Train and support local staff to help reduce persecution of mammals

Overall effectiveness category Likely to be beneficial
Number of studies: 1
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How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

75%
Certainty

40%
Harms

0%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Carnivores may be killed by farmers where they feel that their livestock are threatened. National laws or policies protecting wild mammals may be difficult to enforce at a local level. Local staff, from among the same communities as the farmers, may be able to gain more respect and to work more closely with farmers to find ways to reduce losses to predators without carrying out lethal control.

Study locations

Key messages

One study evaluated the effects of training and supporting local staff to help reduce persecution of mammals. This study was in Kenya.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE (0 STUDIES)

POPULATION RESPONSE (1 STUDY)

Survival (1 study): A replicated, before-and-after study in Kenya found that employing local tribesmen to dissuade pastoralists from killing lions and to assist with livestock protection measures, alongside compensating for livestock killed by lions, reduced lion killings by pastoralists.

BEHAVIOUR (0 STUDIES)

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A replicated, before-and-after study in 2003–2011 in savanna grassland in four ranches in southern Kenya (Hazzah et al. 2014) found that employing local tribesmen to dissuade pastoralists from killing lions Panthera leo and to assist with livestock protection measures, alongside compensating for livestock killed by lions, reduced lion killings by pastoralists. The two schemes occurred at the same time at three group ranches, so their individual effects could not be separated. Compensation for livestock losses was estimated to reduce lion killing by 87–91% whilst additionally employing lion guardians reduced killings by 99%. The four ranches comprised a 3,500-km² study area. Compensation for verified livestock losses to lions was initiated at three of the group ranches between 2003 and 2008. Respected tribesmen, ‘lion guardians’, were employed to dissuade pastoralists from killing lions and to assist with livestock protection measures, such as reinforcing bomas. The scheme commenced at the four sites between 2007 and 2010. Lion mortality data, from 2003 to 2011, were collated primarily from community informants and direct interviews with lion hunters.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Hazzah L., Dolrenry S., Naughton L., Edwards C.T.T., Mwebi O., Kearney F. & Frank L. (2014) Efficacy of two lion conservation programs in Maasailand, Kenya. Conservation Biology, 28, 851-860.

Please cite as:

Littlewood, N.A., Rocha, R., Smith, R.K., Martin, P.A., Lockhart, S.L., Schoonover, R.F., Wilman, E., Bladon, A.J., Sainsbury, K.A., Pimm S. and Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Terrestrial Mammal Conservation: Global Evidence for the Effects of Interventions for terrestrial mammals excluding bats and primates. Synopses of Conservation Evidence Series. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

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This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Terrestrial Mammal Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Train and support local staff to help reduce persecution of mammals Action Link	Likely to be beneficial	1	Synopsis Link
Provide education programmes to improve behaviour towards mammals and reduce threats Action Link	Likely to be beneficial	2	Synopsis Link
Encourage community-based participation in land management Action Link	Likely to be beneficial	2	Synopsis Link