Human-Elephant Conflict Around Moukalaba-Doudou National Park in Gabon: Socioeconomic Changes and Effects of Conservation Projects on Local Tolerance

Abstract

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) poses a serious problem in Africa for both local livelihoods and elephant conservation. Elephant damage is the price local people pay for coexisting with this species, and is assumed to reduce tolerance for elephants. However, conservation-related projects, through the benefits they offer may enhance local tolerance toward elephants. This study aimed to examine how crop damage by elephants and the benefits gained from conservation activities affect local people’s tolerance toward elephants around Moukalaba-Doudou National Park in southwest Gabon based on long-term ethnographic research and interview surveys in two periods (2010 and 2019). Based on the results, crop damage by elephants had a significant negative impact on the local social economy, leading to a decrease in human population in the area and making local people highly resentful of elephants. However, in one of the villages where employment from research and conservation activities was concentrated, many acknowledged the benefits associated with wildlife and expressed high tolerance for elephants. These findings suggest that benefits from conservation activities can increase tolerance toward elephants, which is negatively affected by the crop damage they cause. However, it should also be noted that externally generated projects have limitations and drawbacks. It is important to establish a system in which the benefits of conservation are shared widely and distributed appropriately, and wherein income resources are diversified. Multisectoral interventions focusing on local socio-ecological vulnerability are needed to mitigate human-elephant conflict and advance the conservation of African elephants.

Modeling environmental regulations in regional green economy efficiency of Halimun Salak: Empirical Evidence from National Park

“…To understand the interplay of emotional, institutional and cosmological encounters that nature conservation requires requires anthropology to focus not only on how groups of people are affected by external forces such as conservation, but also on how relationships are created and maintained between indigenous populations and conservationists. Terada, et al, (2021) also stated that poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are interrelated and need to be tackled together. However, it is difficult to integrate conservation and development, and there are many projects that have not been very successful.…”

Human–elephant interaction: Community perspectives on conflict mitigation and conservation mechanisms

“…Numerous studies show that negative perceptions often undermine conservation efforts (Epanda et al, 2019; Roe & Booker, 2019; Terada et al, 2021). Therefore, understanding the relationships between HEC and community perception of elephants is crucial in rural areas of developing countries as local people are mainly dependent on natural resources for their livelihood (Barua et al, 2013; Hill, 2004).…”

“…Social scientists, ecologists, policymakers, and so forth, have begun to acknowledge the agency of animals in research and focus on their presence and effect. Many research studies have invoked the actor‐network theory (Latour, 1999) that leans on the social relations of individual human actors—their frequency, distribution, homogeneity, and proximity with the non‐human entities, wildlife tolerance model (Kansky et al, 2016; Terada et al, 2021) that defines “tolerance” as “the ability and willingness of an individual to absorb the extra potential or actual costs of living with wildlife,” more‐than‐human geography of human–elephant interaction that influences “social” outcomes (de Silva & Srinivasan, 2019; Lorimer, 2007), and so forth, to gain insights into the socio‐cultural aspects of HEC. Tolerance is also used in various contexts in conservation literature (Knox et al, 2021).…”

Linking crop availability, forest elephant visitation and perceptions of human–elephant interactions in villages bordering Ivindo National Park, Gabon

“…Human–elephant interactions are common around villages in Gabon, whose estimated c. 95,000 forest elephants represent over half of the remaining global population (Maisels et al, 2013; Laguardia et al, 2021). Pervasive foraging by forest elephants in crops (often referred to as crop raiding) threatens the food security of local people and increases their antipathy towards conservation efforts (Walker, 2010; Ngama et al, 2016; Terada et al, 2021). Consequently, it is important to characterize the spatial and temporal patterns of elephant activities around villages to design effective management interventions for minimizing negative human–elephant interactions.…”