Abstract
Biodiversity conservation through use of protected areas relies significantly on the attitudes of local adjacent communities. Some studies suggest that attitudes are often shaped by the associated positive and negative externalities and socio-demographic and economic characteristics of local communities living adjacent to protected areas. The current study sought to identify useful predictors of local attitudes towards protected area management. It was conducted at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda where several interventions in form of benefits to improve local people’s attitudes towards the park have been implemented for the last 30 years. The study examined the extent to which these benefits can influence local people’s attitude towards management of the Protected Area (PA). A household survey was conducted among 190 randomly selected respondents and Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) fitted where the dependent variable was a binary “Good” or “otherwise” response to how the respondent considered own relationship with park management. Socio-economic attributes of the respondents were used as control variables. The importance of cost variables (e.g. crop raiding) was also examined. The study found that only direct and material benefits were consistent predictors of a positive attitude towards management. Non-material and indirect benefits as well as the socio-economic factors and costs did not influence the attitude of local communities towards management. It can be concluded that positive attitude towards protected area management is determined by access to direct and material benefits by local communities and not socio-economic factors or costs incurred. Interventions intended to influence local communities to have a positive attitude towards management ought to emphasize direct and material benefits.
Highlights
Protected areas (PAs) cover about 12% of the earth’s land area and are usually established for in situ conservation (Chape et al 2005) and tourism (Walpole & Goodwin 2001)
That majority of the respondents had a positive attitude towards the PA management suggests that past events at Bwindi INP where people were very violent, negative towards park management and caused Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) employees to live in perpetual fear for their lives (Sandbrook 2006) had changed
The trend observed may be due to increase in benefits that are currently accessed by local communities through interventions of the park management or a hope that local people have in a better future with a better response from management to wildlife damage and flow of benefits (Tumusiime & Svarstad 2011; Tumusiime et al 2018)
Summary
Protected areas (PAs) cover about 12% of the earth’s land area and are usually established for in situ conservation (Chape et al 2005) and tourism (Walpole & Goodwin 2001). The debate on management of protected areas has always had the human dimension (Buscher & Whande 2007) because the relationship between local communities and management is critical for the success of biodiversity conservation (Muhumuza & Balkwill 2013). Important is this dimension that both in theory and practice, the history of conservation as well as its present have largely been about handling it. Conservation efforts were pre-occupied with how to forcefully exclude people from areas declared PAs using the command and control management approach (Hutton et al 2005). The present, and probably the future of conservation is on how to incorporate people in PA management preferably in ways that lead to win-win outcomes for conservation and local people (Infield 2001; Wells & McShane 2004).
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