Perceived Impacts of Wildlife on Agropastoral Food Production in Northern Tanzania

Ecol Food Nutr. 2024 Mar 18:1-25. doi: 10.1080/03670244.2024.2329978. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTHuman-wildlife interactions can affect human wellbeing and wildlife population persistence. This paper addresses the perceived impacts of wildlife on agropastoral food production in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania. It is based on sixteen months of collaborative ethnographic fieldwork with agropastoral Maasai communities (2019-2020; 2022; 2023), 240 semi-structured interviews, and a household survey (n = 1076). People felt that caterpillars, elephants, and zebras had the most significant effects on crop production, while hyenas were responsible for the bulk of livestock depredation by carnivores. These social costs of wildlife merit further attention from conservation policy makers.PMID:38495022 | DOI:10.1080/03670244.2024.2329978
Source: Ecology of Food and Nutrition - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: research