Abstract
Humans and wildlife interact negatively, especially when humans transform natural wildlife habitats by establishing settlements and crop fields. Encroachment and habitat fragmentations caused by human activities decrease habitat size and quality for wildlife and reduce connectivity among protected areas. The major objective was to quantify economic loss inflicted by wildlife species to local communities in terms of crop and livestock losses. The influence of distance from the boundary of the protected area was also assessed. 240 copies of open and closed ended questionnaire were randomly administered in five selected villages in the Rungwa-Katavi Corridor between the Rungwa Game Reserve and Katavi National Park. The average loss to wildlife per household was 430 kg of crops, equivalent to US $126.23, as well as livestock, including cattle (0.9), goats (0.6), sheep (0.3), and donkeys (0.09) equivalent to US $260.23 per household per year. The reported incidences of crop damage and livestock attack varied among different age groups and between genders. The depredation and crop raiding incidences increased with proximity to the protected areas as contact with predators and vermin animals was higher closer to the protected areas. Implementing proper land use planning for livestock keepers, crop production and conservation land is recommended as an effective strategy to safeguard protected areas and minimize human-wildlife conflict. Key words: Human-wildlife conflict, crop damage, livestock depredation, Rungwa Game Reserve, wildlife corridor.
Highlights
According to the United Nations list of world protected areas, protected areas covered a total area of 32,868,673 km2 worldwide in 2014, which accounts for 14% of the terrestrial world land area and 3.4% of the marine protected area network (Deguignet et al, 2014)
Two hypotheses were tested: first, there is no significant loss caused by wildlife to crop and livestock in the study area and secondly, there is no significant difference between livestock depredations and crop damage with the distance to the protected area
Crop raids and livestock depredation were directly influenced by the distance from the game reserve boundary
Summary
According to the United Nations list of world protected areas, protected areas covered a total area of 32,868,673 km worldwide in 2014, which accounts for 14% of the terrestrial world land area and 3.4% of the marine protected area network (Deguignet et al, 2014). 65% of the global protected area network sites are in Europe. They account for only 12% of the total area covered by protected areas worldwide. The Republic of Tanzania is well known for setting aside approximately 45% of its land as protected areas under different categories such as National Parks, Game Reserves, Forest Reserves, Wildlife Management Areas, and Game Controlled Areas (IUCN, 2017; TNRF, 2008)
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