I'm delighted to say that after years of work on this, we have published a definition of “human-wildlife coexistence” in a briefing document now available on our IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group (HWCCSG) Library of Policy documents here: https://www.hwctf.org/policies
Given the widespread use of the term and range of definitions in use, the Understanding Coexistence Working Group I lead for the HWCCSG with friends and colleagues Silvio Marchini, Juliette Young, Kate Hill, Linnell John D. C., Jenny Anne Glikman, BEATRICE FRANK, Greta Francesca Iori and Camilla Sandström started working on developing a definition in 2024.
The definition and accompanying interpretative notes are grounded in analysis of a coexistence workshop we convened for wildlife conservationists at Pathways Europe in 2024, and internal HWCCSG workshops, as well as the experience and work of Working Group members. It has been in turns fascinating, inspiring, exhausting, frustrating and challenging to tease out the different perspectives from a wonderfully diverse set of conservation thinkers and practitioners. Anyone who has attempted the compression and compromises required for a useable short definition will know how hard this is! Further details including acknowledgements are included in the document.