Wildlife hazards and disaster risk reduction. (February 2019) - Gaillard, J.C.
Abstract: This article makes a case for including wildlife and human-wildlife conflicts in both research on disasters and policies geared towards reducing the risk of disasters. It builds upon a scoping study conducted in Namibia to emphasise that wildlife hazards affect all dimensions of people's livelihoods, including physical, economic, human and natural resources, that are threatened at all time of the year, days and nights. In Namibia, the permanent and multidimensional nature of the threat makes wildlife the most significant hazard, ahead of seasonal flooding and drought. Nonetheless, wildlife hazards are absent of disaster risk reduction policies. Conversely, successful conservation policies have purposefully amplified wildlife hazards in hope of boosting associated tourism opportunities while human-wildlife conflict policies have so far focused on post-incident response and compensation. Wildlife hazards thus fall between the cracks of conservation policies, human-wildlife conflict management and disaster risk reduction.