Sustainability of Trophy Hunting of Leopard in Niassa National Reserve
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The sustainability of leopard Panthera pardus sport hunting in Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique By Agostinho A. Jorge Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Science School of Life Sciences University of KwaZulu-Natal Westville South Africa March 2012 As the candidate’s supervisor, I have approved this thesis for submission. Signed______________ Name:________________ Date: __________ ABSTRACT Leopard Panthera pardus are an economically valuable asset and when used in sustainable consumptive use programs can provide tangible benefits to communities to improve human livelihoods and the conservation of the species. Sport hunting is increasingly proposed as a tool to generate funds to support the conservation of leopard and other large carnivores. However, to assess the value of sport hunting as a conservation tool it is critical to understand its economic impact and ensure that the off-takes are sustainable. In this study I assessed the conservation status of leopard and the ecological sustainability of legal and illegal off-take in Niassa National Reserve (NNR) the largest protected area, 42,000 km2, in Mozambique, which is inhabited by 35,000 people. I also investigated whether the revenues from leopard sport hunting off-set the costs of depredation on livestock in local communities and individual benefits from poaching by local hunters. To perform this study, I interviewed hunting operators and villagers, collected camera trapping data, and analyzed long-term leopard sport hunting data. Leopard had high value for sport hunters, however, the economic benefits from the legal hunting did not off-set the costs from livestock depredation and did not compete with benefits from the illegal hunting which accrued to individuals at the household level. Leopard population densities in Niassa Reserve were comparable with the study sites in central and southern Africa. The numbers of leopard legally hunted in NNR appear to be ecologically sustainable, however a high percentage of the leopard taken as trophies were under the recommended age of seven years. The illegal off-take was unsustainable and resulting in high turnover and combined with the operators’ off-take is likely to be negatively affecting leopard populations. For the future ecological and economic sustainability of leopard quotas, I recommend improvements in the distribution of economic benefits and creating economic incentives to encourage villagers not to engage in the illegal hunting and quantification and inclusion of the illegal off-take in the annual quotas. My study also indicates the need to zone community and wildlife areas in NNR to reduce the anthropogenic effects on leopard and other carnivore populations. ii PREFACE The work described in this dissertation was carried out in the Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique, through the School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, under the supervision of Prof. Rob Slotow and co-supervision of Drs Abi Vanak and Colleen Begg. These studies represent original work by the author and have not otherwise been submitted in any form for any degree or diploma to any tertiary institution. Where use has been made of the work of others, it is duly acknowledged in the text. __________________ ___________________ Agostinho A. Jorge Date iii FACULTY OF SDCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE DECLARATION 1 - PLAGIARISM I, Agostinho Aquelino Jorge, declare that 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks, and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the References sections. Signed Agostinho Aquelino Jorge iv DECLARATION 2 - PUBLICATIONS Details of contribution to publications that form part and/or include research presented in this thesis (include publications in preparation and submitted and give details of the contributions of each author to the experimental work and writing of each publication). Publication 1: Jorge, A. A., Vanak, A. T., Thaker, M., and Begg, C. M. and Slotow, R. Submitted to Conservation Biology journal. Costs and benefits of leopard to the sport hunting industry and local communities in Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique. Authors contributions: AJ conducted the field work, processed and analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. CB provided sport hunting and human-leopard conflict data. AV, MT, CB and RS provided valuable inputs for the manuscript. Publication 2: Jorge, A. A., Vanak, A. T., Thaker, M., Begg, C. M. and Slotow, R. To be submitted to Animal Conservation journal). Leopard densities, quotas and off-take in a miombo ecosystem: Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique. Signed: Agostinho Aquelino Jorge v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my supervisor, Prof Rob Slotow, for all his guidance, patience and financial support during the writing up of this thesis. I thank Dr. Abi Vanak for the co-supervision and advice regarding statistical data analysis. I am grateful to Anabela Rodrigues and Society for Management of Niassa Reserve (SGDRN) for the study leave, financial support, and permission to conduct my research in the Niassa National Reserve. My gratitude is extended to the SGDRN team in Maputo (Vernon Booth, Madyo Couto, Sandra Almeida Bernardo Facitela, and Maria Pinto), who kindly assisted me to access to the socio- economic data, and in Mbatamila (including Cornelio Miguel, Mbumba Marufo, Nilton Cuna and Wim Ebsersohn) who shared their knowledge about local communities and poaching, and the facilities in the headquarters of the reserve. My special thank you goes to Dr. Colleen Begg for the opportunity to work on carnivore research and for her amazing co-supervision of this thesis. I am indebted to Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) who was present in all stages of this project, providing logistic support, including accommodation, vehicle and equipment for field work, and leopard sport hunting, conflict and poaching data. Furthermore, I thank E. Waiti for providing information about numbers and prices of leopard traded from Mbamba village. The financial support from Kaplan Graduate Awards Program, Panthera, Sidney Byers Scholarship Award, Wildlife Conservation Network; Wildlife Conservation Society through the NCP; and University of KwaZulu-Natal was critical to conduct the field work and complete the writing up of my thesis. I would like to express my gratitude to Luwire, Kambako, Luambeze, East African Safaris, Johan Calitz Safaris, Niassa Hunters Safaris and SEM for answering my questionnaire about leopard sport hunting, permitting access to their annual reports, and for permitting the collection of camera trapping data in their concessions (Luwire, Kambako and SEM). I am in debted to villagers from Lissongole-Cuchiranga, Mbamba, Macalange, and Mussoma, specially S. Dauda, J. de Deus, R. Matola, and Pedro (Villagers MOMS agents) and J. Nanguar (our field researcher) who provided sensitive information on leopard illegal hunting and human leopard conflict during my village questionnaire survey. vi I would like to thank Dr. Guy Balme for the contact with the University of KwaZulu-Natal for my successful application of this Masters and for sharing his knowledge on leopard. I am grateful to Dr. Maria Thaker for her useful inputs in the individual manuscripts (chapter two and three of this thesis) and Dr. Peter Lindsey for his advice on the chapter two. I thank Gerard Damm for providing contacts for the South African taxidermist companies. In Durban, Dr. Taro Mwabvu, Alain Smith, and Dr. Katrin Tirok often provided lifts and academic support whenever I needed, and I greatly appreciate their enthusiastic help. I am eternally grateful to my parents, Jorge and Ester, and to Elisa who support me unconditionally in every moments of my academic, professional and social life. This Masters is dedicated to my uncle and best friend, Oriel Sitoe, who passed away in a tragic vehicle accident while I was writing up this thesis. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................iii DECLARATION 1 – PLAGIARISM .......................................................................................... iv DECLARATION 2 – PUBLICATIONS....................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................