Human/wildlife Conflict Mitigation

 

Human/wildlife conflict has been defined as "any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on social, economic or cultural life, on the conservation of wildlife populations, or on the environment." The Creating Co-existence workshop at the 5th Annual World Parks Congress (8–17 September 2003, Montreal) defined human-wildlife conflict in the context of human goals and animal needs as follows:  “Human/wildlife conflict occurs when the needs and behavior of wildlife impact negatively on the goals of humans or when the goals of humans negatively impact the needs of wildlife."

The close proximity of human settlements to Mt. Kenya ecosystem results to continuous animal raids in surrounding farmlands. Wildlife raid farmlands, causing loss of crops, damage infrastructure such as water pipes, water intakes and fences. Wild animals also cause injuries or death to people and livestock. Elephants cause the most damage. Other problem animals include buffaloes, wild pigs, giant forest hog, porcupines, antelopes, leopards, hyenas, birds and baboons. For many years, communities in and around Mt. Kenya have suffered great socio-economic and cultural losses caused by wildlife without compensation. Human/wildlife mechanisms that have been put in place by the government to reduce conflicts such as electric fencing and Problem Animal Control, popularly known as PAC are not cost effective and bear minimal positive results. Electric fences are effective against large mammals, they are however very expensive to construct and maintain. Many wildlife problem areas have therefore not been fenced while poor fence maintenance has rendered fencing an ineffective conflict management strategy. Community involvement in fence maintenance have been considered as effective approach, however communities have been unwilling to do it for free. Vandalism of fences so as to access forest products such as grazing, firewood etc is also common. Community responses to wildlife menace include retaliatory killings and encouraging poaching which have significantly to loss of species. Traditional methods of keeping off wildlife are also common.

Our programs on human/wildlife conflict will focus on the interactions between people and wildlife in and around the Mt. Kenya Ecosystem. The objectives of our are to come up with innovative, community based programs that will reduce conflicts between local communities and wildlife, enhance their co-existence and improve conservation.