Insurance to promote human-wildlife coexistence: a how to guide

This guide is for governments, conservationist practitioners and insurers to design and introduce insurance schemes to reduce human-wildlife conflict (HWC) and promote human-wildlife coexistence.

Certain species such as elephants are major causes of HWC across Africa and Asia. They trample or eat crops, predate livestock, damage property and sometimes cause human injury and death. This leads to a cycle of biodiversity loss as wildlife are directly killed by local farmers or pastoralists, or indirectly through support for poaching by outsiders. This HWC problem will likely grow as 30x30 targets for conservation are implemented.

This guide draws on experience in Kenya, Malaysia and Sri Lanka to identify seven steps to introduce commercial insurance scheme to promote human-wildlife-co-existence.