Analysis of Human Willd Life Conflicts on Livelihood Diversification of Communities Living Adjacent Tokamnarok National Reserve,baringo County,Kenya

Abstract

There have been increasing cases of human wildlife conflicts affecting local communities living adjacent to wildlife conservation areas. These pose a great challenge to the communities as they adversely affect their livelihoods. This is the case around Kamnarok National Reserve (NR) in Baringo County. Incompatible livelihood diversification has been linked to the escalation of human wildlife conflicts in the study area thus the objectives of the study were to;- i) examine the types of human wildlife conflicts in the study area ii) analyze the impact of human wildlife conflicts (HWC) on community well-being iii) analyze community motivation for livelihood diversification and iv) assess the relationship between livelihood diversification and human wildlife conflicts. Three (3) hypotheses were formulated and tested using the collected data. These were (a) no significant relationship between local community livelihoods and Kamnarok National reserves’ resources; (b) there is no significant relationship between human wildlife conflicts and community livelihoods and (c) there is no significant relationship between livelihood diversification and the rising cases of human wildlife conflicts within Kamnarok NR adjacent areas. Random sampling was used to select 384 respondents from households adjacent to Kamnarok NR. Purposive sampling was used to identify Key informants and Focus Group Discussants. Data collected was analyzed using content analysis, chi- square goodness of fit test, Pearson Product Moment correlation (PPMC) and multinomial regression (MR) test. The results were presented using graphs and tables. The results from the study revealed that crop raiding (72%) and livestock predations (46%) were the main causes of human-wildlife conflicts. Chi-square statistics and Pearson product Moment correlation coefficients showed that land rights contestation, competition for the NR resources, increase in wildlife populations, inadequacy of livelihood sources and the NR management style were other main contributors to the prevailing conflicts in the study area. Elephants were identified as the most destructive in farm raiding incidences. Furthermore, 71% of the households suffer human wildlife conflicts (HWCs) with human injuries (11.4%) and deaths (2.7%) being the main direct human bodily forms of conflicts manifestation. Coefficients of the logistic regression model indicated that the main factors influencing community livelihood diversification in Kamnarok NR were wildlife related factors (β = 1.218; p<0.05); education levels (β = 0.442; p<0.05) and agro-climatic factors (β= 0.861,p<0.005). However, HWCs significantly differed by gender (X2 = 8.265, df =4, p<0.001) as more male headed household bear the brunt of conflicts. However, other causes included imposition of policies without effective participation (66.4%), climate change (58.4%), conflict of interest among resource users (56.2%), and culture of cattle rustling (38.1%). The study further established that households diversified livelihoods into various portfolios including land sales, local transport business, and sale of merchandise in open-air markets as a result of wildlife conflicts. Finally this study recommends that (a) Kamnarok NR management authorities should address community land right issue by exploring more amicable solutions that ensure community support for wildlife conservation, (b) Promote the development of more sustainable alternative livelihoods such as tourism which reduce pressure on already strained resources of Kamnarok NR (c) Encourage livelihoods land uses such as livestock ranching which promote local livelihoods as it is compatible with wildlife conservation and (d) integrate community views in the management of the reserve.