Speaker Shady Atallah - Coexistence, Conflict, And Wildlife Spiritual Values Among Indigenous Herders

Abstract: Wildlife cultural values, such as spiritual values, remain among the least studied in the ecosystem valuation literature and among the most difficult to estimate, limiting their use in conservation planning.

This paper provides empirical evidence on how such values shape coexistence with large carnivores by studying Indigenous Rabari pastoralists and non-Rabari herders living alongside leopards (Panthera pardus) in the Jawai–Bera region of Rajasthan, India.

Leveraging an institutional setting in which compensation for livestock losses is already well established, we design a discrete choice experiment with goat herders that varies leopard population and goat predation increases resulting from a conservation program, compensation amounts, and the administrative burdens of obtaining compensation.

Results show that, while herders generally view predation negatively, Rabari herders and others expressing strong spiritual beliefs exhibit nonlinear tolerance for predation: they derive positive marginal values from moderate predation levels—consistent with the interpretation of kills as offerings—up to a threshold beyond which welfare declines.

These preferences generate quantifiable spiritual values associated with leopards that can be incorporated into conservation benefit-cost analyses aimed to support species conservation planning. Keywords: conservation, choice experiment, herders, leopards, spiritual values.

JEL codes: Q20, Q51, Q57, Z12.