An Exploratory Study of Community Conservation Enterprises as a Model for Improving Community Livelihoods and Conservation of Mountain Gorillas Across the Greater Virunga Transboundary Landscape

Greater Virunga Transboundary Landscape (GVTL) is highly known for its abundance of wildlife resources and mostly flagship and endangered species such as Mountain Gorillas. Despite this importance, parks across GVTL continue to face enormous pressure from neighboring communities who harvest park resources illegally. This illegal harvest has sparked off intense park-community conflicts, community resentment and continuous poaching. To reduce them, community conservation enterprises (CCEs) were established across GVTL. The belief was that these CCEs provide and enhance socio-economic benefits to local communities which will in turn improve their household livelihoods. This will ensure that communities, in theory, will be less dependent on park resources, thereby reducing park-community conflicts, resentment and poaching. However, little is known about these CCEs, and how much they have improved community livelihoods and contributed to conservation. This dissertation addresses this lack of empirical knowledge by analyzing the perceptions of resident communities regarding the impacts of CCEs across GVTL. Two sites (Volcanoes and Mgahinga National Parks) out of the three in GVTL were selected for this study. A mixed methods approach was used for this research. This method took a two-phased approach. The first phase, included analyzing Ranger-based Monitoring (RbM) data recorded over a period of nine years (2007-2015). The second phase, included a face-to-face household survey interviews to examine residents\u27 perceptions of illegal activities (bamboo cutting, poaching, wood cutting, water collection, medicinal herbs and forest fires) and household livelihood securities (food, health, education and economic) between CCEs participants and non-participants. Findings regarding the perceptions of residents living adjacent to GVTL suggest that current illegal behavior has decreased compared to the past. However, RbM findings suggest that illegal activities are still a significant problem across GVTL. Further findings regarding the household livelihood security (HLS) suggest that community conservation enterprises have contributed significantly to the overall quality of life and in particular, to the food, health and economic security of residents living adjacent VNP compared to residents living adjacent to MGNP. This provides empirical evidence to support the view that CCEs have the potential to contribute significantly to household livelihood security

Climate change through the eyes of recreational hunters: impacts on wildlife and adaptive responses

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a serious threat to wildlife globally. Environmentally unsustainable human activities do not only damage wildlife resources but also contribute to exacerbating the impacts of climate change. The objective of this research is to assess how local hunters in the Dana Biosphere Reserve perceive climate change and its impacts on wildlife resources, and to understand their adaptive responses to these impacts. Through semi-structured interviews with local hunters, it was revealed that the area faces multiple climate threats, including reduced rainfall, shifting rainy seasons, and more frequent and intense droughts. Climate change has resulted in several problems, including a decline in the rate of reproduction of many wild species, changes in geographical distribution, and substantial declines in wildlife abundance. Consequently, most hunters have changed their hunting practices, avoided overhunting, and engaged in alternative outdoor activities

Livelihoods and Tourism: Capital Assets, Household Resiliency, and Subjective Wellbeing

Although a positive relationship between tourism and quality of life is the premise of using tourism to support biodiversity conservation, tourism scholars rarely assess the relationship between tourism and community livelihoods with rigorous empirical methods, even less so in African contexts. Focusing on communities in the Greater Virunga Landscape in Rwanda and Uganda, we conducted a household survey to acquire empirical data to test novel hypotheses about tourism’s influence on capital assets, household resiliency, and subjective wellbeing. Using inferential statistical analyses (e.g., analysis of variance, chi-square difference test, and independent sample t-tests), we compared the responses from 346 residents who have direct access to tourism livelihoods with responses collected from 224 residents not engaged in tourism. Contrary to expectations, our findings suggest that tourism may not lead to dramatic differences in access to capital assets. However, we did discover moderate influences on household resiliency and subjective wellbeing. These intangible and subjective wellbeing outcomes of tourism-based livelihood programs are challenging to assess empirically. Yet, they may be among some of the most important from a human development standpoint. As a first effort to integrate three theoretical frameworks that have, to date, seen limited application in tourism research, this study has opened the door to further work at the intersections of capital assets, family resilience, and wellbeing theories. In conclusion, we argue that incentivizing the protection of local environments through tourism must be extended to other forms of capital, while also considering more nuanced manifestations of intangible wellbeing outcomes. As such, this paper makes a significant empirical contribution to the ongoing theoretical and practical debates about the tourism-conservation relationship

Livelihoods and Tourism: Capital Assets, Household Resiliency, and Subjective Wellbeing

Although a positive relationship between tourism and quality of life is the premise of using tourism to support biodiversity conservation, tourism scholars rarely assess the relationship between tourism and community livelihoods with rigorous empirical methods, even less so in African contexts. Focusing on communities in the Greater Virunga Landscape in Rwanda and Uganda, we conducted a household survey to acquire empirical data to test novel hypotheses about tourism’s influence on capital assets, household resiliency, and subjective wellbeing. Using inferential statistical analyses (e.g., analysis of variance, chi-square difference test, and independent sample t-tests), we compared the responses from 346 residents who have direct access to tourism livelihoods with responses collected from 224 residents not engaged in tourism. Contrary to expectations, our findings suggest that tourism may not lead to dramatic differences in access to capital assets. However, we did discover moderate influences on household resiliency and subjective wellbeing. These intangible and subjective wellbeing outcomes of tourism-based livelihood programs are challenging to assess empirically. Yet, they may be among some of the most important from a human development standpoint. As a first effort to integrate three theoretical frameworks that have, to date, seen limited application in tourism research, this study has opened the door to further work at the intersections of capital assets, family resilience, and wellbeing theories. In conclusion, we argue that incentivizing the protection of local environments through tourism must be extended to other forms of capital, while also considering more nuanced manifestations of intangible wellbeing outcomes. As such, this paper makes a significant empirical contribution to the ongoing theoretical and practical debates about the tourism-conservation relationship

Effects of integrated conservation–development projects on unauthorized resource use in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda: a mixed-methods spatio-temporal approach

This study supplements spatial panel econometrics techniques with qualitative GIS to analyse spatio-temporal changes in the distribution of integrated conservation–development projects relative to poaching activity and unauthorized resource use in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Cluster and spatial regression analyses were performed on data from ranger monitoring containing > 35,000 combined observations of illegal activities in Volcanoes National Park, against tourism revenue sharing and conservation NGO funding data for 2006–2015. Results were enriched with qualitative GIS analysis from key informant interviews. We found a statistically significant negative linear effect of overall integrated conservation–development investments on unauthorized resource use in Volcanoes National Park. However, individually, funding from Rwanda's tourism revenue sharing policy did not have an effect in contrast to the significant negative effect of conservation NGO funding. In another contrast between NGO funding and tourism revenue sharing funding, spatial analysis revealed significant gaps in revenue sharing funding relative to the hotspots of illegal activities, but these gaps were not present for NGO funding. Insight from qualitative GIS analysis suggests that incongruity in prioritization by decision makers at least partly explains the differences between the effects of revenue sharing and conservation NGO investment. Although the overall results are encouraging for integrated conservation–development projects, we recommend increased spatial alignment of project funding with clusters of illegal activities, which can make investment decision-making more data-driven and projects more effective for conservation

Understanding the Relationship Between Livelihood Constraints of Poor Forest-adjacent Residents, and Illegal Forest Use, at Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

The relationship between livelihoods and forest use is one of the main challenges facing wildlife and habitat conservation in developing countries. Poor residents in forest-adjacent areas are typically perceived to be the main forest users, with use often deemed illegal. However, there is still a limited understanding of livelihood constraints of the poor, and how such constraints influence illegal forest use, particularly for poor residents in forest-adjacent communities. In this paper, we address this gap. First, the measures for livelihood constraints, including food access constraints and education constraints, and illegal forest use are proposed. Second, the developed measures are used in a structural equation model, to explore the relationship between livelihood constraints and illegal forest use, for poor residents in communities adjacent to Volcanoes National Park, in Rwanda. Food access constraints, a dimension of food security constraints, were found to be the strongest predicator of illegal forest use. However, food insecure residents around the park may not be the main driver of current levels of illegal forest use, supporting previous research questioning the narrative of poverty driven illegal forest use in developing countries

Livelihood Security and Perceived Prevalence of Illegal Activities Threatening Mountain Gorilla Conservation in East Africa’s Virunga Landscape

Illegal activities pose challenges to the conservation of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) across the Virunga Landscape (VL). This paper investigates the relationship between household livelihood security (HLS) and the perceived prevalence of illegal activities across the VL. Results from a survey of 223 residents of areas adjacent to the VL in Uganda and Rwanda reveal varied links between human livelihoods and illegal activities threatening wildlife. For example, while poaching appears to be negatively associated with health and financial security among residents, it is positively associated with education security, indicating that education may be contributing to illegal activities threatening wildlife. Food security constraints were also found to be significantly associated with poaching. Finally, findings suggest that although HLS investments are essential in improving local community livelihoods, only food and financial security are the most effective means of reducing illegal activities in Virunga

Understanding the Relationship Between Livelihood Constraints of Poor Forest-adjacent Residents, and Illegal Forest Use, at Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

The relationship between livelihoods and forest use is one of the main challenges facing wildlife and habitat conservation in developing countries. Poor residents in forest-adjacent areas are typically perceived to be the main forest users, with use often deemed illegal. However, there is still a limited understanding of livelihood constraints of the poor, and how such constraints influence illegal forest use, particularly for poor residents in forest-adjacent communities. In this paper, we address this gap. First, the measures for livelihood constraints, including food access constraints and education constraints, and illegal forest use are proposed. Second, the developed measures are used in a structural equation model, to explore the relationship between livelihood constraints and illegal forest use, for poor residents in communities adjacent to Volcanoes National Park, in Rwanda. Food access constraints, a dimension of food security constraints, were found to be the strongest predicator of illegal forest use. However, food insecure residents around the park may not be the main driver of current levels of illegal forest use, supporting previous research questioning the narrative of poverty driven illegal forest use in developing countries