Conflicts over wildlife are becoming more frequent, widespread and increasingly relevant among conservation challenges and within the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's 2050 Vision of ‘Living in harmony with nature’. Although the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework envisages a world in which environmental conflicts are reduced, managing human–wildlife conflict and coexistence is an ongoing and complex challenge for communities and governments alike. Each situation is different, with its own history and unique complications, limiting the transferability of solutions. Effective methods to mitigate and manage these situations are elusive or are often not implemented in a socially or economically sustainable way.

Managing human–wildlife conflict and coexistence is a field of continuous learning that requires collaborative processes tailored to social and cultural contexts. To this end the IUCN Species Survival Commission Human–Wildlife Conflict Task Force has published an IUCN Position Statement on the Management of Human–Wildlife Conflict, urging governments, NGOs, researchers, practitioners, community leaders, environmental agencies and others to ensure that efforts to manage human–wildlife conflicts are pursued through well-informed, holistic and collaborative processes that take into account underlying social, cultural and economic contexts.

The statement outlines the typical characteristics and underlying dimensions of these conflicts and proposes five key considerations to guide efforts promoting human–wildlife coexistence: (1) interventions that focus only on reducing damage are not transferable from one case to another, (2) poorly informed human–wildlife conflict mitigation attempts can exacerbate the situation, (3) context awareness and understanding of social and political backgrounds are crucial, (4) conflict mitigation and damage reduction interventions must be designed and managed collaboratively, and (5) long-term solutions must incorporate landscape-scale ecological, economic and physical patterns.

Building on this, the Task Force is developing detailed practical guidelines to assist practitioners, researchers, communities, and decision makers in navigating human–wildlife interactions. The IUCN Species Survival Commission Guidelines on the Management of Human–Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence, which provide comprehensive practical advice, will be piloted in late 2021 with conservation projects around the globe.

The IUCN Position Statement is available in four languages at iucn.org/theme/species/publications/policies-and-position-statements.