Human–Elephant Conflict Around Bénoué National Park, Cameroon: Influence on Local Attitudes and Implications for Conservation (original) (raw)
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Biological Conservation, 1996
Increasing elephant population coupled with the rapid human population growth and the expansion of agricultural land has escalated human/elephant conflict in the Waza-Logone Region. This paper analyses the magnitude of the conflict and examines its development in time. Elephant damage to crops has doubled between 1992 and 1993 in the Kaélé and Mindif areas and caused increasing loss of human life. The present situation is likely to worsen unless the control of ‘problem animals’ and the management of Waza National Park are improved, a conservation education programme is developed and an adequate compensation scheme designed. It is also essential to determine elephant movements and home-ranges and to identify causes of their migrations.
Nature and extent of human-elephant conflict in the Bia Conservation Area, Ghana
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An investigation into the nature and extent of human\elephant conflicts in and around the Bia Conservation Area (BCA) was carried out during the 2004 rainy season. This exercise was done through the administration of questionnaires to wildlife staff and local communities as well as actual field measurements of damaged farms. There were 49 elephant crop damage incidents involving 44 farms belonging to 36 farmers. Elephant crop damage was noted to be a serious problem at the BCA, especially by farmers around the southern portions of the BCA. The number of raids increased with proximity of a cluster of farms to the park boundary and the number of crop types. For raided crops, the area under cultivation could influence the number of raids. There was almost fifty percent probability that if ones farm was raided, about half of the farm would be destroyed. This was exacerbated by the fact that raiding targeted matured and good quality crops. The high damage levels have resulted in a contin...
Tropical Conservation Science
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 concen...
Local's Attitude towards African elephant conservation in.and around Chebra Churchura National Park, Ethiopia , 2023
Economic growth and development in developing countries often involves land-use changes which fragment natural areas, bring humans and wildlife into closer proximity and escalating human-wildlife conflicts. Human-wildlife conflicts impose huge costs on local people and their livelihoods. Balancing developmental activities with the conservation of mega fauna such as the African and Asian elephants (Loxodonta Africana, Elephas maximus; respectively) remains problematic. Understanding the reasoning upon which perceived risks and level of human-elephant conflict laid is critical to address societal or cultural beliefs in order to develop effective mitigation strategies. The perceived risks and level of conflict have to be properly addressed for effective planning and implementation of appropriate mitigation strategies. We studied human-elephant interactions in Chebra Churchura National Park Ethiopia (CCNP) from September 8 to October 28, 2022 and collected baseline data on human perceptions of conflicts in an area where elephant populations are increasing. To complete our study, we surveyed 800 household from 20 villages adjacent to the CCNP. The purpose of this investigation was to identify the relevance of the existing human-elephant conflict (HEC) with the attitude of local communities towards elephant conservation, the park management and perceived effective mitigation techniques. The local communities trust in the implementation of different traditional mitigation techniques is generally weak. The households interviewed were less positive towards the effectiveness of most of the traditional techniques in chasing elephants away from their farm lands. They believed that elephants had already adapted and do not respond to most of these techniques. Against the above perception in exception of their usual absence and late arrival, perception of local communities about shooting warning gun by park scouts is among the most accepted effective methods in chasing elephants from their farm lands. The majority of respondents believe that separation of elephants and humans by constricting barriers is the best solution to the problem. The idea of constructing barriers such as electric fence; ditch or concrete wall and blocking corridors between the Park boundary and the villages have become the most popular idea of local communities followed by relocating people to other safer places, as the best protection method against the elephant attack irrespective of the associated initial and maintenance costs.