Farm management and economic analyses of leopard conservation in north‐central Namibia

Abstract

We investigated the livestock farms surrounding the Waterberg Plateau Park in north-central Namibia to assess farmer attitudes, management techniques, financial impacts, as well as the potential benefits of tourism and trophy hunting, with respect to leopard Panthera pardus conservation. Farmers were asked about their use of six livestock husbandry techniques and farmers who employed at least one had 85% less reported conflict than farmers not employing any. Livestock farmers lost on average 3.8% of their calves to depredation annually (US$1370 per farm per year) but were willing to lose 3.3%, a difference of only US$180 per farm or US$3064 regionally. Where losses were higher than stated tolerance, we found that potential benefits from tourism and trophy hunting could offset losses. Surveys with tourists and professional hunters in the region strengthened this conclusion.

Are avian predators effective biological control agents for rodent pest management in agricultural systems?

“…The presence of avian predators creates less human-wildlife conflict than mammalian/reptilian predators (Stein et al, 2010), avian predators seems to be more resilient to extirpation and are able to respond more quickly than mammalian/reptilian predators to prey population fluctuations (Sekercioglu 2006). The high mobility of avian predators permits a quick response to spatially scattered rodent populations (Anderson & Erlinge 1977;Sekercioglu 2006), while in contrast, mammal predators are often sedentary and respond numerically to locally increased pest rodent populations (Anderson & Erlinge 1977).…”

Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

“…Categorisation of the first variable was based upon previous Namibian research where farmers indicated the degree to which livestock loss would be tolerable (Stein et al, 2010). Due to the fact that theft of livestock and poaching of wildlife were reported by farmers in this study to be very memorable events, initial interviews with farmers confirmed that they would be able to accurately recall instances of these activities within the last 2 years.…”

“…Financial mechanisms, such as compensation or income from tourism, have been suggested as a way to improve tolerance towards carnivores (Marker & Boast, 2015;Nelson et al, 2010;Stein et al, 2010) but some research has suggested that these methods are fraught with challenges, as the costs of wildlife presence still sometimes outweigh benefits, payments can be delayed (Kasaona, 2006) and the schemes can suffer from unequal benefit distribution (Rust & Marker, 2014) 6 . It therefore remains unknown as to what techniques are most effective and acceptable for improving carnivore coexistence on Namibian farms.…”

“…Solutions currently used to resolve this challenge include education into predator ecology and livestock management (Marker, Mills, & Macdonald, 2003), translocating problem animals (Weise, Stratford, & van Vuuren, 2014), changing husbandry practices (Stein, Fuller, Damery, Sievert, & Marker, 2010), limiting carnivore immigration into farms via fences (Rust, Nghikembua, Kasser, & Marker, 2015;Weise, Wessels, Munro, & Solberg, 2014), using guarding dogs to protect livestock (Marker, Dickman, & Macdonald, 2005;Potgieter, Marker, Avenant, & Kerley, 2013) and cooperatively managing carnivores consumptively and non-consumptively (Marker & Boast, 2015). However, livestock depredation is still increasing nationally (NACSO, 2013), which indicates that either these methods have not been widely adopted and/or may not have proven effective in some circumstances.…”

Carnivores, Colonization, and Conflict: A Qualitative Case Study on the Intersectional Persecution of Predators and People in Namibia

“…As in other areas of the world, Namibian carnivores are killed by farmers due to the perceived threat they pose to livestock (Marker, Mills and Macdonald 2003;Stein et al 2010). Despite a concerted effort to "control" "wild" animal predation of livestock through various lethal and non-lethal means, predation is increasing nationwide (NACSO 2013).…”