In 1999 I presented a paper on the status of human-wildlife conflict at an annual meeting of the international biodeterioration and biodegradation society. The paper was entitled The emergence of wildlife conflict management, turning challenges into opportunities.
The basic thesis of the paper was that as wildlife populations increase, so will related to human-wildlife conflicts. However, what I neglected to account for in the paper, was the role that human population growth plays in human-wildlife conflicts.
The Berryman Institute at Utah State University was organized in 1994 with the explicit purpose of helping managers identify how wildlife conservation agencies and organization can better work with the public to turn wildlife management challenges into opportunities for conservation. Survey research conducted by the Berryman Institute of residents in major metropolitan areas reveals that over 60 percent of those who responded to the survey had experienced a negative interaction with wildlife.
To aid in this massive and unprecedented communication effort, the Berryman Institute publishes a journal called “Human-Wildlife Interactions”. Human-Wildlife interactions are the only journal dedicated to the science of improving human-wildlife interactions by resolving human-wildlife conflicts.
