Stakeholders' Perception of Socioecological Factors Influencing Forest Elephant Crop Depredation in Gabon, Central Africa

Forest elephant crop depredation incidents (CDIs) around Gabon’s national parks threaten both villagers’ livelihoods and conservation efforts for critically endangered forest elephants. Most CDI-mitigation efforts have focused on improving crop protection. We argue that conflicts will continue to escalate unless broader villager and elephant needs are addressed simultaneously. For that reason, we investigated the factors contributing to CDIs as a first step toward mitigating conflict by fostering coexistence. We compiled perceptions of 24 villagers and 22 conservation professionals at Lopé National Park in Gabon using semi-structured interviews, allowing participants to create individual narratives. We analyzed the narratives through content analysis, categorizing CDI perceptions into four connected _themes_ to build a synthetic framework based on three landscape _contexts_ across which six socioecological _drivers_ fostered five landscape _dynamics_ that led to five proximal _problem types_ leading directly to CDIs. Two problem types were centered on ineffective crop protection methods and socioeconomic changes that have intensified rural exodus. The other two were centered on unmet elephant needs pushing them to seek crops. The fifth type, regular human-elephant negative interactions, resulted from increasing land use overlap by both villagers and elephants. Villagers framed the CDI problem primarily through their experiences of conflict in village areas. Professionals likewise saw the importance of direct conflict in village areas but also identified a broader suite of factors, including conservation policies, logging, and declining native fruit production pushing elephants toward villages in search of food and a safe environment. Common to both stakeholders’ narratives was the perception that increased spatial and temporal overlap was the greatest contributor to increasing CDIs. Points of agreement, such as those around regular human-elephant negative interactions and ineffective crop protection, may provide opportunities to build trust and prioritize initial interventions. Differences in perspectives should be investigated further to seek possible resolutions.