Managing Wildlife Tolerance to Humans for Ecosystem Goods and Services

Meaning and Introduction Wildlife tolerance to humans refers to the ability of different animal and plant species to adjust, survive, and sometimes even thrive in landscapes dominated or influenced by humans. As human activities expand—through agriculture, forestry, infrastructure development, and urbanization—the boundaries between wild habitats and human settlements become increasingly blurred. In such shared landscapes, the future of biodiversity conservation largely depends on how wildlife species respond to human presence and how humans, in turn, manage their tolerance of wildlife. This concept is particularly important when viewed through the lens of ecosystem goods and services (EGS) . Ecosystem goods (such as food, timber, and medicinal plants) are the tangible resources people directly harvest from ecosystems, while ecosystem services (such as pollination, climate regulation, soil fertility, and ecotourism) are the indirect benefits ecosystems provide. Managing wildli...