Best practice guidelines for the prevention and mitigation of conflict between humans and great apes

Executive summary: One of the challenges facing great ape conservation is the rising level of interaction between humans and great apes, and the resulting conflicts that emerge. As human populations continue to grow and human development makes deeper incursions into forest habitats, such conflicts will become more widespread and prevalent in the natural ranges of great apes, especially considering that the majority of great apes live outside protected areas. It is essential that we develop a comprehensive understanding of existing and potential conflict situations, and their current or future impacts on both great apes and humans. This will require the integration of quantitative and qualitative data on multiple aspects of human and great ape behaviour and ecology, along with a good understanding of local people's perceptions of the situation. Such knowledge can then be used to develop effective, locally-adapted, management strategies to prevent or mitigate human-great ape conflicts, whilst respecting both conservation objectives and socio-cultural-economic contexts. These guidelines outline a sequence of logical steps that should be considered prior to any form of human-great ape conflict intervention, and propose possible counter-measures to be used in the management of human-great ape conflicts.