Community perceptions of the human-wildlife conflict: a case study of Old Oyo National Park, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the perception of human-wildlife conflict from residents, located in the Old Oyo National Park (OONP), in the south-western part of Nigeria. Four communities living within and beyond the boundaries of the park were selected for this study, with questionnaires distributed amongst individuals within the communities. The results revealed that there was a low tolerance to wildlife among residents (91%) due in most part to the destruction of high-yielding cash crops by the wildlife. However, approximately 74% of the respondents noted that if some type of benefit – be it ecologically or financial – reached them, they supposed that tolerance towards wildlife would increase. Based on these findings, it was concluded that in order to reduce human-wildlife conflict, strategies need to be put in place that provide some form of benefit, such as owning game, which could ultimately attract visitors and create alternative sources of income for the park’s local residents.

KEYWORDS:

• Conflict
• human-wildlife
• management
• Old Oyo National Park
• protected area
• tolerance

Acknowledgements

We would like to specially thank Prof Melville Saayman for his immense contribution to the production of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

O. Digun-Aweto

Dr O. Digun-Aweto is a research fellow at Tourism Research in Economic Environs and Society at the North-West University Potchefstroom Campus. He conducts research in nature tourism in parks and protected areas, human wildlife conflict, community participation, ecotourism and tourism development.

P. Van Der Merwe

P. Van Der Merwe is a currently a Professor and researcher in tourism management at North-West University, School of Tourism Management. As a researcher, he also forms part of the NRF research unit TREES (Tourism Research in Economic, Environs and Society). His  field of expertise lies in wildlife tourism, hunting tourism and ecotourism (sustainable tourism).