A comparison between human-carnivore conflicts and local community attitudes toward carnivores in Westgate Community Conservancy, Samburu, Kenya

Mitchell, Allison; Bruyere, Brett L.; Otieno, Tobias O.; Bhalla, Shivani; Teel, Tara L.

doi:10.1080/10871209.2018.1548671

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Leopards typically prefer species weighing 15-40 kg (Hayward et al, 2006), while spotted hyenas prefer prey weighing 56-182 kg (mode = 102 kg; Hayward, 2006). However, the predominance of cattle in the hyena depredation records was considerably higher than previous studies implemented in both Kenya, and Tanzania (e.g., Kissui, 2008;Mitchell, Bruyere, Otieno, Bhalla, & Teel, 2019). These studies found stronger overlap between leopard and hyena diets.…”

Section: Livestock Depredation Characteristics and Spatial Drivers contrasting

confidence: 64%

Evidence for increasing human‐wildlife conflict despite a financial compensation scheme on the edge of a Ugandan National Park

Braczkowski

Fattebert

Schenk³

et al. 2020

Conservat Sci and Prac

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The conflict of large carnivores and agro-pastoral communities is a key driver of carnivore decline globally. The East African state of Uganda relies heavily on tourism as a GDP contributor and large carnivores are important for generating visitor revenue in its national parks. African leopards, spotted hyenas and African lions are three species that draw significant tourist attention but also cause damage to the livestock of human communities living on Ugandan national park edges. A private safari lodge in the Lake Mburo National Park has been using a financial compensation scheme in an attempt to stem conflict between these species and human communities living in the region since 2009. Financial compensations have produced mixed results with some studies reporting successes in reducing carnivore deaths, while others warn against their use, citing moral hazard, financial unsustainability and weakened protection of livestock by farmers. We sought to assess the characteristics of this compensation scheme and the patterns of conflict between Bahima pastoralist communities and carnivores that the scheme aims to mitigate. Using a dataset of 1,102 leopard and hyena depredation events (January 2009-December 2018) we found that spotted hyenas were responsible for the overwhelming majority of livestock depredation (69%) around Lake Mburo. Depredations occurred mostly at night (97% and 89% of all depredation for spotted hyenas and leopards respectively) and inside livestock protective pens (bomas). Depredation was more likely to occur in rugged areas, closer to human settlements, and the national park border, and further away from water. We could find no evidence of seasonality in depredation events. Our most important, albeit worrying result was that conflict had increased dramatically over time and the number of depredation claims had tripled in the period from 2014-2018 when compared to 2009-2013, risking financial unsustainability of the scheme. Our results are important for future conservation stakeholders attempting to implement financial compensation in the broader Ugandan landscape. They suggest

show abstract

Section: Livestock Depredation Characteristics and Spatial Drivers contrasting

confidence: 64%

Evidence for increasing human‐wildlife conflict despite a financial compensation scheme on the edge of a Ugandan National Park

Braczkowski

Fattebert

Schenk³

et al. 2020

Conservat Sci and Prac

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Sample sizes for studies using purposive sampling can vary widely (e.g. Lee et al, 2017;Rust, 2017;Bashari et al, 2018;Redford et al, 2018;Mitchell et al, 2019), and we note that our sample size is within the range of other similar published studies. Criticisms of non-experimental evaluations such as ours include accounting for the effect of potential confounding factors on the achievement of program outcomes, which for our study might include changes in enforcement activity, fluctuations in incident reporting rates, variations in large carnivore populations, lack of actual participation despite signing up, or access to other programming unbeknownst to ourselves (Woodhouse et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Carnivores and Communities: A Case Study of Human-Carnivore Conflict Mitigation in Southwestern Alberta

Morehouse¹,

Hughes

Manners³

et al. 2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Facilitating long-term coexistence between people and large carnivores is a persistent, global conservation challenge. Evidence-based decisions to help design and implement programs that promote coexistence between people and carnivores are required. Using a case study approach, we evaluated the effectiveness of conflict mitigation efforts of a community-based program in southwestern Alberta, Canada: the Waterton Biosphere Reserve's (WBR) Carnivores and Communities Program (CACP). The CACP's overall goal is to support coexistence of people and large carnivores through initiatives including reducing livestock loss, damage to stored crops, and safety risks from carnivores by engaging residents in hands-on programming. We used an online survey to assess program participants' general awareness of and motivation to engage in the CACP, safety risks associated with living with large carnivores, and attractant management and deadstock removal programming. We received 116 completed surveys. Survey results indicated that participants felt the CACP effectively reduced conflicts with large carnivores, increased their sense of safety when living with large carnivores, and enabled them to learn skills and gain confidence in using mitigation tools (e.g., bear spray). We also evaluated temporal trends in large carnivore conflicts using occurrence records (i.e., complaint data) from 1999 through 2016. We classified these data into incidents (e.g., situations where carnivores caused property damage, obtained anthropogenic food, killed or attempted to kill livestock or pets) and focussed on incidents related to attractants, including deadstock. We focus our incident review on grizzly bears because most agricultural attractant incidents in the study area are caused by grizzly bears. We used a Chow test to evaluate if the 2009 CACP commencement represented a break point or structural change in the data. Although total reported incidents increased from 1999 through 2016, we show both reported attractant and deadstock-based incidents changed from increasing to decreasing after the CACP implementation in 2009. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of a contextually specific, community-based approach to addressing human-carnivore conflicts. More broadly, our evaluation and lessons learned provide other conservation organizations with a useful framework for addressing human-carnivore or other wildlife conflicts.

show abstract

“…These species were chosen because they are the primary livestock predators in Tanzania (Kissui, 2008;Mkonyi et al, 2017) and can pose a direct threat to human lives (Peterhans and Gnoske, 2001). Several studies have also suggested that, in other communities, there are differences in the emotions that people have toward the species (Sibanda et al, 2020), the cultural importance the species have (Gebresenbet et al, 2018), the extent of livestock depredation the species cause (Okello et al, 2014;Lichtenfeld et al, 2015), and how people want them managed (Mitchell et al, 2019). Each variable involves different psychological levels and pathways: emotions are linked to affective pathways (inferring feelings or emotions), cultural importance to cognitive pathways (inferring thoughts or beliefs; Healey and Grossman, 2018), and livestock depredation is largely external to individual control.…”

Section: Mccoy and Berry 2008mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Communities also may place different cultural importance on different species of large carnivore. For example, a study in Kenya found that leopards were more culturally important to the Samburu community than African wild dogs, which in turn predicted the differing acceptance of the protection of the two species (Mitchell et al, 2019). Thus, to understand the relationship between cultural importance and the acceptance of different management strategies for wildlife, it is important to recognize inter-specific differences in perception.…”

Section: Mccoy and Berry 2008mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotions and Cultural Importance Predict the Acceptance of Large Carnivore Management Strategies by Maasai Pastoralists

Dheer

Davidian

Jacobs

et al. 2021

Front. Conserv. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Management strategies to reduce human-carnivore conflict are most effective when accepted by local communities. Previous studies have suggested that the acceptance depends on emotions toward carnivores, the cultural importance of carnivores, and livestock depredation, and that it may vary depending on the types of strategies and carnivores involved. However, no study so far considered these factors simultaneously to compare their influence on the acceptance of management strategies. We quantified the predictive potential of these factors on the acceptance of three management strategies frequently applied to mitigate human-carnivore conflict: no action, relocation, and lethal control. We interviewed 100 members of the Maasai community in Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. We used structured, closed questionnaires and focused on the three large carnivores involved in the most depredation regionally: spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), lions (Panthera leo), and leopards (Panthera pardus). We found that the majority of respondents accepted no action and rejected relocation and lethal control for all three carnivores. The acceptance of the management strategies was strongly influenced by the emotion joy and by the cultural importance of carnivores, and the effects of joy and cultural importance were stronger than the effect of livestock depredation. We conclude that authorities should evaluate the emotions and cultural importance that local communities associate with carnivores when seeking to gain acceptance of management strategies and account for differences between species. Finally, we recommend that future human-carnivore coexistence studies should consider the socio-psychology of local communities and be done longitudinally to detect shifts in cultural, emotional, and ecological factors over time.

show abstract

A comparison between human-carnivore conflicts and local community attitudes toward carnivores in Westgate Community Conservancy, Samburu, Kenya

Cited by 16 publications

References 20 publications

Evidence for increasing human‐wildlife conflict despite a financial compensation scheme on the edge of a Ugandan National Park

Evidence for increasing human‐wildlife conflict despite a financial compensation scheme on the edge of a Ugandan National Park

Carnivores and Communities: A Case Study of Human-Carnivore Conflict Mitigation in Southwestern Alberta

Emotions and Cultural Importance Predict the Acceptance of Large Carnivore Management Strategies by Maasai Pastoralists

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About