Intangible drivers of tolerance shape human–elephant coexistence in Southwest China

Southwest China is home to a small but rapidly expanding population of Asian elephants ( Elephas maximus ), whose growth has intensified conflicts with people living in shared landscapes. These conflicts result in substantial economic losses and occasional human casualties. This coexistence paradox—where conservation success leads to significant burdens for local communities—makes understanding human tolerance critical for sustaining both elephants and people's safety and livelihoods.

Using the Wildlife Tolerance Model, we surveyed 769 respondents across two regions representing contrasting ecological and social contexts: Xishuangbanna, where human–elephant conflict is frequent and severe, and Cangyuan, where elephants occur mostly within a nature reserve and rarely cause conflict. Within each region, we compared communities within the current elephant range with nearby communities outside the range but close enough for future recolonization, examining both external (e.g. exposure) and internal (e.g. values) drivers of tolerance, and contrasting realized tolerance under current exposure with anticipated tolerance in areas without regular elephant presence.

Respondents expressed ambivalent attitudes towards elephants—admiring their cultural significance yet showing low tolerance for proximity. Tolerance was higher in elephant‐absent than in elephant‐present areas, consistent with the contrast between anticipated and realized tolerance, and higher in the low‐conflict than in the high‐conflict region, reflecting both the psychological burden of exposure and the influence of local conflict intensity.

Tolerance was shaped less by material losses than by intangible and institutional factors. Emotional and psychological dimensions—including perceived intangible benefits, fear, trust in management authorities, and personal interest in animals—were stronger predictors of tolerance than direct economic costs. Exposure influenced tolerance indirectly through its effects on perceived intangible benefits and costs, revealing the complex emotional mechanisms underlying coexistence.

These findings demonstrate that coexistence depends as much on managing perceptions and trust as on mitigating damage. Promoting tolerance requires strategies that strengthen the sense of safety, enhance positive engagement with wildlife, and reinforce institutional trust. More broadly, these results show that conservation policy must move beyond economic compensation to address the socio‐cultural and psychological foundations of coexistence—insights essential for designing China's planned Asian Elephant National Park and for managing recovering populations of conflict‐prone megafauna globally.