Cole Burton, Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry
Abstract
The study of human-wildlife conflict has often focused on the mitigation of threats to human livelihoods. This reactive approach to “damage management” falls short in the Anthropocene, where human livelihood activities directly or indirectly impact wildlife species and habitats across the planet. I advocate for a broader view of human-wildlife coexistence that considers overlapping demands for resources by people and wild animals, and the potential for co-adaptation to better partition those resources. I will consider this view of coexistence in light of recent research in the Wildlife Coexistence Lab examining human-wildlife interactions where people live, work, and play; that is, spanning contexts from wildland-urban interfaces to industrial working landscapes to protected areas.
Bio
Cole Burton is an associate professor at UBC in the Department of Forest Resources Management. He is a conservation biologist and wildlife ecologist with broad interests in using science to inform biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and human-wildlife coexistence. His recent work has focused primarily on the ecology, management and monitoring of terrestrial mammal communities in the transforming landscapes of western Canada. He maintains diverse research interests in ecological methodology, carnivore conservation, and human-wildlife relations around the world.