Transdisciplinary approaches to human-wildlife coexistence: developing a social-ecological indicator to bridge local and global conservation efforts

COEXIST addresses the urgent need to consider and integrate issues related to Human-Wildlife Relationships (HWR) into global biodiversity policies. Despite growing recognition of these issues, conservation science and practice lack tools to capture the social-ecological complexity of HWR. This project aims to (1) uncover the complexity of HWR in practice through transdisciplinary fieldwork, (2) harness transdisciplinary evidence into a scalable and actionable policy tool for biodiversity conservation, and (3) map out the mechanisms that enable the integration of local knowledge into global biodiversity policies. COEXIST will achieve these objectives through the co-construction of a social-ecological indicator able to monitor HWR issues. We propose to carry out this project under a 33-month MSCA-PF-GF. COEXIST will implement an innovative travelling fieldwork methodology across diverse Thai landscapes and communities, offering unique social-ecological diversity and complexity. This approach combines ecological modelling, participatory mapping, and narrative elicitation. The resulting evidence will inform the co-construction of an innovative compound indicator in collaboration with a wide range of actors, including academics, policymakers and civil society, especially Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, and regional support centres of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This indicator will be tested and presented within the CBD framework, contributing to Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which lacks an indicator to monitor conservation efforts related to HWR issues. By bridging local knowledge and global policy, COEXIST provides a replicable model for inclusive, evidence-based conservation that aligns with the global biodiversity policy timeline. It supports the MSCA Work Programme by advancing inter- and transdisciplinary research, strengthening science-policy interfaces, and promoting equitable biodiversity governance.