IINVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDES, INTENTION AND ILLEGAL GRAZING BEHAVIOR IN THE SERENGETI ECOSYSTEM USING THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR

Description

Abstract:

Protected areas (PAs), the cornerstones of biodiversity conservation, have often had adverse social impacts on local communities due to evictions, human-wildlife conflicts and restrictions on access to natural resources. The link between PAs and human well-being is increasingly gaining attention, but well-being impacts are not well documented in literature. Attitudinal studies have been adopted to evaluate acceptance, understanding and the impact of PAs. It has been suggested that when evaluating PA impact on well-being, the affected people should be allowed to define well-being. In response, one such available tool is the Global Person Generated Index (GPGI), which measures subjective well-being by asking people about the importance and performance of different domains for their quality of life (QoL). By also examining the degree of PA impact in each domain, the GPGI can be used in combination with the Importance-Performance (IPA) technique, which plots importance and performance scores in a simple grid to reveal priority areas. This thesis is a case study in villages bordering Serengeti National Park and Maswa Game Reserve in Tanzania. Applying a PA-people relationship framework, the objective of this thesis is fourfold: 1) to examine general factors within people’s physical relationship with the PAs and related entities, 2) to examine the local people’s subjective well-being as well as the well-being impacts of the PAs using the GPGI, 3) to examine the attitudes of the local people towards the PAs as well as determine the factors predicting these attitudes, and 4) to test the use of the IPA technique and derived analyses as impact and needs assessment tools. The results revealed high resource dependency, low level of interaction between PA staff and the locals, and some awareness of the presence of NGOs working in the areas. Benefits were received to some extent though PA-related problems predominated. The GPGI seemed to provide valuable information on the importance, performance and impact of the identified life domains. The magnitude of negative impact on life domains was large compared to that of positive impact. Perceptions of benefits as well as awareness of NGOs were associated with a positive attitude towards PA. In contrast, living in villages bordering Maswa, perceptions of costs and magnitude of negative impact on life domains were associated with a negative attitude towards PA. The use of the IPA technique and derived analyses provides a clear visualization of priorities. However, the technique suffers from methodological and conceptual challenges, calling for the development of a standardized method. Though some differences were found between Serengeti and Maswa, the most interesting finding is the more negative attitude towards PAs in Maswa villages. Overall, it is recommended that the management of the PAs take an active role in reducing the communities’ costs related to the PAs, distribute resources to tangible outreach projects, increase communication with the local communities as well as raise the general awareness of the PAs.