Attitudes of Maasai pastoralists towards the conservation of large carnivores in the Loliondo game controlled area of Northern Tanzania
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Date
2014
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Publisher
Academic Journals
Abstract
Attitudes towards the conservation of lions, leopards, cheetah, spotted hyenas and African wild dogs
were assessed in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area of northern Tanzania in January 2013. Our survey
encompassed 181 individuals each representing onehousehold, of which 30 were chosen randomly
from six Maasai pastoralist villages. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to acquire the required
information from the respondents. We found that the majority of the Maasai pastoralists, particularly
females, expressed negative attitudes towards the conservation of large carnivores. The reasons given
for disliking carnivores differed between the sexes, but the most common reasons were that the carnivores
attacked the respondents’ livestock at night and also purposefully and frequently attacked people. The
Maasai pastoralists who had been to school, mostly males, expressed more positive attitudes than
those who had not been to school. Those who liked at least two carnivore species had received greater
benefits from conservation programs than those who liked only one or disliked all carnivore species.
Therefore,to supportthe conservation ofwild dogs and otherlarge carnivores at large, we recommend that
where possible, female Maasai should be allowed to access Protected Areas (PAs) resources during the
time of hard ship or drought to improve their livelihood. In addition, they should be empowered by
being involved in conserving large carnivores as “carnivore guardians”, exposed to ecotourism activities
and be educated. Furthermore, conservation performance payments for carnivores should be
institutionalized in the area.
Description
Abstract. Full text article available at https://academicjournals.org/article/article1416558581_Lyamuya%20et%20al.pdf
Keywords
Large carnivores, Loliondo Game Controlled Area, Conservation, Carnivores conservation, Maasai pastoralists, Human attitudes, Lion conservation, Game reserve
Citation
Richard, D. L., Emmanuel, H. M., Franco, P. M., Robert, D. F., Machoke, N. M., & Eivin, R. (2014). Attitudes of Maasai pastoralists towards the conservation of large carnivores in the Loliondo game controlled area of Northern Tanzania. International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation, 6(11), 797-805.