Local farmers’ perceptions of human-wildlife conflicts in the King Nehale Conservancy, Namibia

Abstract

Over the past three decades, wildlife management programmes on communal lands in Southern Africa experienced a major institutional transformation from direct state control to the community-based management approach. While this community-based conservation approach is credited for population recovery of some wildlife species and creating opportunities for local communities to derive benefits from wildlife conservation efforts, costs associated with human-wildlife conflicts negatively affect local farmers’ livelihoods, particularly those neighbouring protected areas. This study investigated local farmers’ perceptions of human-wildlife conflicts in the King Nehale Conservancy, a communal conservancy located north of Etosha National Park. The study employed a quantitative design through a structured questionnaire where a total of 115 randomly selected respondents were interviewed. The results based on the analysis of the chi-square test of association showed that wildlife threatens community livelihoods mainly through livestock depredation and crop-raiding, contributing to negative attitudes towards wildlife. These perceptions were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with the respondents’ age groups and the number of years they have been living in the study area. Participants in the economically active age group and those that have been living in the conservancy for longer period, were more likely to agree with the perception that human-wildlife conflict is a serious issue in the conservancy compared to participants who said they have been living there for shorter period. These findings suggest that most local farmers perceive the presence of wildlife as being detrimental to their sources of livelihood. Consequently, these increasingly negative perceptions towards wildlife erode
community-based conservation efforts.