Human-wildlife conflicts:A case study of people's participation in conflict resolution

Abstract

Though the government and other stakeholders in Kenya have made various efforts to conserve wildlife species, it emerges that the populations of some species has been on a steady decline over the years. It is on record that 75% of Kenya's wildlife co-exists with local people outside protected areas, implying that park-adjacent communities are a key partner in the country's efforts to save its wildlife. This study was thus undertaken to investigate local participation in human-wildlife contlict resolution, taking the case of people living in Kitengela Location, an area adjacent to the Nairobi National Park.

The study had four specific objectives: (a) to establish the nature and extent of local people's participation in human-wildlife conflict resolution; (b) to establish the policy framework that exists and how it affects local people's participation in ~uman-wildlife conflict resolution; (c) to establish the attitudes that local communities have towards participating in human-wildlife conflict resolution (d) to establish if there is an association between socio-economic characteristics and local people's attitudes towards participating in human-wildlife conflict resolution.

The study relied on both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data was collected by interviewing 40 household heads and 8 key informants from the area of study. Secondary data was collected through a desk review of relevant books, journals, newspapers, reports and websites.

From the study, it emerged that the local community in Kitengela participated in the resolution of human-wildlife conflicts in 10 ways: attending wildlife-related local meetings (barazas), being members of local wildlife-related bodies, being leaders of local wildlife-related bodies, receiving wildlife-related extension visits, participating in wildlife-related benefit sharing, participating in wildlife-related exposure tours, receiving wildlife-related literature, receiving compensation for wildlife-related losses, receiving wildlife-related training and participation in wildlife-related policy formulation processes. The policy framework that was found to affect community participation in human-wildlife conflict resolution in Kitengela area included The Wildlife (Conservation and Management) Act Cap. 376, District Development Plans and

pronouncements by government officials. Majority of respondents (71 %) preferred to be involved in contlict resolution matters personally. Additionally, majority of the respondents (74%) were positive about their availability to participate in human-wildlife contlict resolution but slightly less than half of the respondents (49%) were positive about their capacity to engage in the same. Finally, associations were found between respondent's capacity to participate and gender, the number of dependants and the level of formal education.

Among other things, this study recommends that all programmes to promote community participation in human-wildlife contlict resolution take deliberate action to promote the participation of women, those with low levels of formal education and the poor as it emerged that these groups require affirmative action. The study further recommends that an evaluation be carried out on the effectiveness of all approaches currently used to promote community participation in wildlife conservation. It further calls for exploration of additional ways of promoting community participation in human-wildlife contlict, in addition to all stakeholder organizations engaged in these activities applying participatory, collaborative and well­ researched approaches. Finally, the study calls upon the Kenyan government to improve her efforts to promote community participation in wildlife management issues by either strengthening KWS' Community Wildlife Service section or by establishing a different entity to handle community-wildlife issues.