Small-sized protected areas face increasing pressures from developmental activities and are often rendered inadequate and isolated to conserve wide-ranging species. However, in situations where wildlife persists outside protected areas, conservation goals may be met by aligning the ecological needs of wildlife with the socio-economic needs of local communities and offsetting losses arising due to shared spaces. We explore the potential of a tea-plantation dominated landscape of multiple land-use in north-eastern India to conserve the Asian elephant and the Indian leopard. We assess conservation potential by identifying predictors of species use of particular habitats using species distribution models and identify challenges by reviewing the available literature. Elephants used ~680 km² of this 1200 km² non-forested landscape; within this area, habitats with a higher proportion of deciduous forest patches were favored. Leopards were found to be ubiquitous in tea-plantation and used ~950 km² of the study area, with the proportion of tea cover being the single best predictor of leopard habitat-use. With more than 30 human deaths and 100 injuries per year caused by these two species in the study area alone, the high frequency of human casualties and economic losses remain the prime hurdles to long-term conservation efforts. We discuss specific mitigation measures to reduce human casualties and call for the inclusion of important stakeholders in the mitigation process. The study provides a template for identifying conservation-compatible landscapes outside protected areas and a framework for identifying challenges and potential to mitigate current or future conservation conflicts.

小型保护区面临着来自发展活动的越来越大的压力，并且往往不足以保护孤立的物种。但是，在野生生物仍在保护区之外的情况下，可以通过使野生生物的生态需求与当地社区的社会经济需求保持一致并抵消因共享空间而造成的损失来实现保护目标。我们探索了印度东北部以茶树为主的多种土地利用方式的潜力，以保护亚洲象和印度豹。我们通过使用物种分布模型确定特定栖息地物种使用的预测因子来评估保护潜力，并通过回顾现有文献来确定挑战。象使用〜680公里²的这个1200公里²非森林景观；在该地区，落叶林斑块比例较高的栖息地受到青睐。发现豹子在茶园中无处不在，使用了大约950 km ²在研究区域中，茶的覆盖率是豹子栖息地使用的唯一最佳预测指标。仅在这两个研究区域，这两个物种每年就造成30多人死亡和100伤害，高人员伤亡和经济损失仍然是长期保护工作的主要障碍。我们讨论了减少人员伤亡的具体缓解措施，并呼吁在缓解过程中纳入重要的利益相关者。该研究提供了一个模板，用于识别保护区外与保护相适应的景观，以及一个框架，以识别缓解当前或未来保护冲突的挑战和潜力。