Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Human-wildlife conflict has become a global challenge. Crop damage by wildlife can cause significant economic loss and primates such as monkeys can cause particular problem to farmers. The monkey problem has already become intense in communi-ties near white-headed langur national nature reserve of Guangxi, China, and involve not only farmers and monkeys, but also conservation staffs as they are regarded as the guards of monkeys. An understanding of the relationship among farmers, monkeys and conservation staffs is important to approach the monkey problem. I use in-terpretive multi-actors approach, which closely links to actor network theory, to in-vestigate local perceptions and understandings towards crop damage by monkeys, interactions between monkeys, farmers and conservation staffs, as well as how farmer-monkey relations evolve. My findings have described farmers’ rich under-standings towards the extent of crop damage and crop foraging behaviour of monkeys. Mutual and interactive processes take place between farmers and monkeys, while farmers and conservation staffs interact concerning legitimizing compensation. My thesis further discusses factors that farmers’ perceptions, the mutual learning and ad-justment in farmer-monkey relations, and how their relations are influenced by conservation and other social change. Lastly, I discuss how the monkey problem has transfigured into a conservation problem, when ‘unprotected pest’ turns into ‘pro-tected pest’. These findings and analysis help us to better understand human perception in human-wildlife conflict scenario, farmer-monkey relations and the relation-ship between local community and protected areas. Moreover, it is a try to use actor network theory in studying human-animal interactions.

人兽冲突已经成为全球性的挑战。野生动物取食农作物能造成严重的经济损失，而诸如猕猴等灵长类所造成的农作物损害被称为“猴灾”。在广西崇左白头叶猴国家级保护区周边，由猕猴造成的猴灾已经非常严重。这不仅牵涉到农民和猕猴，也事关保护区工作人员，因为他们被视为猕猴的守护者。了解农民，猕猴和保护工作人员之间的关系对妥善处理猴灾十分重要。本篇论文中，我使用深受行动者网络理论影响的多行动者方法，来深入了解当地人对猕猴取食农作物的感知和认识，农民、猕猴、保护工作人员之间的互动，以及农民与猕猴关系的演变过程。我的研究描述了农民对农作物受损类型和程度以及对猕猴取食农作物行为的了解，同时将猕猴拟人化的现象。我同时深入描述了农民与猕猴的双向互动过程。农民和猕猴从经验中熟悉对方活动的时间空间特征，以及农作物和环境，将其运用在农民的防控和猕猴的取食措施中。我也描述了保护工作人员与农民互动的各个方面，如保护者社区宣教，农民汇报索取赔偿，农民暗害猕猴的传闻，二者间将赔偿正当化和不正当化的言论，以及有关猕猴来历的‘谣言’。接着我讨论了如何解读农民对猴灾的感知，农民与猕猴相互学习和调整适应的过程，保护政策、城乡迁移、耕作方式改变对农民与猕猴关系的影响，以及猕猴的保护等级如何让猴灾成为一个保护问题。这些发现和讨论能帮助我们更好地理解人兽冲突背景下人的感知，农民与猕猴的关系，以及保护区与社区的关系。同时，它也是将行动者网络理论运用到人与动物的互动中的一次尝试。