Conservation of forests and wildlife in human-modified landscapes

Project Overview

Deforestation threatens wildlife populations by removing their habitats, reducing their range sizes and food sources, and increasing the occurrence of human-wildlife conflict and poaching activity. To protect wildlife, it is crucial to stem deforestation and demonstrate how forests are important reservoirs of biodiversity and how they provide ecosystem services to human communities.

In Indonesia, we collaborate with the Wildlife Conservation Society to understand how forests contribute to watershed ecosystem services in the Gunung Leuser Landscape and how management interventions contribute to reducing human-wildlife conflict in this region. This work is led by Muhammad Lubis.

In India, Anushka Rege has been using a combination of traditional and newer methods such as bioacoustics to measure biodiversity in forests and heavily managed cashew plantations.

Gunung Leuser Landscape (Source: Janice Lee/chns.weebly.com)