51³Ô¹Ï

An eight-year-old girl in a wild elephant attack in West Rumbai subdistrict, Pekanbaru, Riau, Indonesia, a few months ago has died after three days of treatment at a local hospital. The subdistrict borders the elephant’s natural habitat. A similar attack also happened in early August, 2025 when a farmer in Bengkalis, Riau, Indonesia was to death by a wild Sumatran elephant while trying to drive it away from her field at night. The incident shocked local communities. Just months earlier, in June, a plantation worker was by a Sumatran tiger in the Kerumutan forest area, Riau. He was found dead with severe wounds to his neck, chest and back, believed to be caused by bites and scratches from the tiger.

However, there have also been many cases where animals have become victims. In April 2025, the carcass of a young elephant was in a palm oil plantation bordering Mount Leuser National Park. Investigators found an infected wound on its leg and are probing whether poisoning was involved. A similar incident occurred in October 2024, when a wild Sumatran elephant was dead in the forest of Way Kambas National Park in Lampung. This was the third elephant death in the park in recent months.

Amid growing concern over the rise in human–animal conflicts, this is a good moment to reflect on our relationship with wild animals. How should humans and wild animals interact? Who truly benefits from this relationship? How do we treat wild animals?

Behind this relationship lies a critical issue that must be addressed: the human–animal conflict over the use of natural resources. The consequences of this conflict go beyond environmental damage. It can also be deadly, as both humans and animals end up killing each other. These conflicts are also often caused by the way agricultural landscapes are developed around them. Integrating trees into farming systems — agroforestry — can be part of the solution by helping maintain habitat connectivity while supporting agricultural production.

Community empowerment

Empowering local communities is a fundamental pillar of effective wildlife conservation. These communities are on the front lines, living in close proximity to wild animals and facing the daily challenges that come with it. The communities not only endure the risks but also play a key role in ensuring both human safety and animal protection. A major contributing factor is the lack of awareness and preparedness among communities about how to safely coexist with wildlife.

There is an encouraging example of what community-led conservation can achieve. Around Way Kambas National Park, once farmers were shown that crop guarding using simple early-warning systems and communal patrols was effective, 16 villages voluntarily adopted the approach. Together, they successfully repelled about 74% of elephant incursions, with several villages preventing every attempted raid. This experience demonstrates that empowering local communities with practical knowledge can be far more effective than relying solely on top-down interventions.

Conflict arises when human and animal territories overlap, often due to expanding settlements or shrinking natural habitats. In some cases, before a tiger fatally attacked villagers, another tiger had wandered into a settlement and was killed by residents, or the other way around. In Bengkulu, a tiger that had attacked and injured a resident was later dead by an unidentified person, illustrating how such encounters can also trigger retaliatory killing of the animal. It’s important to understand that, in modern times, humans no longer rely on wild animals for survival and wild animals typically do not view humans as prey. These confrontations are not rooted in predation, but rather in fear, misunderstanding and habitat disruption. 

When conflict does occur, the goal must be to protect life — not just human life, but animal life as well. Therefore, community involvement in conservation must go beyond passive participation. It should focus on education and on how to respond effectively and safely.

Set boundaries

Expanding agriculture, plantations and settlements without considering wildlife needs leads to habitat fragmentation and increased conflict. It is important to strengthen regulations that prevent human settlements and agricultural developments from encroaching on protected areas.

This by John Goodrich, the chief scientist for Panthera, on tiger conservation highlights that establishing clear spatial zones to keep human activities and livestock away from tiger habitats is one of the most effective strategies to reduce conflict. Encouraging landowners and developers to adopt techniques such as agroforestry and sustainable farming can significantly reduce habitat destruction while maintaining or even enhancing biodiversity.

Agroforestry plays a crucial role in minimizing the destruction of natural habitats, a leading cause of conflict between humans and wildlife. This practice can serve as a buffer, helping prevent habitat destruction by maintaining tree cover and reducing deforestation. Agroforestry environmental health by helping restore degraded land, reduce erosion and support biodiversity.

By preserving and enhancing natural habitats, agroforestry provides wildlife with corridors to move safely between forested areas, thereby reducing the likelihood that animals, particularly large mammals such as tigers or elephants, stray into human settlements in search of food.

Sustainable farming practices that support both agricultural productivity and the environment can also minimize the destruction of surrounding ecosystems and reduce the need for expanding agricultural lands into wildlife habitats. By restoring degraded land and improving ecosystem health, these practices help preserve habitats and reduce the likelihood that wildlife will be displaced into intensive farms and settlements.

These practices not only conserve biodiversity but also make the surrounding environment less attractive to wildlife. Sustainable farming can help ensure that animals are less likely to raid crops, reducing the risk of encounters between wildlife and humans. Landowners can help maintain ecological balance and prevent the destabilization of the food chain, which often leads to human-wildlife conflict. When animals lose access to their natural habitats or food sources, they to move closer to human settlements.

Lessons learned for the region

The rise in human-wildlife conflict in Indonesia carries lessons for the wider Asia-Pacific region. Rapid economic development has millions out of poverty, but it has also put unprecedented pressure on forests, wetlands and wildlife habitats. Across South and Southeast Asia, similar patterns are evident. These encounters highlight a regional dilemma on how to balance agricultural expansion, economic growth and conservation.

We must rethink how we share the planet with other species. Through better planning, education and sustainable practices, we can reduce conflicts, ensuring that both human communities and animals have the space and resources they need to thrive.

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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51³Ô¹Ï’s editorial policy.