Local Perceptions of Interactions Between Elephants and Borassus Aethiopum Mart. (Arecaceae) in the Pendjari National Park in Benin

Abstract

Elephants are reported to have a dramatic impact on woodyvegetation in protected areas. Careful control of elephant and wood species populations is therefore crucial to successful biodiversity management in such ecosystems. The perceptions of local people and protected areas managers could very usefully supple- ment classic ecological surveys and monito- ring to achieve this goal. This study assessed the perceptions of managers and local people regarding the causes, damage, consequences and management options of elephant pres- sure on the declining dioecious palm Boras- sus aethiopum. The study was conducted in the Pendjari National Park, which is part of the W-Arly-Pendjari transboundary complex of reserves in West Africa. Semi-structured inter- views were conducted with 53 respondents belonging to three socio-professional cate- gories: administrators, ecoguards and local professional hunters. Relative frequency of citation and the Pearson correlation were used to assess the consensus and concordance of their perceptions, respectively. The respon- dents reported a steep increase in the number of elephants in the Pendjari National Park, which they attributed to significant elephant migration from transboundary parks where poaching pressure was perceived as high. This has resulted in high pressure on tree species including B. aethiopum. Despite differences in professional outlook, consensual and concor- dant opinions were noted among administra- tors, ecoguards and local professional hunters on the relationship between B. aethiopum and elephants. A regional approach aiming to pro- tect the elephant population (low poaching) in the W-Arly-Pendjari complex and other neighbouring reserves was suggested in order to limit elephant migration.

Contribution of Avenue Trees Planted Along Managed Roadways in the Provision of Ecosystem Services to the Population of the Municipality of Sèmè-Podji in Benin

“…This dual spatio-temporal proximity makes the interactions between informants and alignment trees evident [13]. All this was reinforced by the level of maturity determined by their age, activities and level of education which guarantee seriousness in the interviews [28]. However, given that the survey mainly sought the memory of individuals from different socio-professional categories [29], it was not easy to collect similar information on the use of urban trees in daily practices populations of Sèmè-Podji.…”