Subakanya, M.; Tembo, G.; Richardson, R.B. Land Use Planning and Wildlife-Inflicted Crop Damage in Zambia. Environments2018, 5, 110.
Subakanya, M.; Tembo, G.; Richardson, R.B. Land Use Planning and Wildlife-Inflicted Crop Damage in Zambia. Environments 2018, 5, 110.
Subakanya, M.; Tembo, G.; Richardson, R.B. Land Use Planning and Wildlife-Inflicted Crop Damage in Zambia. Environments2018, 5, 110.
Subakanya, M.; Tembo, G.; Richardson, R.B. Land Use Planning and Wildlife-Inflicted Crop Damage in Zambia. Environments 2018, 5, 110.
Abstract
Damage to crops from wildlife interference is a common threat to food security among rural communities in or near Game Management Areas (GMAs) in Zambia. This study uses a two-stage econometric model and cross-sectional data from a survey of 2,769 households to determine the impact of land use planning on the probability and extent of wildlife-inflicted crop damage. The results show that crop damage is higher in GMAs as compared to non-GMAs, and that land use planning could be an effective tool to significantly reduce the likelihood of such damage. These findings suggest that there is merit in the current drive to develop and implement land use plans as means to minimize human-wildlife conflict such as crop damage. This is especially critical as Zambian conservation policies do not have an explicit provision for compensation in the event of damage from wildlife.
Keywords
land use planning; agriculture; crop damage; Game Management Areas; human-wildlife conflict; wildlife; Zambia
Subject
SOCIAL SCIENCES, Economics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.