Household surveys to assess human-wildlife conflicts and social conflicts in Chyulu Hills, Kenya

Household surveys were implemented in 1,567 households from two group ranches: Mbirikani and Kuku. Each group ranch had two sites: Loosikitok and Ilchalai in Mbirikani, and Kanzi and Motikanju in Kuku. The survey was conducted every 3-4 months, between September 2022 and October 2023. We used a systematic sampling method to select the households to be interviewed on each site, using the interval of one from the list of households in the area. Most of the households were interviewed more than once. We implemented the survey with either the head of households or the spouse of household heads in 4 time periods: 1= September 2022 (to capture perceptions of conflicts between June and September 2022), 2= March 2023 (to capture perceptions of conflicts between November and March 2023), 3= July 2023 (to capture perceptions of conflicts between April and July 2023), and 4= October 2023 (to capture perceptions between August to October 2023). Human-wildlife conflicts assessed in this study included crop raiding by wildlife, livestock killing by wildlife, destruction of assets and property by wildlife and lethal and non-lethal attacks on humans by wildlife. We also collected information on strategies implemented by household members to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts. Social conflicts assessed in this study included destruction of assets or property by other members of the community, injuries due to physical conflict with other members of the community, as well as crops damages and thefts and livestock killings and thefts by other members of the community. We also assessed perceptions on whether conflicts with other members of the community could affect the productivity or health of the livestock, and on whether livestock productivity decreased due to loss access to water or grazing resources due to the imposition of a physical barrier, due to fear of violence during livestock movement or due to restricted migration of movement of livestock. We assessed perceptions on whether conflicts with other members of the community have damaged social and/or economic relationships, or to a feeling of insecurity. We also collected information on strategies used to mitigation social conflicts.