Gender Dynamics and Human-Wildlife Conflicts in Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya

Abstract

A big factor as to why Human-Wildlife Conflict is a major issue in the African context than in the western world is the level of income stability. This is heightened by the fact that most communities that live near wildlife settlements in Africa are poor rural communities. The people in the Mara are a good example of such a community. One of the reasons why this plague has been so persistent is because the rules and regulations are too broad and do not factor in the differences within the communities that live within reach of wildlife populations. This research has singled out the main difference within these communities as being gender and focuses on gendered differences. The objective of this research is to examine the gender dynamics that affect Human-Wildlife Conflicts. To fulfil the objective, the research set out to test the hypothesis of whether gender dynamics influence wildlife conservation measures. The methodology for this research was guided by a descriptive research design which entailed the use of observation, questionnaires, and interviews to gather data. The samples were automatically classified into the two established genders, male and female. The findings concluded that the following attributes affect how the genders interact with Human-Wildlife Conflicts household roles, agricultural occupation, income loss, injuries, land ownership, and marital status. This was because the null hypothesis was disproved. After all, the p-value: =0.006435 was less than the agreed significance level of 0.05. These results indicate that there is a correlation between gender dynamics and Human-Wildlife Conflict. Therefore, gender mainstreaming needs to be considered in the wildlife conservation discourse.