Elephants over the Cliff: Explaining Wildlife Killings in Tanzania
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Permanent lenke
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/278962Utgivelsesdato
2014Metadata
Vis full innførselSamlinger
Sammendrag
Many incidents of elephant killings have recently taken place in Tanzania as well as in other African
countries. Such events are usually presented as results of the rising global demand for ivory. As we show
in this case study, however, not all violence against elephants is driven by the ivory trade. This article
presents an event that occurred in West Kilimanjaro in 2009 when numerous villagers chased a herd
of elephants over a cliff, killing six of them. Using a ‘web of relations’ approach, we seek to uncover the
underlying as well as the immediate factors that led to this incident. A severe drought sparked off the event
as elephants increasingly raided crops and destroyed water pipes. There are growing elephant and human
populations in the area, which must be understood in the context of land use changes. Large areas have in
various ways been turned into different types of protected areas during the last few decades as results of
efforts by conservation NGOs and governmental agencies. In between these areas, people try to sustain
a living on the remaining land, while encountering increased problems with wildlife. Conservation in
the study area takes place without local communities having any real influence on decision-making. This may lead
to a feeling of being marginalized and disempowered, which again causes resistance to conservation,
as in this case.
Beskrivelse
-