Differentiated payments for ecosystem services based on estimated prey consumption by lions within communal conservancies in northwest Namibia

Abstract

When effectively applied, differentiated payments for ecosystem services (DPES) can help offset certain costs incurred by communities living alongside destructive wildlife. In areas with human-lion conflict (HLC), strategies for addressing the costs of living with large carnivores have primarily focused on compensation payments for lost livestock, but a more complete approach would include the value of prey species consumed by lions that might otherwise have market value for local communities. We introduce an approach for translating the value of prey species consumed by lions from opportunity costs into DPES as one approach for assessing the costs of coexistence with lions. Because lions are unequally distributed across the landscape, efficient DPES require spatially explicit lion movement data. Using data from GPS-collared lions, we link the movements of five lions within six communal conservancies in northwest Namibia to predation rates to estimate the differentiated opportunity costs to each conservancy in the form of wild prey species consumed by lions. Using two population estimates, we show how movement and predation data could be scaled up and suggest applications for addressing other human-wildlife scenarios.