ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC LIVELIHOODS OF COMMUNITIES BORDERING BOUR-ALGY GIRAFFE SANCTUARY IN GARISSA, KENYA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47672/ajcs.656Keywords:
Resource Competition, Livestock and Wildlife, Crop Raids, Predation, Human Intrusion, Socio-Economic LivelihoodAbstract
Purpose: In the recent years, human-wildlife Conflicts have been increasing and its implications on biodiversity conservation and livelihood is significant in the drylands of Kenya especially in Garissa County. The link between these conflicts and socio-economic livelihoods has however been less explored in northeast Kenya, which prompted an investigation into the impact of human-wildlife conflict on socio-economic livelihoods of communities bordering Bour-Algy Giraffe Sanctuary in Garissa County.
Methodology: A survey was conducted on the locals from the location as well as other stakeholders such as local administration that is village elders and chiefs, Kenya Wildlife Service as well county government officials from the department of Agriculture, Environment and Livestock. Both qualitative (KII) and quantitative (Structured questionnaire) were used. The qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The impact of Human Wildlife conflicts on socio-economic livelihood was established through Pearson correlation while the moderating effect of legal framework was established through a multivariate moderated regression model.
Findings: The results indicated that resource competition between livestock and wildlife is associated with a significant decrease in socio-economic livelihood, crop raids and predation were associated with an insignificant decrease in socio-economic livelihood, human intrusion affected socio-economic livelihood in a negative and significant manner. The findings led to the conclusion that increasing HWC was associated with economic losses, reduced income and increased costs which deteriorated socio-economic livelihood.
Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends the county government of Garissa to work hand collectively with the local community to ensure minimization of resource competition by building more watering points, passing laws to prevent land encroachment, implementation of policies that aim to penalize and discourage hunting and poaching the wildlife, expanding the grazing land towards the sanctuary, intruding the sanctuary in order to harvest honey, massive deforestation activities to expand the human territory towards the sanctuary and cutting down trees to get fuel and expanding agricultural land.
Downloads
References
Averbeck, C., Apio, A., Plath, M., & Wronski, T. (2009). Environmental parameters and anthropogenic effects predicting the spatial distribution of wild ungulates in the Akagera savannah ecosystem. African Journal of Ecology, 47(4), 756-766.
Boitani, L., Ciucci, P. and Raganella-Pellicioni, E. (2010). Ex-post compensation payments for wolf predation on livestock in Italy: a tool for compensation? Wildlife Research, 37, 722- 730
Butt, B., & Turner, M. D. (2012). Clarifying competition: the case of wildlife and pastoral livestock in East Africa. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 2(1), 1-15.
Hoare, R. (1995). Options for the control of elephants in conflict with people. Pachyderm NO: 19, 1995
Hoffman, T and O’ Riain, M. (2012). Monkey management: using spatial ecology to understand the extent and severity of Human-Baboon conflict in the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.
IUCN (2005). Benefits beyond boundaries. 5th IUCN World park congress. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge. UK
Kagiri, J.W (2000). Human-Wildlife conflict in Kenya: A conflict resolution concept. Farmers perspectives 43-45
Kagoro-Rugunda, G. 2004. Crop raiding around Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda. African Journal of Ecology, 42, 32-41.
Karl Marx (1971). Theory of Conflict: A defense: Oxford: Oxford University Press. (A masterpiece of sustained interpretative argument).
Kenya wildlife service (KWS). (1996). Human wildlife conflict in Kenya report of the five-person review group. KWS. Nairobi
Kiiru W. (1995). The current status of human-elephant conflict in Kenya. Pachyderm No 19, 1995
KWS Annual report (2016). Human-wildlife conflict in the protected areas
Madden, F. (2008). The growing conflict between humans and wildlife: law and policy as the contributing and mitigating factors. Journal of international wildlife law and policy, 11:189-206
Madden, F. 2004. Creating Coexistence between Humans and Wildlife: Global Perspectives on Local Efforts to Address Human–Wildlife Conflict. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 9, 247-257
Madhusudan, M. (2003). Living amidst large wildlife: livestock and crop depredation by large mammals in the interior villages of Bhadra Tiger reserve, South India. Environmental management, 31(4): 466-475
McGregor, J. (2005). Crocodile crimes: people versus wildlife and the politics of post-colonial conservation. Geo forum 36 (2005) 353-369
Mfunda, I. M., & Røskaft, E. (2011). Wildlife or crop production: the dilemma of conservation and human livelihoods in Serengeti, Tanzania. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 7(1), 39-49.
Mojo, D., Oduor, A. M., Fu, C., Bai, Y., Long, H., Wang, G., and Zhang, L. (2018). The effects of protected areas on the welfare of local communities: The case of Maasai Mara national reserve in Kenya. 30th International Conference of Agricultural Economists.
Mugenda, O.M & Mugenda, A.G. (2008). Research methods: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. Nairobi: ACTS Press.
Mukeka, J. M., Ogutu, J. O., Kanga, E. and Røskaft, E. (2019). Human-wildlife conflicts and their correlates in Narok County, Kenya. Global Ecology and Conservation, 18, e00620.
Ngure, N. (1994). Environmental and social impact assessment of the proposed electric fence in Taita-Taveta district. KWS elephant and community wildlife programme.
Nyhus, P. J., Tilson, R. & Sumianto, R. 2000. Crop-raiding elephants and conservation implications
Ogra, (2008). Human-Wildlife conflict and gender in protected area borderlands: A case study of cost, perception and vulnerabilities from Uttarakhand India. Geo forum 39(2008) 1408-1422
Peterson, M. N., Birckhead, J. L., Leong, K., Peterson, M. J. & Peterson, T. R. 2010. Rearticulating the myth of human–wildlife conflict. Conservation Letters, 3, 74-82
Sommer, U. (2002). Competition and coexistence in plankton communities. In Competition and coexistence (pp. 79-108). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Woodroffe, R., Thirgood, S. & Rabinowitz, A. (eds.) People and Wildlife: Conflict or Coexistence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Mohamed Osman Ahmed, Ahmed Maalim Mohamed, Mohamud Hashir Ali, Isaiah N. Sitati
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
