People's perceptions of elephant conservation and the human-elephant conflict in Aceh Jaya, Sumatra, Indonesia

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) poses a major threat to elephants in many parts of Asia, including Indonesia. This paper presents data from a case study on HEC in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. The area consists of a mosaic of settlements, agriculture, and forested areas that are used both by elephants and humans. Questionnaire survey data were used to examine villagers attitudes towards elephant conservation, forest protection, and wildlife authorities. While 36% of the respondents expressed a positive attitude and accepted the need to protect elephants, a majority of the respondents (64%) indicated that they would not support conservation where crop damage by wildlife, particularly elephants, was threatening livelihoods. Nevertheless, 86% of respondents had a positive view of protected forests, either for personal benefits such as hunting and collection of non-timber forest produce or to act as wildlife refuges. Although the wildlife management authorities respond to crop raiding incidences by elephants, which had some positive influence on perceptions of people towards the authorities, overall the majority of respondents (83%) perceived the wildlife authorities negatively and claimed that they did not provide support when crop raiding took place. The main factors identified as reasons for the observed conservation attitudes were proximity to forest boundary, occupation, and education level. Further education and conservation awareness programs, and conflict mitigation should become a priority to gain local communities' support for conservation and change people's attitudes towards elephant conservation so they can share resources with elephants, where possible.