In Kenya, grassland restoration can help reduce conflict, study says
In Kenya, grassland restoration can help reduce conflict, study says
Gilbert Nakweya, Mongabay
February 26, 2025
See link
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-kenya-grassland-restoration-can-help-reduce-conflict-study-says/
for photos.
Grassland restoration, which uses nature-based solutions for climate
adaptation, can help farmers adapt to climate change by improving human
security through reducing conflicts, which may lessen retaliatory actions
against wildlife, according to a study.
Tree planting activities to restore degraded areas and rotational grazing
to halt overgrazing and soil erosion are examples of nature-based solutions
used in Chyulu Hills, near Kenya’s southern border with Tanzania.
The researchers also say that restoring grasslands may aid farmers in
making more money by providing more water and pasture for cattle during dry
spells.
Elephants, giraffes, hyenas and zebras are among the wild creatures that
depend on grassland environments that are drying out due to climate change,
the study says, pushing both animals and humans to compete for limited
resources. The Chyulu Hills are seeing an increase in tensions and violence
as a result.
In their study published in the Frontiers in Environmental Science, the
researchers note that grasslands account for more than 60% of fodder for
livestock in Kenya and support 70% of wildlife living out of protected
areas. This leads to wild animals, livestock and people who rely on these
grasslands for their survival living near each other.
The researchers monitored both grassland restoration and conflicts in
Chyulu Hills, home to lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, rhinos, elephants and
various antelopes. They found that restoration can help reduce
human-wildlife conflict and improve community relations: The more local
grassland is restored, the less human-wildlife conflict.
“Nature can help people in so many ways, and we [wanted] to make sure that
those connections are identified and communicated to the public. We wanted
to assess the importance of nature for climate change adaptation, more
specifically to assess the potential of nature in providing an overlooked
but critical climate adaptation benefit: human security and peace,” says
the study’s lead researcher, Camila Donatti, a senior director of climate
change adaptation at the Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science at
Conservation International.
The study found that restoration was helping reduce human-wildlife
conflicts, social conflicts and the overall feeling of insecurity in Chyulu
Hills, where 11,000 hectares (27,180 acres) of land has been under
restoration since 2021. The restoration project implemented grassland
restoration practices for climate mitigation, including managing livestock
as per restoration plans, pruning encroaching bushes, sourcing seeds from
existing seed banks and reseeding degraded areas.
The study entailed surveys in 1,567 households to collect information on
conflicts between September 2022 and October 2023 when the grassland
restoration project was also implemented. The researchers assessed
human-wildlife conflict, including crop raids, attacks on humans, livestock
killings or property damage as well as strategies that households adopted
to protect themselves.
But, Donatti says, they did not ask about retaliatory killings of wildlife
because these are illegal. They also asked about social conflicts, the
participants’ perception of insecurity or damaged community relationships
and related mitigation strategies.
More than 88% of the households interviewed had experienced human-wildlife
conflicts while 32% had experienced social conflicts. Using time as a proxy
for restoration, the study did not find a decrease in human-wildlife
conflicts over time, but a decrease in social conflicts and also a
reduction in the feeling of insecurity.
Women-led households experienced more social conflicts than men-led
households. According to Donatti, 23% of the households had at least one
member experiencing nonlethal attacks by wildlife, with elephants,
giraffes, lions, spotted hyenas and buffalo being the most likely species
to be involved.
“The pathway between grassland restoration and human security is a long
one.… But the first step [is] grassland restoration, and the last,
human-wildlife conflicts and social conflicts. However, as the restoration
of grasslands increases the availability of water and pasture for both
livestock and wildlife, we hypothesized that grassland restoration reduces
the movement of pastoralists to access water and fodder for livestock,
minimizing conflicts with other pastoralists looking for the same resources
in the same areas and reduces the attacks of wildlife on crops and
livestock as well as retaliatory measures on wildlife, reducing
human-wildlife conflicts,” Donatti tells Mongabay.
Ernest Lenkoina, rangelands restoration manager at the conservation NGO Big
Life Kenya says that scarcity of resources, especially pasture, is one of
the key drivers of human-wildlife conflict.
“The rangelands are becoming so degraded, the only areas that are lush and
have sufficient food become the farmlands. So, animals like elephants,
zebras, eland… you find a lot of them going into farms to graze there, and
that creates a lot of conflict with farmers. But if the rangelands were in
good condition, the wildlife wouldn’t have any reason to go into those
farms to seek pasture,” Lenkoina, who works in Chyulu Hills, tells Mongabay.
He adds that when grasslands are restored, there is reduced competition
between wildlife and livestock and thus less chance of conflict. “People
and wildlife are sharing the same spaces. Conflict with farmers has been
quite [intense] over these periods where we have had a decline in pasture.
If we don’t manage that well, we might lose that population of wildlife
that lives within this area,” he says.
“If the rangelands are degraded, it’s a serious problem. Wildlife, together
with livestock, all depend on it, so it has a direct impact on human
livelihoods. It’s not just about conservation; it’s about survival,”
Lenkoina says.
The researchers call for continued support for the conservation of
grasslands and animal species, especially for the Maasai communities to
foster a healthy relationship between people and wildlife.
Study co-author Maureen Mwanzia, formerly with Conservation International
Kenya but who also worked as a statistician at the World Health
Organization from Apr 2024 – Jan 2025, calls for the integration of
grassland restoration into national and international environmental and
development strategies, with dedicated funding and resources for
restoration in Kenya. She urges policies that address human-wildlife and
social conflicts and are cognizant of gender-sensitive mechanisms tailored
to address the unique challenges facing men and women in grassland areas.
“The importance of grasslands in providing biodiversity, climate mitigation
and socio-economic benefits is well known, but this study highlights that
grassland restoration is playing a role in peace and human security by
reducing human-wildlife conflicts, social conflicts and the overall feeling
of insecurity in Chyulu Hills. The significantly higher number of social
conflicts experienced by households led by women, combined with the lower
number of mitigation strategies implemented to address conflicts in those
households, are concerning. Therefore, any future policies and strategies
implemented in the area to minimize human-wildlife conflicts and social
conflicts must be gender-sensitive. … They should consider the needs,
perceptions and interests of women to be effective,” Donatti says.