biodiversity

Living with big cats 

Before we arrived in India, we had a certain eurocentric picture of human-wildlife conflict and its challenging mitigation. Unfortunately, where humans and large carnivores share space, a diversity of conflicts can emerge. And across Europe, there is a low tolerance for the presence of these species.

So what can we expect as we reach the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which is regarded as the second most affected state by human-tiger conflicts in the whole country?

What needs to be done to make sure humans and big cats coexist peacefully now and in the future? Nowhere is this question more evident than in India, where around 32 million people are already living as next-door-neighbors to tigers in a country that hosts over 70% of the world’s remaining wild tigers.

A genetic technology that will reveal the true biodiversity of the Caucasus

With modern genetic sequencing techniques, DNA barcoding has the potential to dramatically accelerate the inventory of biodiversity on Earth, providing a basis for global conservation monitoring. Just like we began to record weather in the 19th century, which now provides the information that allows us to recognize the climate crisis and make predictions for the future, DNA barcoding provides similar opportunities for biodiversity.