Author(s): Salerno, J; Borgerhoff Mulder, M; Grote, MN; Ghiselli, M; Packer, C | Abstract: Conservation strategies to protect biodiversity and support household livelihoods face numerous challenges. Across the tropics, efforts focus on balancing trade-offs in local communities near the borders of protected areas. Devolving rights and control over certain resources to communities is increasingly considered necessary, but decades of attempts have yielded limited success and few lessons on how such interventions could be successful in improving livelihoods. We investigated a key feature of household well-being, the experience of food insecurity, in villages across Tanzania's northern wildlife tourist circuit. Using a sample of 2,499 primarily livestock-keeping households we compared food insecurity in villages participating in the country's principal community-based conservation strategy with nearby control areas. We tested whether community-based projects could offset the central costs experienced by households near strictly protected areas (i.e. frequent human-wildlife conflict and restricted access to resources). We found substantial heterogeneity in outcomes associated with the presence of community-based conservation projects across multiple project sites. Although households in project villages experienced more frequent conflict with wildlife and received few provisioned benefits, there is evidence that these households may have been buffered to some degree against negative effects of wildlife conflict. We interpret our results in light of qualitative institutional factors that may explain various project outcomes. Tanzania, like many areas of conservation importance, contains threatened biodiversity alongside areas of extreme poverty. Our analyses highlight the need to examine more precisely the complex and locally specific mechanisms by which interventions do or do not benefit wildlife and local communities.

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Household livelihoods and conflict with wildlife in community-based conservation areas across northern Tanzania

Cautionary thoughts on IUCN protected area management categories V–VI

Summary
Like many wildlife populations across Africa, recent analyses indicate that African lions are declining rapidly outside of small fenced areas. Community conservancies – privately protected areas that engage community members in conservation – may potentially maintain wildlife populations in unfenced pastoralist regions, but their effectiveness in conserving large carnivores has been largely unknown until now.
We identify drivers of lion survival in community conservancies within the Masai Mara ecosystem, Kenya, applying mark–recapture analyses to continuous sight–resight surveys. We use the number of livestock and human settlements as proxies for potential human–lion conflict whilst controlling for environmental variables and lion socioecology.
Average lion densities within the Mara conservancies between 2008 and 2013 (11·87 lions 100 km−2) were 2·6 times higher than those previously reported in 2003. Survival rates varied amongst prides and were highest for lions utilizing central regions of conservancies.
The number of livestock settlements (bomas [corrals] and manyattas) that were not members of a conservancy, and that fell within a pride home-range, had a large negative effect on female survival and was the most influential external predictor in models. These non-conservancy settlements accounted for 37·2% of total observed variation in survival, whereas conservancy settlements, which benefit financially from wildlife through their membership, had no effect on lion survival.
Internal drivers of survival agreed with known ecology and social behaviour including age plus a negative effect of male takeovers on cub survival <6 months. Vegetation cover, prey availability and the density of grazing livestock within a pride's range did not explain patterns in lion survival.
Synthesis and applications. We show that lion densities have increased substantially within the Mara conservancies over the last decade and suggest that the creation of community conservancies has benefitted their survival. This suggests that lions can survive outside of fenced areas within pastoral regions if communities gain benefits from wildlife. We highlight the importance of expanding existing conservancies beyond their current geographical and political scope and forming buffer zones if wildlife ranges outside them. We suggest that changing attitudes to predators should be a key goal of community-based conservancies. Further work is recommended to identify what specific aspects of conservancy membership promote lion survival.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1365-2664.12632

Human–wildlife conflict, benefit sharing and the survival of lions in pastoralist community-based conservancies

In Tanzania, community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) of wildlife occurs through wildlife management areas (WMAs). The WMAs consist of multiple villages designating land and managing it for wildlife conservation in return for a portion of subsequent tourism revenues. The ecological success or failure of WMAs for wildlife conservation is rarely quantified but is important for evaluating the efficacy of specific projects and the general concept of CBNRM. I used 3 analyses to evaluate the ecological effectiveness of wildlife conservation actions in the Burunge WMA. I compared wildlife and livestock densities inside and outside a WMA using 1 year of distance sampling data and compared wild and domestic ungulate densities before and after the implementation of management changes that increased wildlife protections within a subsection of BurungeWMAusing 6 years of distance sampling surveys. I also compared giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) survival and population growth rate before and after the implementation of management changes that increased wildlife protections in a subsection of Burunge WMA using 5 years of photographic capture-recapture data. I found greater densities of wildlife and lower densities of livestock inside the WMA compared with outside. After the management changes, I documented significantly higher densities of several wild ungulate species and lower densities of domestic ungulates in the WMA. I found giraffe survival and population growth rate both increased in response to the management changes. Results indicated the WMA is effectively providing habitat and protection for wild ungulates while generally excluding domestic livestock. Ungulate densities, and giraffe survival and population growth rate over time indicated the management changes enacted in 2014–2015 resulted in positive effects for wild ungulates. These combined results indicate the ecological effectiveness of Burunge WMA and provide evidence that CBNRM can have positive effects on wildlife populations, particularly when support to grassroots law enforcement is provided. 2018 The Wildlife Society.

Evaluating conservation effectiveness in a Tanzanian community wildlife management area

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Large grazing birds and agriculture—predicting field use of common cranes and implications for crop damage prevention

Population growth near protected areas threatens the capacity of such areas for biodiversity conservation. Protected areas may even encourage growth by providing economic benefits that attract migrants. Consequently, understanding the relationships between human demographics and biodiversity is important for conservation. We studied a community-governed Wildlife Management Area bordering the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, set up to benefit local people and the subsistence rural economy. Annual population growth in this area is 5%. We used a combination of ecological and socio-economic surveys to determine the causes of this growth and its effect on wildlife in the Wildlife Management Area. One-third of local people interviewed were immigrants to the area. Population growth appeared to be unrelated to the protected area; instead an increasing proportion of immigrants cited readily available land as their reason for moving. Pastoralism was associated with fewer signs of large grazing mammals and elephants Loxodonta africana and agriculture was associated with fewer signs of elephant and buffalo Syncerus caffer but more signs of other ungulates. Few residents were aware of the Wildlife Management Area and few received any benefits from wildlife and therefore had little reason to conserve it. This situation is attributable to poor management of the Wildlife Management Area. Detrimental effects of human activity could spread to the Selous Game Reserve if population growth continues. However, natural resources could benefit residents if properly managed. Interactions between human demographics and protected areas are complex and may be best managed on a case-by-case basis.

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Human and wildlife usage of a protected area buffer zone in an area of high immigration.

Population growth near protected areas threatens the capacity of such areas for biodiversity conservation. Protected areas may even encourage growth by providing economic benefits that attract migrants. Consequently, understanding the relationships between human demo- graphics and biodiversity is important for conservation. We studied a community-governed Wildlife Management Area bordering the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, set up to benefit local people and the subsistence rural economy. Annual population growth in this area is 5%. We used a combination of ecological and socio-economic surveys to determine the causes of this growth and its effect on wildlife in the Wildlife Management Area. One-third of local people interviewed were immigrantsto the area. Population growth appeared to be unrelated to the protected area; instead an increasing proportion of immigrants cited readily available land as their reason for moving. Pastoralism was associated with fewer signs of large grazing mammals and elephants Loxodonta africana and agriculture was associated with fewer signs of elephant and buffalo Syncerus caffer but more signs of other ungulates. Few residents were aware of the Wildlife Management Area and few received any benefits from wildlife and therefore had little reason to conserve it. This situation is attributable to poor management of the Wildlife Management Area. Detrimental effects of human activity could spread to the Selous Game Reserve if population growth continues. However, natural resources could benefit residents if properly managed. Interactions between human demographics and protected areas are complex and may be best managed on a case-by-case basis.

Human and wildlife usage of a protected area buffer zone in an area of high immigration A NDREW J. B AMFORD ,D ANIELLA F ERROL -S CHULTE and J ENNIFER W ATHAN

Jennifer Wathan

Papers

Human and wildlife usage of a protected area buffer zone in an area of high immigration.

Human and wildlife usage of a protected area buffer zone in an area of high immigration A NDREW J. B AMFORD ,D ANIELLA F ERROL -S CHULTE and J ENNIFER W ATHAN