Using the theory of planned behaviour to predict farmer's intention to report livestock depredation and kill hyena

Understanding and managing conservation conflicts is important for stakeholders (e.g., policymakers and practitioners) trying to minimise negative impacts on people and biodiversity. A key component of Namibia’s community-based natural resource management system, besides enabling communities to derive benefits from wildlife, is the monitoring of wildlife and reporting of negative wildlife impacts on human lives and livelihoods. Farmers across Namibia may legally kill carnivores found attacking their livestock and may receive financial compensation if reported within twenty-four hours. Both interventions are intended to offset costs and build tolerance towards wildlife. Expanding the Theory of Planned Behaviour by incorporating Descriptive Norm, we investigated farmers’ Behavioural Intention to (1) legally kill brown Hyaena brunnea and spotted Crocuta crocuta hyena when found killing their livestock, and (2) report livestock depredation incidents to the relevant authorities in two govern..., The survey was piloted in early 2019 in five conservancies to identify ambiguities, assess question flow, and improve clarity before full implementation. Between 2019 and 2020, we carried out 1,139 surveys using a questionnaire composed of three sections. The first gathered data on perceived risks and impacts of wildlife on households and characterised farms found within and outside of communal conservancies (Table S2). The first section also gathered information on farmer demographics (e.g., age, education level and household size) and number of livestock owned (Table S3). The final two sections measured Descriptive Norm and four components of the TPB (Attitude, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioural Control and Behavioural Intention) enumerating respondents’ perspectives with respect to two distinct behaviours, killing hyena and reporting a livestock depredation incident by hyena. Answers were reported using a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongl..., # Using the theory of planned behaviour to predict farmer's intention to report livestock depredation and kill hyena

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.ns1rn8q5z](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ns1rn8q5z)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset was collected as part of an experimental study investigating farmers’ behavioural intentions toward hyena-related livestock depredation in Namibia. Using an expanded Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) framework incorporating Descriptive Norm, questionnaire data were gathered from 1,139 farmers living inside and outside communal conservancies to assess their intentions to (1) legally kill hyenas when found attacking livestock and (2) report depredation incidents to authorities. The data capture socio-psychological constructs (Attitude, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioural Control, and Descriptive Norm) and demographic and contextual variables. These efforts aimed to understand how governance context influences conservation behaviour..., All human subjects provided explicit consent for public data sharing, identifying information was removed through pseudonymization and exclusion of personal details.