Abstract
Human-lion conflict is one of the leading threats to lion populations and while livestock loss is a source of conflict, the degree to which livestock depredation is tolerated by people varies between regions and across cultures. Knowledge of local attitudes towards lions and identification of drivers of human-lion conflict can help formulate mitigation measures aimed at promoting coexistence of humans with lions. We assessed locals’ attitudes towards lions in and around Gambella National Park and compared the findings with published data from Kafa Biosphere Reserve, both in western Ethiopia. We used household interviews to quantify livestock loss. We found that depredation was relatively low and that disease and theft were the top factors of livestock loss. Remarkably, however, tolerance of lions was lower around Gambella National Park than in Kafa Biosphere Reserve. Multivariate analysis revealed that education level, number of livestock per household, livestock loss due to depredation, and livestock loss due to theft were strong predictors of locals’ attitude towards lion population growth and conservation. We show that the amount of livestock depredation alone is not sufficient to understand human-lion conflicts and we highlight the importance of accounting for cultural differences in lion conservation. The low cultural value of lions in the Gambella region corroborate the findings of our study. In combination with growing human population and land-use change pressures, low cultural value poses serious challenges to long-term lion conservation in the Gambella region. We recommend using Arnstein’s ladder of participation in conservation education programs to move towards proactive involvement of locals in conservation.
Highlights
Conserving large carnivores is a global challenge in the face of increasing human population and associated land-use and land-cover changes
The generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) revealed that education level and livestock loss due to theft significantly affected whether respondents wanted lion numbers to increase
We found that disease and theft are the leading causes of livestock loss in and around Gambella National Park (GNP)
Summary
Conserving large carnivores is a global challenge in the face of increasing human population and associated land-use and land-cover changes. Poor animal husbandry practices create further opportunities for livestock depredation as humans move into or close to protected areas in search of resources [2] and lions disperse to adjacent areas in search of prey [5]. Gambella is considered to have a viable lion population in Ethiopia [26], but the level of human-lion conflict and its cultural and economic dimensions have not been studied. We surveyed the attitudes of people in and around GNP towards lions and compared our findings with those of a published study from Kafa Biosfere Reserve, southwestern Ethiopia [10]
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