Impacts of a participatory action project

How reducing crop raiding has implications for health

Bibliographic Data

ID15327242
AuthorsJillian E McCarten (0000-0002-6226-9991, University of Washington, corresponding author), Krista M Milich (0000-0003-1475-8720, Twitter (United States))
Year2023
Volume29
Issue1
Pages106-119
Publication date2023-04-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Dimensions of Wildlife (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1087-1209 • E-ISSN: 1533-158X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10871209.2023.2197300
OpenAlexW4362616164
LanguageEN
References cited45

Human-wildlife interactions include wild animals foraging on agricultural crops, often called crop raiding. Crop raiding can result in disease transmission, poor nutrition, stress, and loss of income. Crop raiding also affects conservation because retaliatory events can result in wildlife being harmed. Around Kibale National Park, Uganda, a community action project implemented mitigation strategies that reduced crop raiding. We surveyed 95 of 106 (90%) project participant households to determine if participants perceived their health to have changed due to the project. We conducted open-ended, oral surveys during July and August 2018. Most participants said their overall health had improved (80%) and that their diet (83%), stress (82%), sleep (82%), and exposure to zoonotic diseases (64%) improved. Other benefits included income to pay medical bills and school fees. No participant reported negative effects. We found evidence that reducing crop raiding had positive implications for people's health and income stability.KEYWORDS: Conservationcrop raidinghealthhuman-wildlife conflictsleepstress AcknowledgmentsWe thank Washington University in St. Louis for providing funding for this research through the Summer Undergraduate Research Award (SURA) program. We also thank the Ugandan Wildlife Authority, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, and Makerere University Biological Field Station for logistical support, for supporting our stay in the park and for supporting our research efforts. We thank Nyakoojo Moses for research assistance, Kugonza Moses and Busobozi Richard, the co-founders of the community action project, for valuable feedback, and Akugizibwe Ronald for assistance in the field.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Author ContributionsAcquisition, field work, data analysis, manuscript preparation: JEM; conceptualization, study design, editing: KMMEthical StandardsThis study was approved by IRB at Washington University in St. Louis (ID #201805007).Data Availability StatementData will be stored and available for sharing via the Washington University in St. Louis Digital Research Materials at https://doi.org/10.7936/6yea-xv36.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Washington University in St. Louis under the Summer Undergraduate Research Award (SURA) program

Agriculture · Citizen journalism · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Human–wildlife conflict · National park · Participatory action research · Political science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Wildlife · Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology · Law · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation · Zoonotic diseases and public health · Ecology

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