Attitudes of local communities towards forest conservation in Botswana: a case study of Chobe Forest Reserve

Garekae, Hesekia; Thakadu, Olekae Tsompi; Lepetu, Joyce

doi:10.1505/146554816818966318

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…This finding was not surprising as perceived benefits is a key driver of support as also identified in other studies [2,6,8,12,14,18,29,42,60,76,77]. Likewise, such a relationship has been identified in other PAs in Botswana-Kasane Forest Reserve [28], Chobe Forest Reserve [27] and Chobe National Park [62]. Furthermore, such findings have also been reported in the southern Africa region whereby residents' adjacent to Kruger National Park in South Africa displayed positive attitudes, and were strongly in support even though access to forest resources and hunting had been curtailed [2].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…The relationship between employment status and support for KTP area did not come as a surprise as several studies have demonstrated that benefits associated with jobs from PAs lead to strong support and positive attitudes by neighboring communities or villages [4,42,58]. When local people are able to accrue tangible benefits from a nearby PA, they tend to know more about it and develop positive attitudes and support [27,34,35,85]. However, in this study, it was identified that KTP created few jobs for members from the sampled communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Research has identified various factors that influence negative attitudes such as, human-wildlife conflict [14,[18][19][20][21][22], land claims [23][24][25], restrictive policies and access regulations to collect non-timber forest products (e.g., nuts, wild mushrooms, berries, seeds, medicinal plants and herbs, etc. ), and livestock grazing [18,24,[26][27][28][29][30]. Conversely, positive attitudes have been influenced by community and personal economic benefits largely derived from tourism [4,22,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Local Communities’ Attitudes and Support Towards the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Southwest Botswana

2020

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Protected areas are of national importance and have developed into sources of benefits while in other situations have sparked conflicts among stakeholders, including residents from adjacent local communities, and park authorities. In this study, we examined community residents' attitudes towards the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP) in the Kalahari region (SW Botswana). This study assessed factors that influence support for, or opposition to, the KTP. A questionnaire with semi-structured questions was used to gather information from head of households (N = 746) in nine villages in the Kalahari region. Overall, positive attitudes and support for the KTP as a transfrontier park were documented, though tangible benefits were limited. Further based on analyses, literacy, proximity, and employment status were key variables that influenced support. In addition, any increase in residents' perceived benefits, land ownership, conservation awareness, and local benefits resulted in increased support for KTP. The implications indicated that communities near the KTP (Botswana side) need to be consulted, while further communications between the KTP management and authorities and adjacent villages are required to initiate effective community conservation programs. Additional programs and community outreach initiatives would also enable positive attitudes and support of KTP.Sustainability 2020, 12, 1524 2 of 17 unreliable rainfall and recurring droughts, and population growth in villages flanking protected areas [6,10,13,21,26,34,[43][44][45][46][47]. In southern Africa, livelihood activities with sole dependence on forest and rangeland resources have caused, and in some instances, exacerbated soil and land degradation [48,49]. Subsequently, instances of conflicts over natural resource use between different stakeholders that include park authorities and adjacent local communities [15,24,[50][51][52] have also fueled unsustainable livelihood activities such as illegal hunting, overharvesting of rare species of flora and fauna [32]. In response, rural communities have resorted to new livelihood ventures, such as park-based community ecotourism and wildlife safaris enterprises in the form of Community-based Organizations (CBOs) or Trusts near or in Protected Areas (PAs) [5,47,[52][53][54][55]. In Botswana, the government has introduced the concept of community based natural resource management (CBNRM) and community based organization (CBOs) (e.g., wildlife based Trusts) as a strategy to diversify rural livelihoods and reduce competition for the same resources among stakeholders [24,49]. It is through such initiatives that rural communities are encouraged to establish CBOs (Trusts) to develop community-based tourism enterprises from which they collectively plan, make decisions, manage and operate tourism enterprises and share benefits [5,56,57].Thus, many rural communities especially those found in or near resource rich (i.e., fauna, flora, and cultural-heritage) protected areas have formed CBOs/Trusts which are comprised of one or...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Local Communities’ Attitudes and Support Towards the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Southwest Botswana

2020

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“…One way to accommodate people with such anthropocentric values is to design and follow conservation strategies that not only engage and involve local people in conservation management, but also allow them to sustainably use forest resources (Sharaunga et al, 2015;Garekae et al, 2016).…”

Section: Anthropocentric Value Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of human values on attitudes and behaviours towards forest conservation

Ihemezie

Nawrath

Strauß

et al. 2021

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…Inadequate assessment of social and political aspects has been a major cause of failure of most reintroduction programmes of threatened or endangered species in the past (Griffith et al, 1989;Reading and Kellert, 1993). The support and cooperation of local people are therefore increasingly being recognized for successful population recovery and conservation, instead of the traditional exclusionary approach (Mishra, 1991;Seddon et al, 2007;Garekae et al, 2016;Kaplan-Hallam and Bennett, 2018). Social consultations in reintroductions are also integral part of the IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations (IUCN/SSC, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing People's Response Toward Tiger Translocation in Satkosia Tiger Reserve, Eastern India

Vasudeva

Ramasamy²,

Pal

et al. 2021

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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Local communities are an important stakeholder in any carnivore translocation programme and therefore, their acceptance of the translocation and support are essential to ensure its viability. Recent tiger augmentation efforts in Satkosia Tiger Reserve, India received mixed responses from the local communities, causing a stalemate in its progress. As a part of the adaptive management strategy, it was required to assess the concerns and issues to provide a practical solution. Hence, we analyzed the attitude of the people toward conservation in general and tiger specifically. We used structured questionnaire surveys and interviewed 1,932 households from 43 villages located in and around the reserve. We tested the influence of several variables representing four categories- (1) socio-economic, (2) ecosystem values and dependence, (3) relationship with the forest department and (4) losses and fear, on the attitude toward tiger conservation. The villages were clustered based on the responses received under these categories. While conserving forest was important to 91% of respondents, 71% of respondents supported wildlife conservation and only 35% felt important to conserve tiger. The logistic binary regression predicted that at the household level attitude toward tiger conservation is influenced positively by economic well-being, sense of forest ecosystem services, resource dependence and negatively influenced by restrictions from the forest department, and previous experience of loss due to wildlife. At the village level, literacy, resource dependence, access to clean cooking fuel and cooperation from the forest department predicted a positive attitude toward tiger conservation. Restriction from the forest department, fear for livestock, and experience of losses due to wildlife had a negative influence on attitude. We recommend that the villages in the landscape are prioritized based on their needs and accordingly, specific interventions are made to address their concerns. Future augmentation programme must give importance to intangible factors such as fear and perceived restrictions and opt for the involvement of the local community in the decision-making process.

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Attitudes of local communities towards forest conservation in Botswana: a case study of Chobe Forest Reserve

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

Local Communities’ Attitudes and Support Towards the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Southwest Botswana

Local Communities’ Attitudes and Support Towards the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Southwest Botswana

The influence of human values on attitudes and behaviours towards forest conservation

Factors Influencing People's Response Toward Tiger Translocation in Satkosia Tiger Reserve, Eastern India

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