Abstract
The range-wide decline of lions has led to their conservation becoming a top priority. Protection of free-ranging lion populations is dependent on securing space for lions but also on the ability and desire of local communities to coexist with lions. Our investigation takes a comparative and case study approach to explore the individual and societal desire to maintain current lion populations alongside communities in, or surrounding, Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, Tanzania's Ruaha National Park, and Kenya's southern Maasailand. Using data from attitudinal questionnaire surveys, we compare the desire to maintain current lion populations as well as the prevalence and success of conservation interventions aimed at increasing human-lion coexistence. In Maasailand, 88% of the respondents expressed a desire to see current lion populations maintained, while only 42% of the respondents in Ruaha and only 5% of the respondents in Hwange expressed this desire. More respondents reported predation by lions (lion predation) on livestock in Maasailand than in Hwange; personal benefits from conservation were greatest in Maasailand; and exposure to conservation education was highest in Ruaha. The Hwange findings were confounded by Zimbabwe's political and economic climate. In Ruaha and Maasailand, communal and individual conservation benefits influenced desired changes to lion population. Once variation between sites was controlled for, twinning personal benefits and conservation education together was most likely to increase an individual's desire to see current lion populations maintained.
Highlights
The African lion (Panthera leo), an archetypal charismatic felid, has suffered a dramatic reduction in range and a concurrent population decrease, occurring only in around 8% of its historic range (Riggio et al 2013; Bauer et al 2015a)
All three case studies used the same key explanatory variables, which were treated as numeric variables; these included personal benefit, lion predation, and conservation education
Applying Bruskotter and Wilson (2014) hazard acceptance model of tolerance to Hwange, we suggest that the failure of CAMPFIRE, and Zimbabwe’s current political and economic state is likely to play a major part in shaping local perceptions of lions by 1) lowering social trust in wildlife management authorities, 2) reducing the perceived and actual benefits from lions, and 3) increasing the risk/costs associated with lions
Summary
The African lion (Panthera leo), an archetypal charismatic felid, has suffered a dramatic reduction in range and a concurrent population decrease, occurring only in around 8% of its historic range (Riggio et al 2013; Bauer et al 2015a). Countries such as Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. For viable lion populations to be maintained, a degree of tolerance for, and coexistence with, lions is necessary. Borrowing from Carter and Linnell (2016), we consider human-lion coexistence to be the sustainable cohabitation of people and lions within a shared landscape
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