Local community response towards human wildlife conflicts in selected districts neighboring Karuma Wildlife Reserve

Abstract

In Oyam and Kiryandongo districts, human wildlife conflicts are common because of the close proximity of these areas to Karuma Wildlife Reserve. Most of the people in these areas are crop farmers though a few keep animals, the biggest population depends on crop farming for food and as sources of income. However, losses caused by wild life causes a great decline in crop production which directly or indirectly affects household income which could lead to increased poverty. In this study, a multistage random sampling was used to select 70 survey respondents from Oyam and Kiryandongo district with a main objective of assessing local community responses towards human wildlife conflicts. Data was collected using survey questionnaires and analyzed using Microsoft excel 2010 and SPSS version 27 and results explained using descriptive statistics, tables, pie-charts and bar graphs. The results showed crop destruction as the highest type of human wildlife conflict and higher in Kiryandongo representing 100% and 96.7% in Oyam respectively. Elephants and baboons were most incriminated for destruction with baboons reported in Kiryandongo representing 95% and 80% in Oyam respectively. Maize was the most destroyed crop in both districts with 80% in Kiryandongo and 90% in Oyam respectively. The frequency of human wildlife conflicts was higher in Kiryandongo compared to Oyam, 60% of respondents had conflicts both day and night in Kiryandongo compared to 36.7% in Oyam. In both districts, majority of respondents claimed they reported issues with wildlife to authorities with 67.7% reporting complaints to UWA. Traps were set by 43.3% of respondents in Oyam which was higher compared to Kiryandongo (32.5%). In Oyam (96.7%) respondents guarded their gardens to prevent destruction by wildlife and was higher compared to Kiryandongo (80%), majority of guarding work was done by fathers (45.8%) and children (28.8%). The effective responses were group chasing, setting fire, blowing vuvuzelas, beating jerrycans and guarding gardens.