In Africa, the important agro-pastoral activity and poverty in rural areas lead to strong anthropogenic pressures on protected areas and to their quick degradation. Therefore the efficient conservation and sustainable exploitation of protected areas require adaptive and dynamic management that integrates peripheral interactions with regard to their changing spatial and temporal dimensions. They call for the deployment of appropriate management indicators capable of translating all the issues raised into concrete and practical terms. To this end, a new conceptual and analytical approach to assess pressure indicators is needed to take into account the spatio-temporal oscillation or mobility of the area of ​​socio-economic dependence that must henceforth provide the basis for sustainable management in the context of adaptation to climate change. The study responds to this concern through rigorous conceptualization, characterization and validation of original peripheral pressure indicators focused on a global and dynamic socio-economic framework. The method used consisted of an interpretative analysis of theoretical bibliographic data, measurements and field observations using GPS, ArcGIS 10.1 and Envi 4.5 and semi-structured interviews for the characterization of defined pressure indicators and their field validation. The five pressure indicators designed and applied on the basis of the criteria of direct dependence on protected areas are the coefficient of asymmetry (Kc), the periphery (Ψ), the dependent population (Dπ), the distance-access time (DAT) and the field daily working time (FDWT). The approach and pressure indicators were successfully applied to the Rusizi National Park (Burundi) for the period 1984-2015. The results showed that the park has a coefficient of asymmetry of 2.64 which represents a three times higher level than its circular equivalent, a periphery of 13.23 km radius composed of 35 localities characterized by distance-access times comprise between 0 to 2 h 30 and field daily working times ranging from 7 to 11 hours. They revealed that nearly 70% of peripheral populations are concentrated within 6 km from the boundaries and have distance-access times of less than one hour. The peripheral dependence on Rusizi Park reaches 100% for woody resources, 97% for livestock products, 88% for agricultural resources and 83% for animal protein products. The modeling of potential pressures and               field observations showed that peripheral localities are the more threatening that they are         more dependent, more populated and closer to the park. As a consequence, the important anthropogenic pressures led to a very significant degradation of the park during the study     period.

In African countries, crop-raiding by wild animals and human-wildlife conflicts are recurrent and common concerns for conservationists, protected areas managers and surrounding populations. At different levels, these challenges hinder the achievement of conservation goals. Although researchers have widely studied human-wildlife conflicts in Nyungwe National Park, few have examined its impact and lived experiences of local communities who are regularly facing crop-raiding by wild animals. The present study conducted in areas adjacent to the park including those affected with a high rate of crop raiding aimed to assess: (1) the community perceptions on human-wildlife conflicts and (2) the community perceptions on the compensation schemes set up to minimize the conflicts. For this purpose, a qualitative method was adopted. It relied on field semi-structured interviews with the representatives of conservation key stakeholders including local communities that experienced crop raiding. On one hand, the findings indicated that communities affected by generalized crop raiding are complaining about socioeconomic and livelihood losses, food insecurity and injury. On the other hand, they showed that affected communities are not satisfied with the compensation scheme. Difficult requirements for compensation, complicated compensation procedure, rejection of compensation claims, undervalued payment and irregular compensation and delay of payments were identified as key problems that keep human-wildlife conflicts at high levels. The compensation process is so slow, so long and so costly that the victims of crop raiding abandon compensation claims. As a result, local communities continue to deal with self-defense since monetary compensation is unable to decrease the level of crop raiding. The findings call for an improved compensation scheme for reduced human-wildlife conflicts and efficient management following the model of effective compensation. Even though fencing the Park could be expensive, it would be a viable option to minimize wild-animals escape from the park. In addition, enhancing collective guiding system was proposed by the local community as their innovative strategy that could reduce crop raiding.

In the field of conservation, the shift from the fortress conservation approach towards participatory management has considerably increased the interest for tourism activities and income. In Rwanda, the protected areas governance system is promoting community-based conservation through tourism revenue sharing to achieve conservation and development goals. The case study was designed to: (1) assess the understanding and implementation of principles of community participation by different stakeholders for the benefit of local communities and the efficiency of the conservation and (2) define interactive dynamics and conditions created for fully and sustainably population involvement in the conservation. The study area was selected because of its rich biodiversity and the high dependence of surrounding populations on natural resources. The study adopted a qualitative approach based on semi-structured individual interviews to key stakeholders from different categories of stakeholders including local communities. The data collected were transcribed, translated and analyzed using content analysis methods, MAXQDA Software and a coding system. The results showed that the involvement and empowerment of local people are done through keen activities based cooperative associations and funded projects, reference made to resources use, awareness raising and skills for interactions, cooperative spirit promotion and entrepreneurship. They indicated that the level of communities' participation remains only of procedural kind and is still low though community members are benefiting of jobs, loans for their projects and income generating activities such as organized productions for market thanks to tourism revenue sharing and revolving fund programs. The transfer of the management is slow and smooth because of a slow change of mindset from receiving mentality, farming related difficulties, unaffordable lending conditions and a great deal of communication and misunderstanding on the tourism revenue sharing and the projects funding approaches. Contradictory understandings and appreciations of the community participation are recorded according to the categories of stakeholders. Actually, all the administrative and technical processes including mediation between communities and funding agencies are driven through a top-down management model; the study area being a state owned and controlled park and not a co-managed one. Though local communities gradually understand the role of the park thanks to income generating activities and community projects, the new approach does not meet basic criteria for effective community participation to ensure the sustainability of the conservation. However, the socioeconomic incentives have a positive impact on the reduction of illegal activities and threats, except poaching for which a compensation fund for damaged crops was created.

In the framework of the community participation in conservation in Rwanda, a women handcraft cooperative was established in 2011 in the surrounding of Nyungwe National Park in Kitabi sector and Nyamagabe District. It aimed to empower economically and socially wives of former hunters who were themselves relying on natural resources and involved in harvesting different resources in park for making handcraft products. The empowerment was intended to reduce the reliance to natural resources and to contribute to the protection of the park. The objective of the study was to investigate and examine women’s experiences about their empowerment through environmental justice, in terms of distributive and procedural justice and challenges faced by women. In doing so, participants were purposively selected in women handicraft cooperative and in administration bodies. With regards to data collection and analysis, semi-structured interviews and content analysis were used. The findings showed that women are socially and economically empowered. In terms of economic empowerment, access to financial loans, savings, employment and income generating projects are the major indicators of the empowerment. Improved capacity building and family relations are major concerns of social handcraft cooperative members. Regarding the participation of women in decision-making process, the findings are controversial. However, it is still limited because of the dominance of top-down approach that does not consider enough women’s voices and suggestions in decision making.  Cooperative women members perceive and consider the process of communication and decision-making as passive because they are almost absent in the monitoring and evaluation processes. The participation of the community members including women only appears through meetings with or without elected representatives. The process of women empowerment is still limited by some challenges such as crop raiding, complicated and slow compensation process, high interest rate and slow process of loan and inadequate communication. The partnership approach is then recommended so as to consider women’s needs and voices in the implementation of natural resources conservation policies.

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