TITLE:
Prevalence and Severity of Current Human-Elephant Conflicts in Amboseli Ecosystem, Kenya: Insights from the Field and Key Informants
AUTHORS:
Moses Makonjio Okello, Stephen J. Njumbi, John Warui Kiringe, James Isiiche
KEYWORDS:
Amboseli Ecosystem, Elephants, Human-Elephant Conflicts, Kenya, Threats Facing Elephants
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.5 No.9,
July
31,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Few animals elicit such
drastically different human emotions, so do elephants. Elephants capture the
affection of people but also inspire animosity and fear at the same time. This
is because there are conflicts with people over space, critical resources,
costs of damages and general insecurity to people. This paper examined field
evidence and interviewed expert key informants on current intensity and
frequency of human-elephants in Amboseli Ecosystem. According to them,
generally, the most prevalent (score of 1 lowest to 10 highest) threats to
elephants were competition for critical resources (6.32 ± 0.44) followed by
blocking of migration (6.24 ± 0.46), harassment of elephants (4.83 ± 0.75),
poaching (4.57 ± 0.37), and retaliatory killings (3.78 ± 0.31). For threats
that elephants pose to people, the most prevalent one was crop raiding (6.95 ±
0.26) followed by environmental degradation (6.71 ± 0.46), general insecurity
to people (5.76 ± 0.65), property destruction (5.16 ± 0.41), injury and death
to livestock (3.78 ± 0.37), and injury and death to people (2.71 ± 0.27). For
the severity of the threats, the highest score was given to crop raiding whose
average score was 7.90 ± 0.24 followed by environmental destruction and
degradation (6.89 ± 0.43), injury and death to people (6.72 ± 0.44), injury and
death to livestock (6.36 ± 0.50), property destruction (5.78 ± 0.49), general
insecurity to people (5.62 ± 0.64). Severity levels followed the same trend or
varied slightly. These drivers of human-elephant conflicts need to be addressed
decisively to protect both people and elephants. There is a need to ensure
local people’s benefit from elephants through ecotourism investments such as
wildlife sanctuaries, leasing critical space for elephants’ dispersal on
acceptable terms, through appropriate compensation schemes for elephant costs,
and supporting local community wildlife rangers to prevent conflicts.