In
areas where humans and wildlife co-exist, competition for land, food, and water
between the two usually prevails. As human populations expand and natural
habitats shrink, people and animals increasingly come into conflict over living
space. Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) refers to the interaction between wild
animals and people and the resultant negative impacts on people or their
resources or animals or their habitat. Most of Human-Wildlife Conflict
incidents involve elephants destroying crops. Crocodiles are considered the
second most problematic animal, followed by hippopotamus and buffalo.
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Source: www.fao.org
(FAO)
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In
Zambia, The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) has the mandate to deal with
problem animal control. However, though most human wildlife conflict incidents
are reported to ZAWA, the response is never on time because of man power
shortages and inadequate resources. Consequently, the communities are now
hostile to ZAWA which they accuse of treating animals better than human beings.
There
are two basic approaches to managing human wildlife conflicts, that is,
prevention and mitigation.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES
These
are measures that can prevent or minimise the risk of conflicts arising between
people and animals include the extreme one of completely removing either the
people or the animals, physically separating the two by the use of barriers,
managing by a variety of means the numbers of animals to reduce the risk of
conflict, and employing a variety of scaring and repelling tactics.
Managing the size of
Populations
One
of the major causes of HWC is the expansion of human or animal populations into
each other’s territory. By managing the size of the population it reduces the
risk of HWC arising. Such measures would include selectively killing animals as
well as controlling their reproduction.
Physical Barriers
Exclusion
of wild animals by use of physical barriers can, in many situations, be an
effective method of settling human-wildlife conflicts. If they are properly
designed, constructed and maintained, fences can be completely effective in
preventing conflict between people and wild animals. The major factor limiting
the wider use of wildlife fences is their cost
Fear-Provoking Stimuli
This
involves the use of tactics that invoke fear in animals ensuring that they stay
away from an area. The stimuli can be visual, auditory or olfactory. These
methods face a common problem because the animals soon learn that they pose no
real danger and then ignore them.
Chemical Repellents
The
use of chemical repellents is another way to alter animal behaviour with the
goal of resolving HWC. Repellents are designed to keep an animal out of an
area. This would include the chilli pepper method as described earlier to repel
animals.
Landscape Management
and Land-Use Modification
Human-wildlife
conflicts can be reduced, perhaps in some cases totally prevented, by
implementing changes to the natural resource that causes the conflict or to its
surroundings. This can include planting crops that are less palatable to
wildlife, such as planting chillies instead of maize, changing the timing when
a crop is planted or harvested. As well as altering animal husbandry practices
to reduce risk of predation and, designing and building predator-proof
livestock stockades.
MITIGATION MEASURES
The
measures taken in this approach is Problem Animal Control (PAC), most often
undertaken by the national wildlife authority after HWCs have occurred. The
‘problem animal’ can either be killed or captured for translocation.
Killing of Problem
Animals
In
this method those individual animals causing the problem or at least whose home
range includes the site where the problem is are killed. In reality, often the
problem animal is not identified, but rather any individual is killed to
satisfy the demand for action and revenge by the aggrieved community – especially
in the case of loss of human life or the killing of livestock.
Translocation
This
involves the removal of individual animals responsible for depredation and also
for reduction of populations in specific areas. Translocation can be an
appealing method to the general public, especially those who are particularly
concerned about animal welfare, as they perceive that it gives the affected
animal a second chance at a new site.
Human-wildlife
conflict is a serious obstacle to wildlife conservation worldwide and is
becoming more prevalent as human populations increase, development expands, the
global climate changes and other human and environmental factors put people and
wildlife in greater direct competition for a shrinking resource base.
Improving
responses to human-wildlife conflict requires greater consultation not only
among wildlife professionals and between their organizations, but also with
economic and social development organizations, land use planners, agribusiness,
and other key decision makers.
The
cause of human wildlife conflict is mainly the lack of a land use policy for
the country. As a long-term plan, the government put in place a National
Steering committee to review the existing policies and legislation for wildlife
conservation in the country.
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