Crop raiding and forest management around Mabira Forest Reserve, Uganda

Abstract

Local communities around protected areas frequently complain of wild animals destroying already limited crop fields. There is often little or no assistance offered by conservation stewards towards the mitigation of crop raiding losses. The objectives of this study were to: (i) determine the patterns of crop-raiding (ii) assess the influence of cropping systems and forest management practices on crop-raiding. The study was conducted in seven village enclaves of Mabira Forest Reserve, Uganda. Data were collected using individual household interviews and monitoring of crop raiding in plots established in selected sample gardens with different cropping systems over five months. The results show that crop-raiding wild life species include red-tailed monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, bush pigs, rodents, porcupines and antelopes. Farmers’ estimated crop loss to wild animals at 40 - 70% while plot estimates showed 7 - 26%. Crop raiding was highest in the maize-cassava and least in banana-coffee cropping systems. Crop raiding among management regimes was higher in the production (low impact) zone, but did not differ between the other two. Most raiding was experienced in July, August and November, and least in September. It is recommended that farmers practice intercropping susceptible crops with the less susceptible or non-edibles ones, diversify crop production, plant “buffer crops” between the forest boundary and control weeds in the gardens. The National Forestry Authority should help farmers clear the forest boundary to remove relay trees. Further studies should focus on economic loss, crop yield gap attributable to crop raiding and spatial-temporal relations of abundance of primate foods within the different forest zones.

Key words: Crop raiding, cropping systems, forest management, Mabira Forest, Uganda