Objectives
In order to understand the links between humans and wildlife, but also more generally between protected areas and the production systems located on their peripheries, it is necessary to monitor the functioning of these interfaces and to develop multidisciplinary tools for investigating the processes involved. The diversity of the components of the interface between conservation and development, in a context of environmental and societal changes, requires a variety of approaches. Our monitoring is restricted to wards 15, 14, 17 and 13 and to the Sikumi forestry area with more detailed investigations in ward 15 (particularly Magoli, Jwapi, Chezhou, Dingani, Sialwindi, and Mambanje).
Monitoring activities
♦ Monitoring of the use of natural resources by villagers, based on monitoring of households and monitoring of control plots in (legally and illegally) exploited areas of the Forestry Commission.
♦ Monitoring of agricultural and pastoral practices.
♦ Monitoring of villager perceptions associated with conservation, protected areas, wildlife, and environmental change.
♦ Monitoring of wildlife-human interactions (mainly elephant, spotted hyaena and baboons), and responses to wildlife incidents / accidents.
♦ Monitoring of sanitary practices associated with domestic livestock and of the risks associated with coexistence with wildlife.
♦ Monitoring of the abundance of large mammals in the agricultural zone and Sikumi forest (road counts, waterhole counts, camera trapping) as well as communities indicating changes (birds, insects).
♦ Monitoring of wildlife behaviour in agricultural areas and in hunting areas (GPS collar, direct observations).
♦ Monitoring and synthesis of trophy hunting and trophy size data in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the CAMPFIRE association.
♦ Monitoring of collective actions and of the governance of protected areas (local meetings between interested parties in the coordination of the KAZA trans-frontier conservation area).
