Human dimensions and ecological success of CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe.
Description
Conserving natural resources outside protected areas has its own challenges. Participation and acceptance play an important role in CBNRM. The following hypotheses were tested (a) attitudes and perceptions of the respondents’ towards wildlife vary with selected socio-economic variables, b) satisfaction derived from CAMPFIRE benefits has an influence on attitudes and perceptions of respondents’ and (c) respondents’ attitudes and perceptions vary with distance to the Park boundary. The study employed a questionnaire and participatory research tools such as Key Informant Interviews, one-to-one informal discussions and participant observation. The main findings showed that depending on respondents’ background and distance from the park boundary, they faced different wildlife-related problems and had different views about CAMPFIRE’s success. Accountability and monitoring would be a crucial prerequisite for ecological success.
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An open-ended questionnaire was developed to investigate the behavioural differences in communities living along the Hwange Park boundary in Tsholotsho CAMPFIRE area. Communities in CAMPFIRE productive wards were selected for the survey. An open-ended questionnaire was developed to investigate the behavioural differences in communities living along the Hwange Park boundary in Tsholotsho CAMPFIRE area. Communities in CAMPFIRE productive wards were selected for the survey. The target of the interviews were people living adjacent to HNP in the Tsholotsho district, Zimbabwe. This area was chosen as it was assumed that these communities are directly affected by, and have the capacity to directly affect wildlife populations. About 80% of the inhabitants of Tsholotsho District work in the agricultural sector, while there are still some members of the population that remain pure pastoralists. However, the general tendency in earning a livelihood is subsistence crop farming. This study uses representations of the beliefs and ideas held by CAMPFIRE stakeholders collected through a fuzzy-logic cognitive mapping (FCM) technique to facilitate social learning. To develop their model, community members and all other stakeholders within Tsholotsho CAMPFIRE programme used the Mental Modeler software (www.mentalmodeler.org), which facilitates the FCM process, allowing components and the relationships between components to be defined based on automated FCM parameters. Qualitative symbologies of positive (+), negative (-) and neutral (0) (no influence between concepts) relationships are thus translated by the software into quantitative values, varying from low (0.25), medium (0.5) and high (1.0). These components and their relationships were considered to represent the stakeholders’ understanding of their community’s dynamics at the start of the planning process. The influence of socio-economic background and distance from the HNP boundary on villagers’ attitudes and perceptions towards CAMPFIRE and wildlife protection was tested using the χ2 test. All the statistical analyses were done using SPSS version 22. As a way to measure the differences in beliefs and ideas between stakeholders engaged in CAMPFIRE, parameterized and semi-quantitative concept mapping technique called Fuzzy-logic Cognitive Mapping were used.