Large carnivores are a key part of many ecosystems. As the human footprint steadily grows larger across the globe, human-wildlife conflict has become a major challenge when implementing conservation plans.
While some mitigation efforts, such as installing wildlife fencing, can help prevent human-wildlife conflict, many are not only impractical for large areas, but also disrupt the connectivity between populations that is often vital for large carnivores with big ranges.
Parsons, A.W., Sandström, C., Capper, S., Faust, L., Kissui, B.M., Packer, C. and Jansson, I. 2025. The benefits of inclusive conservation for connectivity of lions across the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Conservation Science and Practice: e70001.
In general, efforts to prevent human-wildlife conflict are more effective when local communities are involved. This inclusive conservation not only gives local communities a stake in conservation outcomes, but also allows local concerns to be directly addressed. However, it’s still uncertain whether inclusive conservation programs specifically improve connectivity for some target species.
A new study focuses on whether inclusive conservation improves connectivity for lions in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) of Tanzania, which supports both human settlements and livestock grazing. Local community members have been engaged in lion conservation activities since 2011, and in 2014 a formal program was designated to enlist local traditional warriors to help monitor lions, engage with community members, and protect livestock. This intervention is potentially vital for lions in the region, which suffer from inbreeding and would benefit from greater connectivity to the more numerous lion populations in nearby Serengeti National Park.
Individual lions in the NCA have been tracked since the 1960’s, and information about movement and dispersal was combined with measures of conservation effort over the past decade to determine whether increased conservation effort from local people led to fewer negative interactions between humans and lions, greater lion dispersal, and greater ability of lions to use the wider landscape.
The results show that since the formal implementation of an inclusive conservation program, lion movements, dispersal success and occupancy have increased across the greater NCA. Since 2013, the number of lion kills generally decreased and the number of mitigation activities sharply increased. There was a significant increase in the average rate of movement away from origin habitat for 25 GPS-collared lions, as well as a significant increase in the probability that a lion born in the highly protected Ngorongoro Crater would leave its natal area at least once within a given year. Lions appeared to be more able to move through and utilize the landscape of the NCA, suggesting that there may be a shift toward toward increased lion tolerance by people in the region.
In addition, the number of negative interactions between humans and lions dropped for nine years, until an extreme drought in 2022 led to an increase in both lion killings and livestock attacks. While the number of negative interactions dropped again once drought pressures eased, the event highlights how rapid shifts in local environmental, ecological, and socio-economic factors can have large impacts on conservation efforts.
Knowledge gained about the effectiveness of inclusive conservation programs can be applied to many landscapes that support large carnivores, such as the Y2Y region in western North America. Connectivity is often a focal target in these regions, as large carnivores require space and corridors to effectively move and disperse. Incorporating local knowledge and efforts may be key to ensuring connectivity remains intact for these large carnivores and all other species that inhabit diverse land- and seascapes.
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