How dynamics and drivers of land use/land cover change impact elephant conservation and agricultural livelihood development in Rombo, Tanzania

Balancing African Elephant Conservation with Human Well-Being in Rombo Area, Tanzania

“…Also, [27] recorded an increase of HEC intensity over the last 10 years in India, all of which were accompanied with a human population increase and the expansion of farms. Contrary to this, although the human population has been growing and farms and settlements have expanded in the Rombo area [14,16,37], HEC is declining. This might be caused by the continued land use land cover changes coupled with an increase in human population in the nearby protected areas surrounding the farmland of the Rombo area, which might suppress elephants coming out of their protected areas by blocking their migratory routes.…”

“…This might be true for Rombo area, where there has been a decline in elephant population in KINAPA by approximately 43% between 2003 and 2010 [6,38]. In this area, humans have been competing with elephants by converting their habitat into farmland where they grow perennial and seasonal crops such as bananas, coffee, and maize [16]. Therefore to attain elephant conservation and livelihood development, it is necessary to consider human population growth and distributions as the key factor and come up with alternative land use plans.…”

“…Tanzania 3 ∘ 09 S and 37 ∘ 33 E [14], which lies between three protected areas, namely, KINAPA on the northwest and CPA and TWNP on the southeast (Figure 1) covering approximately 479 km 2 . In this area, incidences of HEC have been reported and seem to have been associated with land use/ cover changes over the past thirty years [16]. Our main focus was on three divisions (Mengwe, Mashati, and Tarakea) where most HEC cases had been reported over the recent decade.…”

“…As much as humans' activities like agriculture affect large mammal (e.g., elephant) abundance and distribution through habitat loss and poaching/overhunting, people and livestock also compete with wildlife for resources such as plant-derived forage, water, and minerals, resulting in various conflicts. During the data collection in the field, our participatory observations indicated that land use is rapidly changing in Rombo [16] and wildlife habitats are declining fast. The low to medium elevation areas of Rombo received moderate annual rainfall (500 mm) and, thus, the prospect of growing some crops as well as more settlements being developed is imminent.…”

“…Due to the blockage of the migratory routes in recent decades, elephants are coming from TWNP and raid crops in lowland areas of Rombo and go back to TWNP. In upland areas, elephants come out from KINAPA, raid the crops planted inside the forest plantation, and go back to KINAPA [16,37].…”