Identifying sustainable coexistence potential by integrating willingness-to-coexist with habitat suitability assessments

Persistence of species in the Anthropocene depends on human willingness-to-coexist with them, but this is rarely incorporated into habitat suitability or conservation priority assessments. We propose a framework of sustainable coexistence potential that integrates human willingness-to-coexist with habitat suitability assessments. We demonstrate its applicability for elephants and rhinos in the socio-ecological system of Maasai Mara, Kenya, by integrating spatial distributions of peoples' willingness-to-coexist based on Bayesian hierarchical models using 556 household interviews, with socio-ecological habitat suitability mapping validated with long-term elephant observations from aerial surveys. Willingness-to-coexist was higher if people had little personal experience with a species, and strongly reduced by experiencing a species as a threat to humans. The sustainable coexistence potential framework highlights areas of low socio-ecological suitability, and areas that require more effort to increase positive stakeholder engagement to achieve long-term persistence of large herbivores in human -dominated landscapes.

Automated summary

The persistence of species in the Anthropocene is dependent on human willingness to coexist with them, which is often overlooked in habitat suitability or conservation priority assessments. This study proposes a framework that integrates human willingness-to-coexist with habitat suitability assessments to assess the sustainable coexistence potential of species. Using elephants and rhinos in the Maasai Mara socio-ecological system in Kenya as a case study, the study demonstrates the applicability of the framework by integrating peoples' willingness-to-coexist from household interviews with habitat suitability mapping. The framework highlights areas that require more effort to increase positive stakeholder engagement for the long-term persistence of large herbivores in human-dominated landscapes.