Small farmers’ adoption behaviour: Uptake of elephant crop-raiding deterrent innovations in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Noga, Sekondeko Ronnie; Kolawole, Oluwatoyin Dare; Thakadu, Olekae Tsompi; Masunga, Gaseitsiwe

doi:10.1080/20421338.2015.1096511

Cited by 22 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our study shows the need to adopt a holistic management of HWIs that accounts for multiple species and acknowledges the diversity and needs of people. Current mitigation methods only for elephant conservation in the Okavango delta require considerable effort and financial investment from local farmers (Noga et al 2015(Noga et al , 2018. These methods include planting less palatable crops, building chili fences, setting up crop guards, building beehive fences, and implementing landuse planning techniques (e.g., Noga et al 2015;Pozo et al 2017b;Pozo et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current mitigation methods only for elephant conservation in the Okavango delta require considerable effort and financial investment from local farmers (Noga et al 2015(Noga et al , 2018. These methods include planting less palatable crops, building chili fences, setting up crop guards, building beehive fences, and implementing landuse planning techniques (e.g., Noga et al 2015;Pozo et al 2017b;Pozo et al 2018). On top of this, farmers must also build livestock enclosures (kraals) and change herding practices to protect cattle against depredation by large carnivores that occurs at different times of the year (Weise et al 2018;LeFlore et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A multispecies assessment of wildlife impacts on local community livelihoods

Pozo

LeFlore

Duthie

et al. 2020

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Conflicts between the interests of agriculture and wildlife conservation are a major threat to biodiversity and human well-being globally. Addressing such conflicts requires a thorough understanding of the impacts associated with living alongside protected wildlife. Despite this, most studies reporting on human-wildlife impacts and the strategies used to mitigate them focus on a single species, thus oversimplifying often complex systems of human-wildlife interactions. We sought to characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of impacts by multiple co-occurring species on agricultural livelihoods in the eastern Okavango Delta Panhandle in northern Botswana through the use of a database of 3264 wildlife-incident reports recorded from 2009 to 2015 by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. Eight species (African elephants [Loxodonta africana], hippopotamuses [Hippopotamus amphibious], lions [Panthera leo], cheetah [Acinonyx jubatus], African wild dogs [Lycaon pictus], hyenas [Crocuta crocuta], leopards [Panthera pardus], and crocodiles [Crocodylus niloticus]) appeared on incident reports, of which 56.5% were attributed to elephants. Most species were associated with only 1 type of damage (i.e., either crop damage or livestock loss). Carnivores were primarily implicated in incident reports related to livestock loss, particularly toward the end of the dry season (May-October). In contrast, herbivores were associated with crop-loss incidents during the wet season (November-April). Our results illustrate how local communities can face distinct livelihood challenges from different species at different times of the year. Such a multispecies assessment has important implications for the design of conservation interventions aimed at addressing the costs of living with wildlife and thereby mitigation of the underlying conservation conflict. Our spatiotemporal, multispecies approach is widely applicable to other regions where sustainable and long-term solutions to conservation conflicts are needed for local communities and biodiversity.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multispecies assessment of wildlife impacts on local community livelihoods

Pozo

LeFlore

Duthie

et al. 2020

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One study evaluated barriers and adoption rates for chili and beehive fences (Noga et al. ), and 1 evaluated electric fencing (Pekor et al. ).…”

Section: Beyond Efficacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whether community members will adopt a particular mitigation tool depends on that tool being perceived as effective, and viewed positively (Noga et al. ). It can take a long time to modify entrenched attitudes toward specific tools and overcome suspicion and resistance to change (O'Connell et al.…”

Section: Potential Barriers To Uptake Of Hec Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rethinking assessment of success of mitigation strategies for elephant‐induced crop damage

Snyder

Rentsch

2020

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Crop damage is the most common impact of negative interactions between people and elephants and poses a significant threat to rural livelihoods and conservation efforts. Numerous approaches to mitigate and prevent crop damage have been implemented throughout Africa and Asia. Despite the documented high efficacy of many approaches, losses remain common, and in many areas, damage is intensifying. We examined the literature on effectiveness of crop-damage-mitigation strategies and identified key gaps in evaluations. We determined there is a need to better understand existing solutions within affected communities and to extend evaluations of effectiveness beyond measurement of efficacy to include rates of and barriers to adoption. We devised a conceptual framework for evaluating effectiveness that incorporates the need for increased emphasis on adoption and can be used to inform the design of future crop-damage mitigation assessments for elephants and conflict species more widely. The ability to prevent crop loss in practice is affected by both the efficacy of a given approach and rates of uptake among target users. We identified the primary factors that influence uptake as local attitudes, sustainability, and scalability and examined each of these factors in detail. We argue that even moderately efficacious interventions may make significant progress in preventing damage if widely employed and recommend that wherever possible scientists and practitioners engage with communities to build on and strengthen existing solutions and expertise. When new approaches are required, they should align with local attitudes and fit within limitations on labor, financial requirements, and technical capacity.

show abstract

Crop diversity and susceptibility of crop fields to elephant raids in eastern Okavango Panhandle, northern Botswana

Matsika

Masunga

Makati

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Elephants frequently raid crops within their ranges in Africa and Asia. These raids can greatly impact agricultural productivity and food security for farmers. Therefore, there is a need to explore cost-effective measures that would reduce the susceptibility of crops and agricultural fields to elephant raiding, and further promote sustainable human-elephant coexistence. Previous studies have examined the susceptibility of crop fields to elephant raids using field characteristics such as field size and proximity to water sources. However, there are limited studies investigating how different crop types, individually and in their combinations, influence crop susceptibility to elephant raiding. This study utilized data collected from crop fields raided by the African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) between 2008 and 2018 in the eastern Okavango Panhandle, northern Botswana. Data on crops grown, number of crop-raiding incidences for each crop, and elephant raiding incidences were recorded for each field assessed. Incidence risks (IR) and field risk value (RV) were computed using an adaptive epidemiological approach. The results showed that elephant raiding incidents varied significantly amongst crop types over space and time (p < .0001). Cereal crops (millet: Eleusine conaracana, maize: Zea mays) incurred a higher number of crop-raiding incidents compared with leguminous crops (cowpea: Vigna unguiculata; groundnut: Arachis hypogea). Field RVs significantly varied depending on which crop was present in the field. There was a significant negative correlation between the number of crop types and the susceptibility of the field to raiding (r = −0.680, p < .0001). Our results suggest that the susceptibility of the fields to elephant raids could be minimized by selecting crop types and combinations less susceptible to elephant damage, thus enhancing food security for local subsistence farmers.

show abstract

Small farmers’ adoption behaviour: Uptake of elephant crop-raiding deterrent innovations in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Cited by 22 publications

References 46 publications

A multispecies assessment of wildlife impacts on local community livelihoods

A multispecies assessment of wildlife impacts on local community livelihoods

Rethinking assessment of success of mitigation strategies for elephant‐induced crop damage

Crop diversity and susceptibility of crop fields to elephant raids in eastern Okavango Panhandle, northern Botswana

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About