Browsing by Author "Winnie Imodoi"

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    The Impact of Wildlife Habituation on Local Community Livelihoods a Case Study of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
    (Uganda Christian University, 2026-03-06) Winnie Imodoi
    This study discussed the impacts of wildlife habituation on the community livelihood of local people living in the conservation zones, especially the conservation landscapes in Uganda. Wildlife habituation refers to the controlled mechanism by which wild animals gradually develop reduced fear of humans after recurring non-threatening interactions, a procedure that has found widespread application in biodiversity conservation and ecotourism (especially great-ape tourism). Even though the concept of habituation promotes increased possibilities to view wildlife, as well as supplementing tourism income, the overall socioeconomic impacts of the community in the vicinity of the protected areas are complex and under-synthesized in the existing literature. The research was based solely on secondary data found in peer-reviewed journal articles, conservation reports, institutional publications, and policy papers talking about wildlife habituation and human-wildlife conflict as well as ecotourism development and rural livelihood systems. The analytical tool used to assess the impact of wildlife habituation on the financial, human, natural, social and physical capital assets of the adjacent communities was the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). The findings prove that the constructive effect of wildlife habituation on livelihood outcomes is through job creation, tourism-revenue-sharing models, infrastructure upgrading, and growth of conservation-related businesses. On the other hand, the increased contact between people and the habituated species increases crop raiding, livestock predation, zoonotic disease transmission and social discord, and therefore, household income, food security, and natural resource stability. Further, distribution of tourism benefits was found to be heterogeneous with many cases favoring communities that have direct access to the activities that belong to the protected areas. In this respect, the research concludes that wildlife habituation develops multidimensional, contextual livelihood results. Achieving sustainable conservation and development goals requires fair benefit-sharing systems, strengthened human-wildlife conflict management measures, involvement of people in the process, and flexible governance systems.