Conservation protection alleviates poverty nationwide in Costa Rica and Thailand!

A great paper that shows that when protected areas were set up in the 70s and 80s in Costa Rica and Thailand, the surrounding regions had the lowest national average poverty indices. Today these areas have dramatically increased their poverty status (see caveats below). The mechanism by which this is acting is unclear at the moment (some hypotheses below) but its great news for conservation! - MA

Andam KS, Ferraro PJ, Sims KR, Healy A, Holland MB (2010)Protected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand. PNAS. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914177107 [open access]

Protected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand
Abstract
As global efforts to protect ecosystems expand, the socioeconomic impact of protected areas on neighboring human communities continues to be a source of intense debate. The debate persists because previous studies do not directly measure socioeconomic outcomes and do not use appropriate comparison groups to account for potential confounders. We illustrate an approach using comprehensive national datasets and quasi-experimental matching methods. We estimate impacts of protected area systems on poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand and find that although communities near protected areas are indeed substantially poorer than national averages, an analysis based on comparison with appropriate controls does not support the hypothesis that these differences can be attributed to protected areas. In contrast, the results indicate that the net impact of ecosystem protection was to alleviate poverty.

From the discussion [bold added]:

Despite the differences in Costa Rica's and Thailand's institutions, economic development trajectories, and protected area system histories, we find no evidence that their protected areas systems have exacerbated poverty on average in neighboring communities. In fact, we find the opposite: if anything, protected areas have reduced poverty. This result is remarkable given that previous studies have shown that protected area systems in these two nations have reduced deforestation. These results thus support recent claims, based on an examination of World Bank project evaluations, that biodiversity conservation is not necessarily incompatible with development goals. Our results also suggest that protecting biodiversity can contribute to both environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation, two of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals...

...Our analysis does not elucidate the specific mechanisms through which protected areas may have reduced poverty. We speculate that benefits to local residents have included tourism business opportunities, investments in human and physical capital by national and international agents, and the maintenance of ecosystem services. Research to understand these mechanisms is a clear future priority...

... Costa Rica and Thailand are not representative of all developing nations. They have both experienced rapid macroeconomic growth, have had relatively stable political systems, have made substantial investments in their protected area systems, and have relatively successful eco-tourism sectors. Thus whether our results would hold for other nations is an open question... Only through multination replications and extensions can we obtain a global picture of the impacts of protected areas on human welfare.

Thanks to Dieter L for the link!

Annual monkey feast in Lopburi.

Its not the greatest example of human/wildlife interactions, but at least its not polar bear canabalism

Monkeys learn to floss from mom

by Charles Q. Choi from National Geographic News (Monkeys That Floss With Human Hair Learn From Mom?) -March 12, 2009

Long-tailed macaque monkeys teach their babies to clean their teeth, according to a new study that says females slow down and exaggerate their motions when they notice their young watching them floss.

Macaques living near a Buddhist shrine in Lopburi, Thailand, are known to pull out hair from visitors to use as floss.
Worshipers see the monkeys as divine servants, the researchers said, which helps explain why people let the macaques pull out their hair.
About 50 of these monkeys have been seen jerking strands of hair back and forth between their teeth. Similar behavior has been seen before using coconut fibers or twigs.
To find out how the macaques learn to floss, primatologist Nobuo Masataka at Kyoto University and his colleagues scattered 8-inch-long (20-centimeter-long) hairs from a wig throughout the shrine and videotaped the primates in action.
The researchers focused on seven female adult macaques, each with a one-year-old infant.
When the mothers sat face-to-face with their young, each bout of flossing took roughly twice as long as usual, and the mothers paused and repeated themselves about twice as often.
Markedly similar exaggeration of actions occurs in humans between mothers and children, Masataka said. Scientists have dubbed this teaching behavior motionese.
"These findings suggest education is a very ancient trait in the primate lineage," Masataka said. The last time humans shared an ancestor with macaques, according to genetic analysis, was roughly 25 million years ago.
Further research is needed to confirm if and when the infant monkeys are actually learning to floss from these lessons, Masataka noted.

Findings detailed in the journal PLoS ONE. (Masataka N, Koda H, Urasopon N, Watanabe K, 2009 Free-Ranging Macaque Mothers Exaggerate Tool-Using Behavior when Observed by Offspring. PLoS ONE 4(3): e4768. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004768)