Wildlife-human interactions: from conflict to coexistence in sustainable landscapes. Publication and communication phase

In the period 2007 - 2009, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences have been involved in a cooperation project with the Centre for Ecological Studies at the Indian Institute for Sciences and other Indian p artners. The project has been financed by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi, and has focused on understanding the ecology and sociology of conflicts between humans and wildlife, a topic of mutual interest for Norway and India, as well as being a cent ral element in the global discourse on environment and development. The project has focused on, among other issues, human conflicts with wolves, leopards, elephants, large herbivores and sea turtles. After 3 years of cooperative field work the project has acquired a huge amount of data and experience of interest to Norway, India and the global community. As the embassy funded project comes to an end we see many important results that should be communicated to wider audiences through professional (scientif ic publication) and popular (film and popular articles) media. This application seeks funding from NFR to bring about this communication. Specifically, we are seeking funding for (1) salary to write a series of scientific and popular articles, (2) the pro duction of a series of video documentaries for both Indian and Norwegian outlets, and popular leaflets, and (3) salary to allow Norwegian follow up of two Indian PhD candidates whose material is taken from the project's activities. Such funding will provi de a great deal of added value to both NFR and the Royal Norwegian Embassy as funding agencies, and disseminate the results to a range of end-users. The intensity of the conflicts that we have studied is such that application of our results could well sav e lives as well as improve rural livelihoods in India. In Norway, the results could introduce some much needed perspectives into the debates about sharing our landscapes with wild animals (e.g. wolves).