Factors Associated With Traditional Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards Wildlife Conservation Among Local Communities in Enkusero Sampu Conservancy, Kajiado County-kenya
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Date
2018Author
Ochieng’, Christine N
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
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Globally, there is much attention on the inclusion of traditional knowledge and practices in wildlife conservation to foster peaceful co-existence between human and wildlife species. Local communities’ traditional knowledge and practices are linked to wildlife conservation through taboos and sacred (sites and species), and have led to the conservation of some of the endangered species listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list. An understanding of local communities’ attitude towards wildlife conservation is an important determinant for the success of wildlife conservation intervention. This study examined the traditional knowledge, attitude and practices towards wildlife conservation among local communities living in Enkusero Sampu Conservancy, in Kajiado County, Kenya. The research used a cross-sectional study design involving both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. Data collection was based on; head of household questionnaires, focus group discussions with the elders and the youth, and key informant interviews with community members, Kenya Wildlife Service staff, local leaders and conservancy staff. Quantitative data analysis involved descriptive analysis (frequencies distributions); bivariate analysis mainly cross tabulation with Chi-square test to determine statistically significant associations between depended and independent variables; and an estimation of a multivariate logistic regression model to assess the effect of predictor variables on the outcome variables. The result of the bivariate analysis indicates that demographic and socio economic variables had an association with local communities’ traditional knowledge, attitudes and practices towards wildlife conservation. Gender, marital status, household size and main source of livelihood had a statistical significant association with awareness on traditional wildlife conservation ways at p<0.05. In addition, gender, age, household size, past experience of livestock predation and awareness of traditional ways of wildlife conservation was associated with attitude towards wildlife conservation. The main sources of traditional knowledge were parents (97 %) and grandparents at 90 %. More than half (51%) of the respondents learnt the use of wildlife from the cultural practices. Multivariate analysis results showed that male respondents were more likely than female to be aware of traditional ways of wildlife conservation (OR 3.755; 95% CI=1.884 - 7.673 at p<0.001). Age and main source of livelihood were also important predictors of traditional knowledge of wildlife conservation. The result showed that traditional knowledge was statistically significantly associated with attitude towards wildlife conservation—respondents with awareness of traditional ways of conserving wildlife were 2.4 times (95% CI =0.355 - 4.308 at p=0.003)
more likely to have positive attitude towards wildlife conservation compared to those with no knowledge. In addition, respondents who had not experienced loss of livestock to predators were 1.8 times (95% CI=0.736-4.603; at p<0.05) more likely to support wildlife conservation compared to those who had experienced loss of livestock to predators. Furthermore, local communities’ attitudes towards wildlife conservation influenced their conservation behavior, with positive attitudes likely to lead to pro-conservation behavior and negative attitude leading to anti-conservation behavior. Insights from qualitative data revealed taboos as the main traditional way of wildlife conservation. Some traditional and cultural practices among the Maasai community have led to destruction of certain species of plants and animals. For example, wild animals and plants were significantly used in cultural practices such as during the initiation and circumcision ceremonies. The study concludes that awareness of traditional knowledge in wildlife conservation results into positive attitude towards wildlife conservation and leads to pro-conservation practices, if local people have access to benefits from wildlife conservation. The finding of the study recommends the inclusion of best practice traditional knowledge into wildlife conservation policies and programmes. In addition, there is need to have community-based interventions aimed at promoting awareness and progressive attitudes towards wildlife conservation to ensure survival of wildlife species on community lands
Publisher
University of Nairobi
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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