Conservation Through Poverty Alleviation Poverty, ICD & Resource Users

Conservation Through Poverty Alleviation

Poverty, ICD

&

Resource Users

Why is ICD not working more effectively?

Poorest community members undertake

unauthorised resource use

Livelihood security (risk coping strategies) &

subsistence (meeting daily needs) are primary drivers of unauthorised resource

use

Those engaged with unauthorised resource use have benefitted less from

ICD than those who refrain from such use

Resource Use Hypotheses


Who are the poorest members of communities

neighbouring Bwindi?

What are the social & economic profiles of

authorised & unauthorised resource

users?

What resources docommunities seek from

Bwindi & why?

What are the differences in ICD benefit perceived

by authorised & unauthorised resource

users & non-users?

Resource Use Research Questions





authorised & unauthorised resource users?


Bwindi & why?

What are the differences in ICD benefit perceived by

resource users (both authorised and

unauthorised) and non-users?


Poverty

Villagers within 0.5km of the national park boundary were significantly poorer than villagers living beyond 0.5km

• Frontline villagers are therefore the poorer members of local communities neighbouring Bwindi

• They are also more likely to suffer from crop raiding

In comparison to wealthier villagers living further away from Bwindi, frontline villagers:

Less education

Less access to markets & social

services

Fewer sanitation facilities

More likely to go hungry

Lower sense of wellbeing

Frontline communities

Poverty trap of losing food & income from crop raiding; having less access to markets & social services; poorer job prospects (less well educated) & at greater risk of disease





authorised & unauthorised resource

users?


Bwindi & why?





Developing resource user profiles

We analysed a range of social & economic variables.....

• Wealth indicated by size & quality of homestead

• Wealth indicated by Basic Necessity Score

• Sources of income

• Years of formal education

• Household size

• Number of sanitation facilities

• Ethnicity; age; sex

• Distance from homestead to national park boundary

• Homestead over or under 1 hour walk to a trading centre & road

• Wellbeing (indicative scale)

Studying unauthorised resource use

• Challenging given the sensitivities involved

• How best to identify unauthorised resource users?

• We used 3 approaches:

1. ‘Indirect’ questioning to estimate the proportion of the population undertaking resource use -Unmatched Counting Technique where the respondent remains anonymous


2. Information from UWA on villagers they knew were bushmeathunters; verified by law enforcement records

We interviewed 41 bushmeat hunters


3. Information from rangers on people that they arrested in the national park each month ‘fresh arrests’

• We interviewed villagers neighbouring Bwindi who had been arrested between August 2012 & February 2013 (n=12)

• More details on all ‘fresh arrests’ to follow!

Place of arrest & homestead gives important insight

These ‘fresh arrests’ are not all unauthorised resource users but only those arrested by rangers

Most were arrested for bushmeat hunting

We combined fresh arrests hunters with the UWAbushmeat hunters for the profile analysis

Questionnaires:

41 bushmeat hunters & 6 ‘fresh arrest’ hunters

50 authorised resource users selected at random

50 Batwa selected at random

206 villagers selected at random in the same parish as resource users

Do poorer villagers undertake unauthorised use?


• Bushmeat hunters were no more or less poor but had more sanitation facilities than other villagers

• Bushmeat hunters also had larger families & tended to live further from trading centres than other villagers

• Bushmeat hunters lived closer to the national park boundary than the average villager


• Villagers most likely to have collected firewood from Bwindi during the past year lived further from roads & trading centres than other villagers

• No other social or economic variable was statistically significant

Authorised resource users

Who benefits from Multiple Use?

• Authorised resource users were wealthier than other villagers

• They also had more sanitation facilities

Understanding resource users

• Authorised resource users were wealthier villagers

• Hunters lived closer to the national park than the average villager

• Firewood collectors were further from roads or trading centres than the average villager






What resources docommunities seek

from Bwindi & why?





What resources do villagers desire from Bwindi?

• Bushmeat was the most commonly ranked reason as to why people go to the forest

• 35.6% of the community had obtained bushmeat from Bwindi during the past year

• 50% of fresh arrests were bushmeat hunters

• But at gazettement, villagers ranked bushmeat 14th out of 15 forest resources that they harvest from Bwindi

Motivations for bushmeat hunting

• Focus groups stated that hunters collect bushmeat because they have no livestock or money to buy meat

• But we know hunters are wealthier than other villagers!!

• How important is the local bushmeat trade as an income?

• Local bushmeat trade between 3000-8000UGX per kilo (butcher meat is 8000-9000UGX per kilo)

• Other motivations were medicine, an important source of protein & ‘evil spirits’


• Medicinal plants were the second most desired resource from Bwindi

• Motivations for harvesting medicinal plants from Bwindi:

– Modern health facilities too far away

– Modern health facilities too expensive & too slow

– Medicinal plants are a better cure


• Firewood was the third most desired resource from Bwindi

• 22.5% of the community had obtained firewood from Bwindi during the past year

• The only motivation given for collecting firewood from Bwindi was a lack of land to grow trees


• Honey was the fourth most desired resource from Bwindi

• 15.1% of the community had obtained honey from Bwindiduring the past year

14.5% of our survey respondents were authorised resource users)

• Motivations: equally household consumption (food & medicine) & to sell at 10,000UGX per kilo

• Prefer forest hives as these produce better & more honey


• Basketry & weaving materials were the fifth most desired resource

• Smilax anceps (authorised) & loeseneriella apocynoides(not authorised) collected for baskets, trays & stretches

• Motivation: equally household consumption & to sell

• Baskets & trays sell for 5000-7000UGX


Less commonly extracted resources (in order of importance):

• Pitsawn timber for money

• Poles for building

• Wood to made crafts to sell for tourists

• Fish for household consumption

• Mine gold for money

• Hoe handles for household use

• Vines for building

• Bean stakes for farming

• Fish to sell

• Panga handles for household use

Additional drivers of unathorised resource use

• In addition to resource specific motivations for resource use, focus groups described additional drivers of unathorised resource use that influence all resource extraction:

Resentment from lack of support on crop raiding

Resentment from inequitable revenue sharing

Resentment from lack of employment for local people

Belief in traditional rights

Resentment from lack of support on crop raiding

• Crop raiding results in a loss of food & income

• A long history of crop raiding around Bwindi – 1930s records of Mt gorilla raiding nearby shambas

• Since gazettment many crop raiding mitigation schemes

• But anger from perceived lack of compensation or assistance from the Park

• 5th most important driver of unathorised resource use by focus groups & 3rd most important reason to hunt by poacher reformed associations

Inequity of revenue sharing

• Local people claim that money intended for villagers is ‘lost’ at sub-county or district levels

• The remaining money goes to people far from the Park who never suffer from crop raiding or people who have benefitted before

• This resentment is a driver of unathorised resource use

• The new Revenue Sharing Guidelines could change this

Lack of employment from the Park

• Common belief by villagers that the Park gives employment to people from distant areas

• These ‘foreign’ rangers do not speak the local language & know little about Bwindi

• Bwindi used to provide villagers with jobs but now these are not given to local people

• This resentment is a driver of unathorised resource use

• If UWA has a policy then the villagers are unaware

Traditional beliefs

• Forest resources used to belong to local people & they have a right to extract them

• Most commonly mentioned by Batwa focus groups

• Relatively minor driver of unathorised resource use from other focus groups

Summary: resources desired

• Bushmeat was the highest listed resource that villagers desire from Bwindi by focus groups

• 50% of local fresh arrests were bushmeat hunters

• 35.6% of villagers had obtained bushmeat from Bwindiduring the past year – this was more than people collecting firewood or honey from Bwindi

• Motivations: household consumption & to sell

Summary: resources desired

Other resources that villagers desire from Bwindi in order of importance:

1. Medicinal plants

2. Firewood: 23% villagers collected from Bwindi

3. Honey: 15% villagers collected from Bwindi

4. Weaving materials

5. Others

Summary: motivations

Resource Specific

• Household use & sale

• Alternatives relatively inaccessible

• Or of a poorer quality

Overarching drivers

• Lack of support for crop raiding

• Inequitable revenue sharing

• Lack of jobs

• Traditional beliefs







Bwindi & why?





Authorised resource users & ICD

• Authorised resource users felt more involved with ICD design & implementation than the average villager

• They also felt that they had benefitted more from ICD than the average villager

• Example of ICD success (next presentation!)

Bushmeat hunters & ICD

• Bushmeat hunters felt more involved with ICD design & implementation than the average villager

• Bushmeat hunters were more likely to have attended an ICD meeting than the average villager

• A cluster of hunters around Buhoma……

Poorer villagers & ICD

• Poorer villagers felt less involved with ICD, less ownership of ICD projects & to have benefitted less than wealthier villagers

• Has ICD benefitted wealthier villagers or are these villagers wealthier because they have benefitted from ICD?


• Villagers living 0.5-1km from the boundary felt the most involved with ICD, had the greatest sense of ownership of ICD & the most benefits from ICD

• There is a 0.5-1km zone of good governance & ICD benefits (but not the poverty zone of frontline villagers)


• Why do poorer villagers feel less involved with ICD & less ownership of ICD projects?

• They stated that they cannot attend meetings because:

– meetings are held far away

– they need to guard their crops

– are not informed about the meetings


• Why do poorer villagers perceive that they have received fewer ICD benefits than wealthier villagers?

• Have there been fewer ICD projects in the poverty zone or have frontline villagers benefitted from ICDbut have negative attitudes because of crop raiding?

• Limited data on ICD projects although a recent study on Bwindi Trust projects involved mapping some of their ICD projects

ICD benefits & frontline villagers

Batwa projects within the 0.5km poverty zone; other projects tend to be further away

But many crop raiding projects within the poverty zone

Need detailed information on ICD projects but thepoverty zone is important for ICD planning

Hypothesis 1

Poorest community members undertake unauthorised resource use

• Poorer villagers undertake minor forest collection that is less of a threat than bushmeat hunting

• Bushmeat hunters are relatively wealthier villagers

• Authorised resource users are wealthier villagers

How can ICD reduce bushmeat hunting?

Poacher Reformed Associations are an opportunity yet many complained of a lack of engagement

Hypothesis 2

Livelihood security (risk coping strategies) & subsistence (meeting daily needs) are primary drivers of unauthorised

resource use

• Household use & sale were strong motivations

• Resource specific motivations e.g. medicinal plants

• Resentment as a driver

• Traditional beliefs important driver for the Batwa

Hypothesis 3

Those engaged with unauthorised resource use have benefitted less from ICD than those who refrain from such use

• Authorised resource users felt involvement, ownership & benefit

• Bushmeat hunters felt involvement & attended meetings

• Villagers within 0.5-1km felt high involvement, ownership & benefit

• Poorer villagers did not feel engaged with ICD or to have benefitted from ICD

Deterrents to unathorised resource use

1. Law enforcement2. Conservation education3. Influence of family4. Influence of community5. ICD benefit – schools6. Revenue sharing – goats7. Hope for future benefits including employment8. ICD benefit – health clinics9. Multiple Use Programme10. Revenue sharing – potato11. Crop raiding mitigation by Mauritius thorn fence12. Land provision for the Batwa13. ICD benefit – water supply14. ICD benefit – tree planting15. Revenue sharing - roads

Ways to reduce threats to the Park

• All groups stated that improving the distribution of benefits from the Park would be more effective than increasing law enforcement

• No group suggested increasing law enforcement

• 1.4% of CTPA questionnaire respondents mentioned law enforcement

If you were the Park manager….

We asked focus groups & questionnaire respondents what they would do to help local communities if they were Park manager:

Jobs for local people

A transparent & fair employment process

Reducing crop raiding & building resilience (e.g. seeds to replant)

Fairness of revenue sharing

Provide livestock

Provide tree seedlings & bamboo rhizomes

Allow people to extract firewood on an occasional basis

Understanding resource users of Bwindi

to improve ICD

Environment

Conservation Through Poverty Alleviation Poverty, ICD & Resource Users