ACES 2011: Conservation Conflicts: strategies
for coping with a changing world. Aberdeen
Arts Centre, August 22-25th
ABSTRACTS
Monday 22nd August 2011
Case studies:
– Protected area conflicts
– Land use and ecosystem services conflicts
– Species conflicts
1
Protected Area Conflicts
14.00 – 14.20 Protected Area conflicts: examples between wildlife
conservation, pastoralism and hunting in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Karen Laurenson
The Serengeti Ecosystem, encompassing a matrix of protected areas and the
Serengeti National Park at its core, is an area of global conservation significance
generating well over $30 million USD per year in revenue for Tanzania. Many levels
of conflict have existed in this ecosystem since the first protected areas were
declared, but as human populations continue to grow, conflict over available land is
exacerbated, and most acute in the Maasai pastoralist communities. Access to dry
season cattle grazing land is a key determinant of livelihood status and the key
source of conflict both within the communities and with other actors. A long history of
conflict over access to land designated for wildlife, sport hunting or tourism,
combined with vocal local interest groups and NGOs, has both led to inter-clan
conflict over competition for revenue generated from wildlife use, and also bolstered
enmity towards conservation initiatives from Government or NGOs among pastoral
communities in the Loliondo area. As a result, resistance to participate in
conservation schemes such as community-managed wildlife management areas
(WMAs) has also led to insecure land tenure, fueled inter-clan disputes, and
increased rate of land conversion. A severe drought in 2009 culminated in more
severe conflict between pastoralists and wildlife users, but also resulted in an
increased appreciation for conservation of natural resources and ecosystem services
such as water catchment forests and dry-season grazing land, and widespread shift
in public opinion of the value of community-managed wildlife areas. Dennis
Rentsch, Gerald Bigurube, Markus Borner, Grant Hopcraft and Karen
Laurenson
Karen Laurenson is a Programme Manager with the Africa Programme of Frankfurt
Zoological Society. Following doctoral research on cheetah ecology in the Serengeti,
she worked at the interface of disease transmission between domestic and wild
animals in Scotland and Ethiopia, with a particularly interest in applied research on
conservation and economic issues. In the last decade, based in Tanzania, Scotland
and Ethiopia, she has worked in ecosystem management, overseeing complex
donor-funded projects and developed ecosystem planning processes, ecological
monitoring and project monitoring and evaluation frameworks
2
14.20 – 14.40 “Owning what is ours”: Protectionism, Insecurity and the
Production of Vulnerability on the Edge of Mount Elgon National Park, Uganda
David Himmelfarb
Amidst the political and economic upheaval left in the wake of colonialism and
subsequent structural adjustment policies, African governments have faced
tremendous challenges as they seek to simultaneously strengthen governance and
implement conservation initiatives. Under pressure by international conservation and
development donors to both increase the area of land under strict environmental
protection and to incorporate the economic needs of local communities into
conservation interventions, state cervation bodies, which in many cases originated as
para-military institutions, have often gravitated to the seemingly more straight-forward
“fences and fines” approach to conservation. Nevertheless, vigorous law
enforcement in contexts where thousands of people depend on protected resources
has resulted in widespread conflict.
Despite scattered efforts to develop community-based conservation initiatives in
Uganda, a philosophy of strict protectionism has undergirded the proliferation of
protected areas. Beneath the veneer of recent community resource use agreements
and revenue sharing, the protectionist approach and concomitant population
displacement have had severe repercussions for the livelihoods of rural communities
dwelling in and on the boundaries of protected areas. On the northern edge of Mt.
Elgon National Park, Uganda, conflict between protected area managers and local
communities has raged for nearly 30 years, culminating in sporadic violence and a
sustained legal battle over land rights. Focusing on the history and nature of this
conflict, this paper examines the development of the protectionist conservation
paradigm in the West, it’s application to Uganda during the colonial era, and the
implications this continued approach has had for contemporary livelihoods and
environments. This paper suggests that exclusionary park policies coupled with
tenure insecurity over the past three decades has exacerbated livelihood vulnerability
while intensifying the processes of environmental degradation that such policies seek
to counteract. Sustained insecurity and the withholding of social services fostered by
protected managers has provoked local resistance and generated an unsustainable,
“use-it-or-lose-it” mindset among farmers, who refuse to invest in time- and labourintensive measures for fear of eviction and dispossession. This paper argues that
addressing “encroachment” in Mt. Elgon National Park necessitates addressing
underlying structural inequalities established and perpetuated by the state and its
international donors.
3
14.40 – 15.00 Conflict resolution between lions and livestock ranches around
major national parks in southern Africa
Paul Funston, Sam Ferreira and Nimmi Seoraj Pillai
The relative risk to populations of large carnivores in protected areas is generally
correlated with the size of the protected area relative to the home range requirements
of the species. Lions (Panthera leo) have widely varying home range sizes in
southern Africa that broadly follow annual rainfall, and thus ungulate biomass,
patterns. Here data is presented on the risk of persecution relative to factors
including home range size, boundary type, and various livestock husbandry practices
around a few major protected areas in southern Africa. The relative contribution of
fencing to minimizing conflict is investigated, with various fencing scenarios from no
fences to relative impervious fences being discussed. Clearly one of the key factors
determining both the probability of livestock depredation or carnivore persecution is
the probability that a large carnivore will come into contact with either livestock or a
humans during excursions or forays outside of protected areas. We argue that these
relationships can be modelled both spatially and temporally to determine a landscape
of relative risk. The spatial and temporal pattern of movement of stock raiding lions
and leopards (Panthera pardus) is presented and evaluated with respect to
probability of risk. These risk factors could be used proactively to mitigate conflict as
opposed to the traditional reactive approaches employed by most conservation
authorities or farmers/pastoralists. Various conflict mitigation strategies include the
translocation and release of stock raiding lions. This practice is evaluated both
spatially and temporally, with long term consequences of management interventions
evaluated in terms of their effect on lion population structure and longevity. The value
of liaison and communication with neighbours is evaluated and stressed.
4
15.00 – 15.20 Reducing conflicts by modifying the boundaries of protected
areas: a systematic conservation planning approach from Mozambique
Robert Smith, Kristian Metcalfe, Bartolomeu Soto, Alessandro Fusari and
Cornelio Ntumi
Land-use planning plays a fundamental role in reducing conservation conflicts and
this is particularly relevant when designing protected area (PA) networks. Many PAs
were established without accounting for local socio-economic and social factors, so
there is a need to modify these systems to reduce impacts on people and help fulfil
conservation objectives. Here we describe a case study from southern Africa, where
the Government of Mozambique has proposed modifying the boundaries of some of
the existing PAs located in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area.
These PAs were generally established in the colonial era and contain several villages
within their borders, so the government is investigating whether this settled land
could be exchanged for other areas outside existing designated land. To help inform
this process we developed a conservation planning system containing data on 57
vegetation types and 18 species, as well as data on opportunity costs and land
tenure. This system was based on the best available information but data quality
varied, which added uncertainty to the planning process. In response, we developed
three methodologies for informing this PA modification process, which make different
assumptions about data quality and provide information at different spatial scales.
We show there is great potential for modifying these PAs, assuming support from
local stakeholders, and argue that the systematic conservation planning approach is
highly appropriate for this type of analysis.
5
Land Use and Ecosystem Services Conflicts
14.00 – 14.20 Conflicts and NATURA 2000
Juliette Young
Natura 2000 is the largest network of protected areas in the world, covering over
17% of the European Union’s territory. In order to be successful, the network needs
the active involvement of people who live and depend on these protected areas. The
top-down selection of sites, combined with poor communication of the Natura 2000
aims, concerns from local people and conservationists and a lack of formal
requirement for local actor involvement has resulted in social conflicts associated
with Natura 2000, and subsequent delays in its implementation.
This paper will start with a brief overview of Natura 2000 and some of the conflicts
associated with the Habitats Directives. The paper will then explore the extent to
which local actors are involved in the management of Natura 2000 using results from
three selected sites in Scotland. Finally, the issue of whether increased involvement
may benefit the policy aims of Natura 2000 will be discussed.
Juliette Young is an ecologist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in
Edinburgh. Her main research interest is biodiversity policy, from its development to
its implementation, including associated conflicts. Within this context, she is
interested in understanding public attitudes towards biodiversity, including views on
biodiversity management, conservation measures and the values associated with
biodiversity through the use of qualitative and quantitative methods. She is also
interested in understanding the barriers to effective communication of science to the
public and policy-makers and the role of interfaces between policy-makers and
scientists.
6
14.20 – 14.40 Understanding Human Wildlife Conflict in Areas Adjacent to
National Parks and Conservancies: A Case Study of Mbire, Chiredzi and
Hwange Districts in Zimbabwe
Sébastien Le Bel, George Mapuvire and Rene Czudek
Human-wildlife conflict is a growing global problem. It is not restricted to a particular
geographical region or climate condition, but is common to all areas where wildlife
and human populations coexist and share limited resources. Human-wildlife conflict
is a problem for farmers, and ultimately it must be tackled by the farmers themselves.
However, although numerous research articles, reports, recommendations,
guidelines and training manuals have been produced in recent years to address the
problem, most have been aimed at technical support agencies, government wildlife
departments, and conservation and/or development oriented non-governmental
organizations. Few tools have been developed for and adopted by rural farmers and
communities to help them to address human wildlife conflicts at grass roots level. In
Southern Africa, FAO and Bio-Hub have teamed up to develop a handy toolkit
designed for use by extensionists offering to local communities a range of simple and
practical solutions that can have great success when used in combination. It is
designed not only to help protect people, their livestock and their crops from wild
animals but, just as important, to safeguard wild animals from people. Two types of
toolkit, an electronic and a hard version, are available in three languages: English,
Portuguese and French. The hard version is a rubber canvas bag containing a series
of water proof booklets, helping users to define which kind of conflict they are facing.
Solutions vary according to whether the need is to protect people, villages, livestock,
water or crops and are classified in five colour-coded categories: awareness raising
in blue, access prevention in green, translocation in brown, driving animals away in
yellow and as a last resort lethal control in red. A system of index identifies solutions
in each of the five colour categories according to what it is the user needs to protect.
In total, more than one thousand toolkits were distributed during the workshops for
field tests with local communities in Botswana, Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, South
Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The toolkit is designed in a way that more information
can be added or slotted in and this exercise is an own going one, meaning for the
next years to come, funding permitting, the toolkit will be reviewed and added with
more information.
7
14.40 – 15.00 Ecosystem Service: tool(s) for understanding land-use conflicts
Agnes Kaloczkai and Eszter Kelemen
This paper seeks to explain the first results of a conflict resolution process dealing
with a land-use conflict in Kiskunság, Central Hungary. Since nature protection has
been institutionalized, beside the positive effects, its existence caused social and
land-use conflicts in many times (McNeely 1995). Conflicts between local
stakeholders (mainly farmers) concerned by the protected areas and the National
Park Directorate can be caused by cultural differences, emotional reasons or
communication barriers (Stoll-Kleemann 2001), but in many times the sources of the
problems could be the dissenting opinions about the importance or value of a given
ecosystem service. The variety of processes developed for ecosystem services
valuation have been considered important mostly for supporting decision-making
processes and solving management problems (Fisher et al. 2009). In our opinion, the
analysis of ecosystem services from the perspectives of the different stakeholder
groups could explain arising social problems related to nature conservation and land
use. Our aim is to resolve the conflicts between nature conservationists and farmers
emerged from the disagreement about the importance and values attached to
ecosystem services. In the first part of the four-year research, started in 2009,
qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, focus groups) were used to identify
the roots of the conflicts. Following interviews participatory process (community
planning through scenario workshops) will be initiated to find solutions which are able
to bring closer the perceptions of local actors about the ecosystem services.
8
15.00 – 15.20 The dynamics of cash cropping, culture and conflict in Kahua,
Solomon Islands
Jasper Kenter , Ioan Fazey and Tammy Davies
This paper reports on analyses of the complex dynamics between resource use, aid
delivery, cash cropping, culture and conflict in Kahua, a remote region of the
Solomon Islands, and their implications for trajectories of vulnerability to global
change. Local perceptions of change and its drivers were elicited using an extensive
participatory approach that included developing conceptual models of the underlying
feedback processes within the Kahua social-ecological system. Most changes were
being driven by a small number of key drivers including population growth and desire
for economic prosperity. These drivers were found to be acting synergistically in
combination with increasing opportunities for income generation through cash
cropping to decrease social cohesion and increase conflict over resources. Together,
the complex dynamics suggest that the system’s trajectory is moving towards greater
conflict and vulnerability to future change. Research into ecosystem service tradeoffs illustrated the perceived impacts of cash cropping in more detail. These included
deforestation and a decrease in food security; privatisation of common land;
increased work burden, particularly for women; increased inequality; erosion of
traditional culture and loss of social cohesion. Though cash cropping is encouraged
by aid agencies, the apparent significant reduction of social, cultural and natural
capital associated with increased cash crop cultivation suggests major implications
for long-term local sustainability. While the situation is complex, there are some
opportunities for social-ecological transformation. These include the recent
establishment of a grass roots organisation that can act as a bridging organisation
across governance scales, including facilitating cross-community action. However,
the grass roots organisation faces significant challenges, including limited financial
and human capital. This case study therefore highlights that focussing on
understanding and reducing the ultimate causes is an essential requirement of
addressing conservation conflicts.
9
15.20 – 15.40 Wilderness conservation, politics and Chitsa settlers in
Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe
Sebastien Le Bel
The vision of pristine wildernesses was, and still is, central to the creation and
maintenance of national parks in Zimbabwe and beyond. Proponents of national
parks point to the potential of pristine parks to not only conserve biodiversity and
avert the extinction of endangered species but also to generate foreign currency,
employment and incomes from tourism and to alleviate rural poverty. This is the
promise that national and transfrontier parks hold for state and non-state
stakeholders. This vision has come up against a competing small-farm first policy
narrative whose advocates see it as the best way to meet both growth and equity
objectives. This line of argument chimes with the farming interests of rural
households. Based on primary research and the review of secondary literature, this
article uses the case of Chitsa settlers in Gonarezhou National Park to explore the
implications of these ideas. The article examines how the translation into practice of
these competing policy narratives has been mired in sectoral agendas and power
politics that, for better or worse, interlock with the livelihood interests of the
settlers. Chitsa settlers’ contestations centre on accessing ancestral land and using
natural resources to sustain their livelihoods and socio-cultural identity. In this part of
the park, the smallholder-farming narrative is holding sway and contextual forces and
the specific constellation of institutional actor alliances have been critical in shaping
relations between the settlers and the park. The paper contributes to understanding
the intensely political nature of the interface between wilderness conservation and
smallholder livelihoods in contemporary Zimbabwe.
10
Species Conflicts
14.00 – 14.20 Snow leopards and yaks: managing conflicts with endangered
carnivores
Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi & Charudutt Mishra
With increasing human density and intensifying land use across the world,
management of human-wildlife conflicts has become a critical facet of conservation.
Conflicts over livestock depredation pose a serious challenge to endangered
carnivore conservation. Retaliatory killing against livestock depredation has resulted
in two carnivore extinctions and several range collapses. We review the primary
causes of livestock depredation conflicts, their ecological and societal correlates, and
the commonly employed mitigation measures. Livestock depredation conflicts are
characterized by complex interactions between carnivore and livestock behavioural
ecology, animal husbandry practices, human psyche, culture, world-views, and socioeconomic and education levels of affected peoples. Conflict-mitigation measures
include better herding practices, use of physical, chemical or psychological barriers,
selective removal of carnivores, use of livestock guard animals, damage
compensation, education and incentives. The choice of mitigation measures,
however, is often dictated by socio-political expediencies rather than by science.
Although selective carnivore removal is often employed, there is little scientific
support for its efficacy, particularly for endangered carnivores. Effective conflict
management usually requires a combination of measures aimed at reducing livestock
depredation, efficiently sharing the costs of depredation, and increasing the social
carrying capacity for carnivores through education and incentives. We describe a
pilot, community-based programme to manage conflicts with the endangered snow
leopard Panthera uncia that has employed a combination of measures including wild
prey recovery, improvement in herding practices, livestock insurance, and
conservation education. Having effectively addressed conflicts at a local scale, this
initiative makes a case for multi-pronged, community-based conflict management
and for insurance programmes over damage compensation subsidies. We
nevertheless emphasize the need to view both these cost sharing measures along a
continuum, with greater conservation subsidy being made available at the lower end
of the economic spectrum.
11
14.20 – 14.40 Engaging Samburu Warriors in Lion Conservation: A Case Study
in Westgate Community Conservancy, Northern Kenya
Shivani Bhalla
The reduction in lion numbers in Africa is largely due to habitat loss and conflict with
humans, and lions are a species whose distribution and conservation status is
dramatically impacted by such conflict. Lions in the Ewaso Nyiro ecosystem of
northern Kenya are especially vulnerable because they live in or adjacent to areas
inhabited by nomadic people. Their natural predatory behaviour has caused great
resentment among a rapidly increasing rural pastoralist population. Ewaso Lions is a
focused research and community conservation project aimed at enhancing the
survival of lions by examining the understudied populations in and around the Ewaso
Nyiro region’s protected areas (Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba National
Reserves), which have been identified as highest priority areas for biodiversity
conservation and research, and are critically important areas for lions and their
dispersal. Local scouts and warriors are engaged in the project to monitor lions in
the community areas, document prey numbers, as well as investigate humancarnivore conflict in the region with the goal of reducing conflict to increase large
carnivores to sustainable numbers. One of the most neglected groups of people in
conservation management in this region, is the moran, or warrior age-class. These
young men spend more time than anyone in wildlife areas, yet they are rarely
involved in decision making when it comes to wildlife conservation. To address this
gap, Ewaso Lions founded the Warrior Watch programme in early 2010. Through
Warrior Watch, morans become active within their communities as wildlife
ambassadors by reporting on wildlife sightings and issues such as conflict. I will
present the Lion Scouts programme and Warrior Watch findings to date including
successes and challenges of promoting human-carnivore coexistence in this region.
12
14.40 – 15.00 Recreational Fishing: Putting the pressure on Southern Bluefin
Tuna, Thannus maccoyii
Peter O'Toole, Anne Wallis and Laurie Laurenson
Recreational fishing is an important means of harvesting fish resources. This
particularly holds true for southern bluefin tuna, Thunnus maccoyii, in the Southern
Ocean. Southern bluefin tuna is a highly migratory species that is widespread
throughout the southern temperate oceans from the Western Atlantic to the Indian
and Western Pacific oceans. The global stock status of southern bluefin tuna is
classified as ‘overfished’, yet in Australia little research has been undertaken
exploring the ecology or the human dimensions of southern bluefin tuna resources.
Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of recreational
southern bluefin tuna fishing and the associated human dimensions of managing this
resource at Portland Bay in south west Victoria, Australia. The study was conducted
over the southern bluefin recreational fishing season, which extends from April to
June. Access point surveys using a questionnaire and instantaneous counts were
conducted to investigate patterns of recreational southern bluefin tuna fishing, to
determine fishing effort and catch rates and to assess attitudes, behaviour and
specialization of the recreational anglers. It was found that fishing effort varied
across the season, recreational catch was significant, anglers are travelling large
distances and spend a significant amount of money to fish and the greatest level of
fishing specialization was found in charter fishing. What this study reveals is that the
behaviour of recreational fishers may be in conflict with Australia’s sustainable
fisheries management policy, as when commercial and recreational catch are
considered together we are likely to be fishing above our internationally agreed
quotas.
13
15.00 – 15.20 Conservation Conflicts in the Wake of New Species Discoveries
Pamela Mcelwee
The "discoveries" of new species previously undescribed by science are extremely
interesting events, ones that raise complicated questions about biology, geography
and society, and which have often led, directly or indirectly, to conservation
conflicts. In the last twenty years, nearly 350 newly described mammal species
alone have been discovered. When new species are described and identified, they
are often treated as extremely special animals, above and beyond what their value
might have been had they simply been discovered some years ago. This paper will
focus on how the discovery of new species affects spatial and social planning for
conservation, and the conflicts that often erupt. Using examples from fieldwork in
Vietnam, where several new species of large mammals have been discovered in the
past 20 years, the paper will show how new species discoveries often set off
conservation planning and funding activities that are based on misguided
assumptions and a lack of accurate information, with real social consequences. In
the case of Vietnam, there has been a common supposition that ‘new’ species were
also implicitly very threatened; the assumption was that species had remained
unnamed for so long because they existed in low population numbers and therefore
were more likely to be in need of serious and immediate protection. As a result, there
have been attempts to set up protected areas of hundreds of thousands of hectares
for the new species. These protected zones include the lands of some indigenous
peoples, indicating that species discoveries can have a serious social
impact. Further, some unforeseen consequences of new species discoveries in the
field have included an overreliance on foreign scientists for taxonomic work, the rise
of markets for the naming of species that have commodified taxonomic practice, and
over inflation of ranges of new species in attempts to get conservation funding, even
for areas in which the new species have never been documented. All of these issues
have lead to different types of conservation conflicts, which this paper will discuss.
14
15.20 – 15.40 Where eagles dare – how conservation frameworks can help
underpin raptor management.
Des Thompson
For most raptor species, an effective conservation strategy has measures which
address species protection, the designation of protected areas for breeding and/or
wintering birds, and effective conservation and management practices across
protected areas and other parts used by the birds. Over the past eleven years we
have developed UK-wide conservation frameworks for some of Britain’s most
threatened birds - the golden eagle
http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/commissioned_reports/Report%20No193.pdf
and hen harrier (http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-5775); a peregrine framework is in
preparation. This work has involved government and non-government conservation
agencies, researchers and volunteer specialist surveyors; it has relied on a wide
range of people with skills in ornithology, field work, data checking, statistics,
modelling, file processing and handling, and GIS. Using national and regional data
sets describing raptor distribution, abundance and reproduction, ecological modelling
studies can test the associations of these measures with spatial and temporal
environmental trends in order to identify the key constraints acting on populations.
These findings can then be used in conjunction with conservation targets for raptor
abundance, demography and distribution in order to determine what management
action is needed, and where these interventions should be prioritised.
We outline
the work done to date and highlight some of the successes of the approach as well
as limitations. Themes emerging are widespread illegal persecution of some raptors
coupled with a lack of acceptance in some quarters of the scale of its demographic
impact, chronic shortages of live prey in some regions, and lack of data on land and
legal predator management extent and impacts. We argue that a transparent and
robust evidence base on constraints acting on raptors is an essential step in
resolving raptor-land use conflicts.
15