Best Student Oral Presentation

Rebekah Hoffmeier-Karimi PhD Candidate,  Department of Biology at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia, USA. An assessment of perceived crop damage in a Tanzanian village impacted by human-elephant conflict Rebekah R. Hoffmeier -Karimi1, Bruce A. Schulte*1,2 1Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460, USA 2Department of Biology, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA Contact : bekahofthebaboons@hotmail.com Photo : Rebekah Hoffmeier-Karimi with a rural Tanzanian agriculturalist who participated in the study.(Note: name of Tanzanian woman is not known because all participants were anonymous). © R. Hoffmeier-Karimi

Presented at Naura Springs Hotel (Kilimanjaro Foyer, 09:45 am, June 16, 2011) during the session "Human-wildlife conflicts".

Abstract. In sub-Saharan Africa conflict with and especially crop loss to wildlife is a growing conservation issue.  Human-elephant conflict (HEC) is a major component of this conflict. A host of deterrent methods and compensation schemes for crop loss have been attempted to reduce the impacts of wildlife on farmers. Our objectives were to determine the factors causing crop damage, assess the accuracy of perceived crop damage, and evaluate the perceived effectiveness of deterrent methods used by farmers in the village of Miti Mirefu in northern Tanzania. The cornfields of the agriculturalists were assessed for damage, and the actual damage was compared to the perceived damage. We found that most participants were accurate in their perception of damage, but those who were not tended to overestimate damage. Elephant damage was infrequent but severe when it occurred. Participants attributed damage the most to elephants, suggesting they may be estimating based on the maximal damage of a single event rather than frequency. Reducing HEC requires consideration of essentially rare but dramatic impacts from the human perspective, but importantly, agriculturalists also must realize the detrimental effects of regular, low-level impacts such as the lack of water and small-scale crop raiders.