MITIGATION OF PRIMATE CROP RAIDING IN GISHWATI FOREST RESERVE, RWANDA
Breanna Hess, Danielle Hefferan, Andrew Rupiper, Michael Renner, Keith Summerville
Environmental Science & Policy Program, Department of Biology, College of Arts & Science
INTRODUCTION
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
CONTINUED
• FIGURE 1 shows an aerial view of
the Gishwati Basin, the 90 º East
waypoints, the weighted line, and
preliminary data on crop raiding
events that occurred in the winter
• The aerial view helps predict crop
fields for the first growing season
• Conservation efforts are continuously undermined by human-animal conflicts near protected
• Disclaimer: The map shows the
areas, such as the occurrence of wild life crop raiding on local farms
sightlines and preliminary data
before the data has been
straightened out and shows
problems with the data coding
• Instances of crop raiding by primates, including a small population of chimpanzees, have been
recorded in the core forest section of the Gishwati reserve since 2007
• The purpose of this study is to address the problem crop raiding poses to protected areas and
human utilized spaces along forest boundaries while maintaining a healthy relationship with
local farmers.
• Data is still being collected on
locations of crop fields and crop
raiding events from the past
growing season
• Our hypothesis states that if crop raiding is occurring, then it is due to an animals ability to
raid as far out as they can see back to the forest
DISCUSSION
RESEARCH SITE
• Research Site: 1km stretch of the legal forest boundary of Gishwati Forest Preserve near
• At this time, our hypothesis can
Bitenga, Rwanda where crop raiding was observed in 2007.
not yet be proven or disproven.
• This data can be used to advise
MATERIALS AND METHODS
local crop producers in the growing
season to grow alternative crops
such as tea or piri piri peppers,
that a non-human primates find
less desirable, near the forest
edge. More desirable items such as
Zea maize would need to be
planted further away from
protected areas to mitigate cropraiding instances on human
utilized spaces along forest
boundaries such as Gishwati
• The first set of way points were collected every 10m parallel to the forest boundary (waypoint
A) Way points B, C, and D were gathered along an observer’s line of site from waypoint A
• Using a compass, the observer directed the waypoint setter along his or her line of sight at:
• Forty-five degrees to the right (waypoint B)
• Forty-five degrees to the left (waypoint D)
• Perpendicular to the point of observation (waypoint C)
• Obstructions in the observer’s line of site were bypassed by a margin of five degrees (±5º)
• Measurements were observed one meter from the ground, where the observer would tell the
setter to move closer or further from the point observation
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• To record crop-raiding events:
• The maize fields were checked once per week by FHA eco-guards for evidence of crop-raiding
• Instances of crop-raiding in the same field in the same week were distinct if the evidence for
cop-raiding (i.e., wadges) were separated by a minimum of10 meters
• Sightline maps were created with ArcGIS software
• Figure 1: Winter 2012-2013 Sightline Map
Thank you to Forest of Hope
Association, Rwandan Development
Board, Drake University, Nyandwi
Sylvain, Jean Paul Ntungane,
Nyiratuza Madeleine, Rebecca
Chancellor, and Aaron Rundus.