Addressing the challenges of research on human-wildlife interactions using the concept of Coupled Natural & Human Systems

 With the global expansion of human populations, research on  human-wildlife interactions (HWIs) has become increasingly important in  conservation science. Despite its growing importance, such research faces  challenges that include a bias towards evaluating wildlife- compared to  human-related aspects of interactions, limited focus on the complexity  of HWIs and their effects, assessments of more observable compared to  hidden/subtle effects, and the lack of comparative studies. Here we  review how the Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNHS) approach has  been useful to address these challenges. We demonstrate the relative  dearth in studies that have implemented CNHS approaches in the context  of HWIs, compared to human interactions with biophysical, abiotic, and  other biotic natural systems. We next review conceptual CNHS frameworks  implemented to model HWIs, their structural and functional similarities  and differences, and reveal how they help to address some, but not all,  of the afore-mentioned challenges. We then construct a general,  integrated conceptual framework for human-wildlife CNHS borrowing  elements from pre-existing frameworks, which includes a standardized  designation/nomenclature of CNHS components and their relationships and  builds on pre-existing frameworks by placing a greater emphasis on less  visible outcomes of HWIs that remain under-represented in the CNHS  literature. We discuss the potential and scope of this integrated  framework in terms of its usefulness to address the above challenges,  and the importance of moving human-wildlife CNHS frameworks from merely  providing conceptual platforms towards their analytical utility as  single ‘whole’ systems.