Contrasting perceptions of ecosystem services of an African forest park (original) (raw)
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Changing perceptions of protected area benefits and problems around Kibale National Park, Uganda
Journal of environmental management, 2017
Local residents' changing perceptions of benefits and problems from living next to a protected area in western Uganda are assessed by comparing household survey data from 2006, 2009, and 2012. Findings are contextualized and supported by long-term data sources for tourism, protected area-based employment, tourism revenue sharing, resource access agreements, and problem animal abundance. We found decreasing perceived benefit and increasing perceived problems associated with the protected area over time, with both trends dominated by increased human-wildlife conflict due to recovering elephant numbers. Proportions of households claiming benefit from specific conservation strategies were increasing, but not enough to offset crop raiding. Ecosystem services mitigated perceptions of problems. As human and animal populations rise, wildlife authorities in Sub-Saharan Africa will be challenged to balance perceptions and adapt policies to ensure the continued existence of protected areas...
Concerns and benefits of park-adjacent communities in Northern Ghana: the case of Mole National Park
Protected areas are increasingly becoming islands of habitat surrounded by seas of cultivation and development. Communities experience both costs and benefits associated with nearby PAs, and perception of these influence support for PAs and subsequent conservation related behaviors. This paper explores the concerns and benefits of 10 adjacent communities surrounding Mole National Park in Ghana using key informants, focus groups and household surveys. Overall, most people have a positive attitude towards the park. Yet, in many communities respondents also have negative attitudes. Crop depredation, loss of farmlands, and lack of access to NTFPs are the top three concerns. Increased conservation awareness, provision of ecosystem services and maintenance of cultural identity are the top three benefits. This study examined a number of factors thought to influence attitudes to PAs, and found that the strongest predictor of a community’s attitude towards the park is whether it is involved in a community resource management area (CREMA). Other factors such as distance from the PA, involvement in tourism, culture, and demographics (age and gender) were also significant but of less importance. Knowledge of these influential factors can assist management to create more favourable perceptions of protected areas Keywords: Protected areas; national parks; adjacent communities; benefits of PAs; concerns of PAs
Tropical Conservation Science
The success of biodiversity conservation in African countries depends to a large extend on the cooperation of local communities. This study compared factors that influence attitudes of local communities toward the conservation of the Tarangire National Park (Tarangire NP) in Tanzania and Mole National Park (Mole NP) in Ghana. The purpose was to find out if the predominantly agricultural-communities around the Mole NP in Ghana will differ in park-attitude than the predominantly pastoral-communities around the Tarangire NP in Tanzania. Household survey was used to assess attitudes and focus group discussions used to elicit further information from respondents to complement the survey data. The study surveyed 365 households in 7 villages: 3 villages adjacent to the Tarangire NP and 4 villages adjacent to the Mole NP. There was significant difference between the park-attitudes of residents in communities near the Mole NP and their counterparts in communities near the Tarangire NP. However, respondents in both countries showed slightly positive and negative attitudes toward the parks as ecological entities and as community development agents, respectively. Factors that had significant effects on attitudes include: "knowledge of park rules," "employment in park," "distance between village and park," "household size," "access to non-timber forest products," and "livelihood activity." The findings suggest that any efforts aimed at increasing local community support for any of the two national parks should critically consider livelihoods diversification, population control, and extensive conservation education in neighboring communities.
Natural Resources Forum, 2015
The long‐term integrity of protected areas (PAs), and hence the maintenance of related ecosystem services (ES), are dependent on the support of local people. In the present study, local people's perceptions of ecosystem services from PAs and factors that govern local preferences for PAs are assessed. Fourteen study villages were randomly selected from three different protected forest areas and one control site along the southern coast of Côte d'Ivoire. Data was collected through a mixed‐method approach, including qualitative semi‐structured interviews and a household survey based on hypothetical choice scenarios. Local people's perceptions of ecosystem service provision was decrypted through qualitative content analysis, while the relation between people's preferences and potential factors that affect preferences were analyzed through multinomial models. This study shows that rural villagers do perceive a number of different ecosystem services as benefits from PAs in...
The Professional Geographer, 2019
Conservation plans have evolved beyond biodiversity protection to include the welfare of the communities surrounding protected areas. Local community engagement initiatives include development of ecotourism, revenue-sharing arrangements, and resource access agreements. Although research stations are common in African national parks, their contributions to biodiversity protection and community benefits have seldom featured in the literature. In this article, we consider whether community benefits accruing from field research stations are effective and indicate how they could promote community-park relationships. We employ a mixed methods approach to understand the impacts on the local community of a field station located in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We find that the presence of a research station in Kibale National Park provides long-term direct employment for fifty-two people and indirect, cascading benefits for up to 720 people several kilometers away. Additionally, other important community benefits, primarily health care and education, are associated with the research field station. Although benefits of the research station do not eliminate community-park conflict, the long-term presence of researchers and the gains to local people associated with them are underappreciated and important means to better integrate the goals of biodiversity protection and local community investment.
Local people value environmental services provided by forested parks
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2010
Garnering support from local people is critical for maintaining ecologically viable and functional protected areas. However, empirical data illustrating local people’s awareness of the importance of nature’s services is limited; hence possibly impeding effective ecosystem (environmental)-services based conservation efforts. Using data from five protected forests in four developing Southeast Asian countries, we provide evidence that local people living near parks value a wide range of environmental services, including cultural, provisioning, and regulating services, provided by the forests. Local people with longer residency valued environmental services more. Educated as well as poor people valued forest ecosystem services more. Conservation education has some influence on people’s environmental awareness. For conservation endeavors to be successful, large-scale transmigration programs should be avoided and local people must be provided with alternative sustenance opportunities and basic education in addition to environmental outreach to reduce their reliance on protected forests and to enhance conservation support.
International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences
Forests have been undergoing diverse threats due to human activities and these may affect their role as Ecosystem Services (ES) providers. Therefore, it becomes crucial to undertake some analysis of the current socio-economic context of ES offerings to provide valuable information for the decision-making process and policy regarding sustainable forest management. This study aimed at highlighting the local perception of ES in two contrasting ecological regions. 689 respondents distributed in six districts were interviewed through a semi-structured survey on the various ES and their assessment. The analysis in principal components is used to understand socio-cultural group perception. Then, we used Beta regression to know how socio-economic factors influence the rate of people knowledge of ES. Our results show that provisioning services were more overall perceived, followed by cultural services and regulating services. Youth perceived less regulating and supporting services. Furthermo...
Global Ecology and Conservation, 2018
Protected areas do not have immunity against biodiversity loss as their name may suggest. Different protected areas suffer different pressures based on location and the benefits and services expected from them. This paper tried to identify and compare the pressures and threats on the Mole National Park in Ghana and the Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. A section of the Rapid Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Areas Management (RAPPAM) was used to assess biological importance of, pressures and threats on, the two parks. Household surveys were used to assess perceptions of respondents on forest and wildlife resources usage. The main pressures identified include poverty and high population density in neighboring communities. These underlying pressures manifest on the parks in the form of poaching, illegal grazing and frequent trespassing. Whilst residents in communities near the Tarangire NP hold the perception that access to forest products in park should be allowed, their counterparts near the Mole NP perceive wildlife to be a resource for their consumption. The two parks were also found to be important conservation sites in their respective countries because they each host IUCN threatened and endangered species and serve as cardinal tourists destinations. The nature of the main pressures demands national-level action to curb population increase and alleviate poverty in the districts hosting the two national parks. The national action must be geared towards a strong collaboration between the parks and local communities to ensure that local communities offer their full support for conserving resources in the parks. Interventions to create alternative livelihood activities in neighboring communities would be a useful strategy to reduce dependency on forest and wildlife resources.
Global Ecology and Conservation, 2021
The understanding of how educational and spatial factors influence appreciation of conservation benefits to locals living adjacent to protected areas is a very important aspect in conservation initiatives. In this study we compared how educational and spatial factors affect the appreciation of conservation benefits to local communities adjoining the two Tanzanian national parks; Tarangire National Park (TNP) and Saadani National Park (SANAPA). Questionnaire surveys including closed-ended questions were conducted in eight villages, four near each of the two parks. A total of 400 randomly selected households were interviewed (50 in each village). Results from these questionnaires showed that the local people's appreciation of benefits was negatively related to increasing distance from the parks boundaries. Moreover, people with secondary education or higher, appreciated to receive more benefits than those with primary and tended to appreciate benefits more often than those with no formal education. In addition, people living around TNP responded that the park itself benefited more in terms of benefits from tourism compared to communities surrounding SANAPA. The underlying mechanisms for establishing strong relationships, e.g., by initiating conservation benefits close to national parks, is key to improve views on conservation practices from local people surrounding national parks.