Research Progress and Prospects of Human-Elephant Conflict at Home and Abroad

The human-elephant conflict (HEC) is a typical event in the human-wildlife conflict in our country. It affects not only the healthy development of biodiversity conservation, but also the life, health and property safety of the local people. In order to clarify the internal mechanism of generation and evolution of HEC, and provide reference for the administration department and scholars, this study carries out literature review and examines the concept and measurement of HEC, the generation mechanism of HEC, as well as farmers' behavioral responses to HEC. Four aspects of conflict governance measures have been summarized. Firstly, the HEC is defined as the negative interactive effect between human and elephant, but the measurement focuses on the direct, negative impact of elephants on human beings. Secondly, the causes of HEC can be summarized as "squeezing effect", "opportunistic effect", "attacking effect" and "climbing effect". The starting point of the conflict is that the Asian elephants (Elephas Maximus) leave their original natural habitats and enter the production and living areas of farmers, resulting in spatial overlap. Thirdly, farmers with different scales of livelihood capital have different behavioral responses to HEC, of which farmers with higher livelihood capital have stronger response to avoid the occurrence of HEC. Fourthly, although the present governance measures of HEC cover three stages, viz., before, during and after the event, which generate positive effects, they are not enough to resolve HEC. In order to promote effective governance of HEC, this paper proposes to carry out interdisciplinary research on the effective management of HEC, enrich the basic theories of the research, expand the sources of research data, embark on studies in terms of newly emerging HEC and strengthen the supporting role of research output on decision-making.