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What Works in Conservation 2021

 | 
William Junior Sutherland
, 
Lynn V. Dicks
, 
Silviu O. Petrovan
, 
et al.

7. Primate conservation

7.2 Threat: Agriculture

Full text

Likely to be beneficial

Humans chase primates using random loud noise

1One controlled, replicated, before-and-after study in Indonesia found that in areas where noise deterrents were used, along with tree nets, crop raiding by orangutans was reduced. One study in the Democratic Republic Congo found that chasing gorillas and using random noise resulted in the return of gorillas from plantation to areas close to protected forest. Assessment: likely to be beneficial (effectiveness 50 %; certainty 40 %; harms 0 %).

https://www.conservationevidence.com/​actions/​1449

Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)

Prohibit (livestock) farmers from entering protected areas

2One before-and-after site comparison study in Rwanda found that numbers of young gorillas increased after removal of cattle from a protected area, alongside other interventions. One before-and-after study in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo found that gorilla numbers declined following the removal of livestock, alongside other interventions. Assessment: unknown effectiveness — limited evidence (effectiveness 50 %; certainty 30 %; harms 0 %).

https://www.conservationevidence.com/​actions/​1432

Use nets to keep primates out of fruit trees

3A controlled, replicated, before-and-after study in Indonesia found that areas where nets were used to protect crop trees, crop-raiding by orangutans was reduced. Assessment: unknown effectiveness — limited evidence (effectiveness 40 %; certainty 30 %; harms 20 %).

https://www.conservationevidence.com/​actions/​1442

No evidence found (no assessment)

4We have captured no evidence for the following interventions:

  • Create natural habitat islands within agricultural land
  • Use fences as biological corridors for primates
  • Provide sacrificial rows of crops on outer side of fields
  • Compensate farmers for produce loss caused by primates
  • Pay farmers to cover the costs of non-harmful strategies to deter primates
  • Retain nesting trees/shelter for primates within agricultural fields
  • Plant nesting trees/shelter for primates within agricultural fields
  • Regularly remove traps and snares around agricultural fields
  • Certify farms and market their products as ‘primate friendly’
  • Farm more intensively and effectively in selected areas and spare more natural land

5• Install mechanical barriers to deter primates (e.g. fences, ditches)

6• Use of natural hedges to deter primates

7• Use of unpalatable buffer crops

8• Change of crop (i.e. to a crop less palatable to primates)

9• Plant crops favoured by primates away from primate areas

10• Destroy habitat within buffer zones to make them unusable for primates

11• Use GPS and/or VHF tracking devices on individuals of problem troops to provide farmers with early warning of crop raiding

12• Chase crop-raiding primates using dogs

13• Train langur monkeys to deter rhesus macaques

14• Use loud-speakers to broadcast sounds of potential threats (e.g. barking dogs, explosions, gunshots)

15• Use loud-speakers to broadcast primate alarm calls

16• Strategically lay out the scent of a primate predator (e.g. leopard, lion)

17• Humans chase primates using bright light.

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