OPINION

Where wildlife parks stop, crop fields begin. Integrating applied ecological models that enhance protected area benefits to farmers is imperative to minimize damage on crops by wild animals among farmers living by wildlife park boundaries.

Such farmers suffer wild animal damage on their crops in absence of effective crop protection interventions.

Wild animals such as elephants can devour an entire crop field in single night depredation. Around Kibale National Park which is among the 10 national parks managed by Uganda Wildlife Authority, baboons, elephants, and other primates are the major crop-damaging wild animal species.

Whereas Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, and 15 aim at, reducing poverty, ending hunger, and improving the protection of life on land, this might not be possible with limited funding for methods of crop protection among farmers bordering national parks.

Around most national parks which are inhabited by herbivorous species, most crop protection methods are instituted to deter crop damage by wild animals which consequently improves park-people relations whilst nurturing human-wildlife co-existence as the precursor to minimizing human-wildlife conflicts.

Building resilient communities around protected areas is a foundation for strong wildlife protection. This article highlights how digging trenches helps to mitigate crop damage by elephants and other large herbivores such as buffaloes and wild pigs around Kibale National Park.

Farmers and other members of the community from villages bordering Kibale National Park excavate trenches and are paid sh10,000 to sh20,000.

These wages are paid dependent upon the type of soil and rock texture. Fewer wages are paid where soils are easily tillable as compared to rocky areas. Maintenance of trenches ranges between sh7,000 and sh15,000 dependent on the condition of the trench.

Most of the funds that are invested in interventions are generated through gate collection or park entry fees. Twenty percent (20%) of the gate collections are allocated to communities in parishes bordering KNP under a revenue-sharing scheme.

As of March 2021, a trench network of 84.5 km has been dug in comparison to 220 km total Kibale National Park boundary length, there is a need to invest more funds in digging new trenches to stop crop depredation by elephants around Kibale National Park.

Involving farmers bordering national parks in designing interventions for crop protection enhances the conservation of wildlife and livelihoods.

Dr. Taddeo Rusoke is a Conservation Scientist and Protected Area Systems Specialist in Uganda.