Peasants Perception on Wild Animal’s Crop-Raiding in Selected Villages Surrounding Udzungwa Mountain National Park, Tanzania.

Prosper, Dominick (2021) Peasants Perception on Wild Animal’s Crop-Raiding in Selected Villages Surrounding Udzungwa Mountain National Park, Tanzania. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The study assessed the Peasants' perceptions on wild animal crop-raiding in selected villages surrounding Udzungwa Mountain National Park, Tanzania. The study guided by three specific objectives; the investigation of the potential wild animals involved in peasants farm crops raiding; establishment of the perceptions of the local community have over wild animals peasants farms crop-raiding and examination of the effectiveness of the current measures which are used to combat the problem of crop-raiding by wild animals around the UMNP. The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research approach to collect information from 269 respondents depicted randomly from six sampled villages. Descriptive data analysis was done using IBM SPSS to generate frequencies, percentages, tables, and cross-tabulations used to prepare the report. The findings indicated that incidences of farm crops raiding by wild animals are high. Elephants, vervet monkeys, baboons, and hippos are reading problem animals. Farms crop raids take place during the day and the night and throughout the year. Established strategies for managing the problem such as guarding farms and chasing wild animals using fire, sound materials, dogs, bees, and chillies are not effective. It has also been established that farm crop loss due to wild animals' crop raiding is constantly high, the perceptions of the indigenous local communities toward the conservation of UMNP resources are positive. The study concludes that so long surrounding communities endorse the conservation idea, policymakers should work hand in hand with them to set out modalities on which wildlife and humans can sustainably co-exist in the same locality. Keywords: Perception, Wild Animals, Crop Raiding, Protected Areas, Conflicts, Peasants

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