economic impacts of the conflict. Moreover, we coupled the PRA approach with an ecological assessment of giant tortoises' population density by performing transect counts during the two yearly phases of giant tortoises' migration to the lowlands (January to June) and back to the highlands (July to December). Our results indicate that farmers reporting damage and cultivating crops have higher odds of taking actions (fencing and physical actions) towards giant tortoises; regardless of having (or not) a negative perception towards the species. The economic losses for crops a...