Beyond Protected Areas News

Protected areas only cover about 5.02 percent of India’s total area. Consequently, a large percentage of India’s wildlife live outside protected boundaries. This gives rise to situations spanning between coexistence and conflict, which requires acknowledgement and awareness. With just five percent of India’s total forest cover officially protected, sharing habitat with humans is the reality for much of India’s diverse wildlife. In western Maharashtra, for example, every 100 square kilometers of land is home to 10 large carnivores (leopards and hyenas) -- and more than 30,000 people. In India, a protected area (PA) is defined as a zone “in which human occupation or at least the exploitation of resources is limited.” These PAs include national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, conservation reserves, community reserves and marine protected areas. In this series, Beyond Protected Areas, Mongabay-India will be addressing the urgent need to raise awareness of practices which make the land surrounding official protected areas more supportive of wildlife. One of the main threats to biodiversity outside protected areas is widespread infrastructure development, including linear incursions like roads and railways. The resultant habitat fragmentation splits up wildlife populations, causing an overall reduction in genetic diversity, which in turn decreases the resilience of species to pressures such as climate change and diseases. In this context, large carnivores prey upon livestock, while herbivores such as elephants, nilgai and wild boar damage crops. Human-wildlife conflict seems inevitable, but there are novel solutions that have come to light from across the country. We explore biodiversity and communities along the spectrum between conflict and coexistence, from across the country.

Native plant germination database sows seeds of change

Citizen science reveals lesser known invasive pest

Unpacking three decades of restoration in the Western Himalayas

Experts conflicted over the hard decision to soft release problem jumbos

Understanding the challenges of this bountiful planet [Book Review]

Efforts to end ritualistic hunting results in reduced kills

Forests can both help and hinder malaria transmission, mortality

The costs of coexisting with predators

Listening to frogs can offer clues to their decline [Commentary]

Fossil study takes a leaf out of climate history to predict ecological changes

Biocontrol agents as a solution for invasive species

A billion-dollar market rooted in muddy ponds and manual labour

What is heat stress? How does it affect animal hormones? [Explainer]

Coffee agrofarms can play a key role in restoring degraded forest, study says

The conservation conundrum leaves shrimp farmers on edge

Tree cover may depend on which way the slope faces

Retracing the route of a century-old biodiversity expedition

Declining waders indicate deterioration of wetlands

Citizens continue a decade-long fight to conserve an urban lake

Automating bat detection for more efficient monitoring and data collection

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