Predicting Pasture and Forest Landowner Intention to Create Early Successional Habitat

As human land uses expand across the landscape, the management practices of private landowners are an essential part of effective conservation. Early successional habitats (ESH) and the species that depend on them are a priority in the eastern United States, and efforts to create ESH on private lands has primarily focused on forest landowners and timber harvests. Private pasture lands in a forested landscape present an additional opportunity to create and maintain ESH, yet our understanding of landowner values and attitudes about management strategies in pastures is lacking. To address this, we surveyed private landowners in 5 Virginia counties who own ≥10.1 ha at >610 m elevation (n = 503). Our primary objective was to understand how a variety of factors such as landowner values, past experience with habitat management, and perceived barriers to carrying out habitat management are associated with private landowner intention to carry out 7 ESH management strategies (i.e., reduced mowing, reduced grazing, timber harvests within forest, timber harvests at a field-forest border, prescribed fire, use of machinery, and use of herbicides to control invasive species) for the benefit of wildlife in the next 5 years. We used boosted regression trees to determine which factors best predicted the intention to carry out each management strategy. We were able to predict accuracy >75% of the time for landowner intention to engage in open pasture and timber management strategies. Landowner values were not consistent across the different management strategies; landowners likely to reduce mowing or grazing valued ecological aspects of their land (e.g., pollinator habitat, water quality), whereas landowners likely to harvest timber valued hunting and revenue. Past experience with wildlife management was the strongest predictor of likelihood to reduce mowing and grazing. Our results suggest that expanding outreach efforts to include pasture management options would engage a broader set of landowners in creating ESH, especially if such efforts highlighted the benefits to pollinator species, water quality, and enhanced opportunities for hunting and other types of recreation. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.     

An Agent-Based Model of Private Woodland Owner Management Behavior Using Social Interactions,Information Flow,and Peer-To-Peer Networks

Privately owned woodlands are an important source of timber and ecosystem services in North America and worldwide. Impacts of management on these ecosystems and timber supply from these woodlands are difficult to estimate because complex behavioral theory informs the owner’s management decisions. The decision-making environment consists of exogenous market factors, internal cognitive processes, and social interactions with fellow landowners, foresters, and other rural community members. This study seeks to understand how social interactions, information flow, and peer-to-peer networks influence timber harvesting behavior using an agent-based model. This theoretical model includes forested polygons in various states of ‘harvest readiness’ and three types of agents: forest landowners, foresters, and peer leaders (individuals trained in conservation who use peer-to-peer networking). Agent rules, interactions, and characteristics were parameterized with values from existing literature and an empirical survey of forest landowner attitudes, intentions, and demographics. The model demonstrates that as trust in foresters and peer leaders increases, the percentage of the forest that is harvested sustainably increases. Furthermore, peer leaders can serve to increase landowner trust in foresters. Model output and equations will inform forest policy and extension/outreach efforts. The model also serves as an important testing ground for new theories of landowner decision making and behavior.     

Diets,Movements, and Consequences of Providing Wildlife Food Plots for White-Tailed Deer in Central North Dakota

ABSTRACT White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in North Dakota, USA, have greatly increased over the past 100 years due to conversion of prairie to agriculture, planting of tree rows, regulated hunting, and extirpation of large predators. In support of management to maintain harvestable big game while minimizing depredation damage to agriculture, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department manages wildlife management areas (WMAs) where planted trees and food plots provide habitat and public hunting. These WMAs are typically surrounded by agricultural fields, and management that concentrates deer in these areas may expose surrounding agricultural producers to increased depredation. We investigated diets, habitat use, and movements of white-tailed deer at a large WMA in central North Dakota (Lonetree WMA) to understand how the animals are responding to management designed to enhance wildlife populations. We also evaluated survival of white-tailed deer for an improved understanding of the recent trend for population growth. Diets of deer varied seasonally, including a relatively high proportion of crops from food plots in winter and mostly herbaceous forbs and browse during spring and summer. Data from radiocollared animals and biweekly spotlight surveys revealed that deer are being drawn from a relatively large area to Lonetree WMA during fall and winter. Hunting was the most important cause of mortality, but annual survival of adult and fawn females exceeded 80%. The original purpose of food plots at Lonetree WMA was to alleviate depredation on adjacent private lands. Depredation has been limited, but the multiyear trend of increased deer numbers is a new concern. A possible consequence of provisioning white-tailed deer with food plots during winter when some starvation would normally occur could be for the population to exceed a threshold above which regulated hunting will be unable to prevent irruptive growth. Research on how food plots influence winter survival is needed to inform management and prevent possible rapid increase in white-tailed deer populations across the prairie-coteau region of central North Dakota.     

Hunter and Nonhunter Beliefs about Chronic Wasting Disease in Wisconsin

Abstract: We examined beliefs of landowners who hunt and do not hunt regarding chronic wasting disease (CWD) and its management. We mailed surveys to a random sample of 973 Wisconsin, USA, landowners living in the CWD southwest disease eradication zone. Of 613 respondents, 360 (59%) were hunters and 253 (41%) were not hunters. We created multiple item indices to measure respondent beliefs about effects of CWD and its management. Hunters and nonhunters differed on 5 of 6 belief indices. Both groups were, on average, relatively neutral in their trust of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources but landowners who did not hunt reported slightly higher trust. Both groups were neutral or slightly agreed that CWD should be managed and they were concerned about deer (Odocoileus spp.) health and the safety of eating venison. Landowners who did not hunt were more likely than those who hunted to agree with these issues but effect sizes indicated these differences were minimal. Landowners who hunted were more concerned than nonhunters about effects of CWD on deer hunting. Cluster analyses indicated most nonhunting landowners were neutral or not concerned about CWD and its management, whereas most hunting landowners were concerned. Our results suggest that managers should use communication campaigns to increase awareness and mitigate concerns about CWD, increase trust and input related to the disease, and inform publics about CWD management strategies.     

The Dynamics of Latifundia Formation

Land tenure inequity is a major social problem in developing nations worldwide. In societies, where land is a commodity, inequities in land tenure are associated with gaps in income distribution, poverty and biodiversity loss. A common pattern of land tenure inequities through the history of civilization has been the formation of latifundia [Zhuāngyuán in chinese], i.e., a pattern where land ownership is concentrated by a small fraction of the whole population. Here, we use simple Markov chain models to study the dynamics of latifundia formation in a heterogeneous landscape where land can transition between forest, agriculture and recovering land. We systematically study the likelihood of latifundia formation under the assumption of pre-capitalist trade, where trade is based on the average utility of land parcels belonging to each individual landowner during a discrete time step. By restricting land trade to that under recovery, we found the likelihood of latifundia formation to increase with the size of the system, i.e., the amount of land and individuals in the society. We found that an increase of the transition rate for land use changes, i.e., how quickly land use changes, promotes more equitable patterns of land ownership. Disease introduction in the system, which reduced land profitability for infected individual landowners, promoted the formation of latifundia, with an increased likelihood for latifundia formation when there were heterogeneities in the susceptibility to infection. Finally, our model suggests that land ownership reforms need to guarantee an equitative distribution of land among individuals in a society to avoid the formation of latifundia.     

Coupled ecological and social dynamics in a forested landscape: the deviation of individual decisions from the social optimum

We present a Markov chain model for land-use dynamics in a forested landscape. This model emphasizes the importance of coupling socioeconomic and ecological processes underlying landscape change. We assume that a forest is composed of many land parcels, each of which is in one of a finite list of land-use states. The land-use state of each land parcel changes stochastically. The transition probability is determined by two processes: the forest succession and the decision of landowners. The landowner tends to choose the land-use state which has a high expected discounted utility, i.e., the sum of the current and the future utilities of the land parcel. Landowners take the likelihood of future landscape changes into account when making decisions. We focus on a three-state model in which forested, agricultural, and abandoned states are considered. The land-use composition at equilibrium was analyzed and compared with the social optimum that maximizes the net benefit of all landowners in a society. We show that when landowners make a myopic choice focused on short-term benefits, their individual decisions tend to push the entire landscape toward an agricultural state even if the forested state represents the highest utility. This land-use composition at equilibrium is very different from the social optimum. A long-term management perspective and an enhanced rate of forest recovery can eliminate the discrepancy.     

Red oak seedlings as indicators of deer browse pressure: Gauging the outcome of different white‐tailed deer management approaches

After decades of high deer populations, North American forests have lost much of their previous biodiversity. Any landscape‐level recovery requires substantial reductions in deer herds, but modern societies and wildlife management agencies appear unable to devise appropriate solutions to this chronic ecological and human health crisis. We evaluated the effectiveness of fertility control and hunting in reducing deer impacts at Cornell University. We estimated spring deer populations and planted Quercus rubra seedlings to assess deer browse pressure, rodent attack, and other factors compromising seedling performance. Oak seedlings protected in cages grew well, but deer annually browsed ≥60% of unprotected seedlings. Despite female sterilization rates of >90%, the deer population remained stable. Neither sterilization nor recreational hunting reduced deer browse rates and neither appears able to achieve reductions in deer populations or their impacts. We eliminated deer sterilization and recreational hunting in a core management area in favor of allowing volunteer archers to shoot deer over bait, including at night. This resulted in a substantial reduction in the deer population and a linear decline in browse rates as a function of spring deer abundance. Public trust stewardship of North American landscapes will require a fundamental overhaul in deer management to provide for a brighter future, and oak seedlings may be a promising metric to assess success. These changes will require intense public debate and may require new approaches such as regulated commercial hunting, natural dispersal, or intentional release of important deer predators (e.g., wolves and mountain lions). Such drastic changes in deer management will be highly controversial, and at present, likely difficult to implement in North America. However, the future of our forest ecosystems and their associated biodiversity will depend on evidence to guide change in landscape management and stewardship.     

Attitude and action syndromes of exurban landowners have little effect on native mammals in exurbia

Private property is increasingly important for nature conservation, and exurbia an increasingly prominent form of private land use. There have been very few studies of the attitudes of exurban landowners to nature, all of which indicate a high degree of biophilia, and no studies of the effect of variation in the attitudes and actions of these landowners on wild mammal assemblages on their properties. A questionnaire survey of landowners was combined with spotlight observations of fauna on their properties to test the attitudes of the landowners to nature and the null hypothesis that syndromes of landowner attitudes to nature, and actions in relation to nature, have no effect on wild mammals at the property scale. All respondents were positive about native wild animals and trees. Four groups of landowners (biophiles, autocrats, idealists and utilitarians) derived by a classification of ordination scores based on attitude and action question responses, were different in their attitudes towards native wild mammals, exotic wild mammals and trees. However, their properties did not differ in the presence or frequency of any native wild mammal species. There were statistical relationships between the presence/absence of native wild animal species and indices related to intervention, fondness of trees, aversion to trees, fondness of native animals, and fondness of exotic animals. However, with the possible exception of the tendency of the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) to be absent from properties owned by the people who least liked wild animals, the association of native animals with attitude or action indices appeared to be coincidental. It therefore seems that programs directed towards influencing the attitudes of landowners to wildlife may be ineffective in conserving wildlife in exurbia.     

DISPERSAL BY YEARLING MALE WHITE-TAILED DEER AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT

Abstract: The scale at which populations use the landscape influences ecological processes and management decisions. Dispersal and home-range size define the scale of landscape use for many large-mammal species. We measured dispersal and home-range size of yearling male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in southern Texas, and compared our results to values from the literature to understand the implications of dispersal in management of deer populations. We used radiotelemetry to monitor 22 yearling deer on 1 study site from October 1998 to October 1999, and 27 yearling deer on a second study site from October 1999 to October 2000. On the 2 study sites, 68% and 44% of yearling deer established new areas of use 4.4 ± 1.0 km and 8.2 ± 4.3 km, respectively, from the center of their autumn home range. Yearling males with spike antlers (2 points) were less likely to disperse than yearlings with fork antlers (>2 points) on 1 study site. Computer simulation showed that the scale at which deer use the landscape is large compared to property sizes in southern Texas and probably in other areas of the white-tailed deer's range. Differences in scale between land ownership patterns and landscape use by deer may result in a failure to meet management objectives and conflict among managers. High harvest rates for male deer occur in part because deer movements are large relative to property size, creating a “tragedy of the commons.” Cooperative management groups are beneficial if all landowners in an area agree on management objectives. Otherwise, deer-proof fences often are erected to reduce conflicts among property owners.     

A game theoretical model of deforestation in human-environment relationships

We studied a two-person game regarding deforestation in human-environment relationships. Each landowner manages a single land parcel where the state of land-use is forested, agricultural, or abandoned. The landowner has two strategies available: forest conservation and deforestation. The choice of deforestation provides a high return to the landowner, but it degrades the forest ecosystem services produced on a neighboring land parcel managed by a different landowner. Given spatial interactions between the two landowners, each landowner decides which strategy to choose by comparing the expected discounted utility of each strategy. Expected discounted utility is determined by taking into account the current and future utilities to be received, according to the state transition on the two land parcels. The state transition is described by a Markov chain that incorporates a landowner's choice about whether to deforest and the dynamics of agricultural abandonment and forest regeneration. By considering a stationary distribution of the Markov chain for land-use transitions, we derive explicit conditions for Nash equilibrium. We found that a slow regeneration of forests favors mutual cooperation (forest conservation). As the forest regenerates faster, mutual cooperation transforms to double Nash equilibria (mutual cooperation and mutual defection), and finally mutual defection (deforestation) leads to a unique Nash equilibrium. Two different types of social dilemma emerge in our deforestation game. The stag-hunt dilemma is most likely to occur under an unsustainable resource supply, where forest regenerates extremely slowly but agricultural abandonment happens quite rapidly. In contrast, the prisoner's dilemma is likely under a persistent or circulating supply of resources, where forest regenerates rapidly and agricultural abandonment occurs slowly or rapidly. These results show how humans and the environment mutually shape the dilemma structure in forest management, implying that solutions to dilemmas depend on environmental properties.     

Red deer hunting—commercializing versus availability

Many deer populations in Europe and North America have increased in abundance over the last decades. The increasing populations potentially entail both ecological and economic challenges and opportunities, but in practice we still know little about the extent to which these opportunities are being exploited in different management systems. The Norwegian red deer population has increased in density and expanded rapidly since the 1950s. Traditionally, red deer hunting has been undertaken by the local landowner and his relatives and friends. The present large population raises the question whether attracting other hunters could provide a higher economic return for the landowners and, if so, if they are interested in providing such hunting opportunities. We designed a survey to learn more about the landowners, both with respect to the present level of hunting income as well as economic costs of, for example, forest and agricultural damage; we also sought to understand their interest in increasing their income from red deer hunting and potential obstacles to realizing such an increased economic benefit. The results indicate that landowners on average think that red deer populations on their land result in higher costs than income but are nevertheless satisfied with the way things are. This highlights that increased numbers of deer need not automatically lead to more income for landowners and that the potential for income may be hindered by cultural factors such as reluctance to allow access to non-local hunters.     

Reconsidering the Role of Absentee Herd Owners: A View from Mongolia

Since the privatization of livestock in 1992, rates of absentee ownership of livestock have increased sharply in Mongolia. Unlike other documented instances of absentee herding in pastoral societies, absentee herd ownership has few detrimental ecological or social impacts in Mongolia. Rather, the relationship between absentee herd owners and herders may be viewed as a revitalized institution, with links to customary patterns of urban-rural exchange, emerging to meet the needs of both herders and town-dwellers during the transition from a socialist planned economy to a free market economy. Absentee herding in Mongolia differs from absentee and contract herding accounts from Africa and the Middle East in its continuing emphasis on subsistence rather than speculative investment and accumulation. Other important distinctions include: (1) absentee owners and herders are usually kin or friends; (2) herders tend their own private herds in addition to absenteeowned animals;(3)few ethnic, caste, or class differences existbetween herders and absentee herd owners; and (4) herders from all wealth strata tend absentee-owned animals. Policies to restrict or regulate absentee livestock ownership must be carefully considered in the Mongolian context, making clear distinctions between informal, mutually beneficial subsistence-driven arrangements among kin and friends, and more formal investment-driven contracts between businesses or investors and herders.     

Values and perceptions of landowners within remaining breeding territories of Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata in Ireland

Habitat loss and degradation have been identified as some of the main threats to breeding Curlew (Numenius arquata) across much of Europe. In Ireland, marginal habitats such as rough or wet grasslands and peatlands have been fragmented or degraded by activities including afforestation, drainage and intensification. The management implemented by landowners directly affects Curlew breeding territories. However, the values and perceptions held by landowners whose lands contain Curlew breeding territories, or the factors driving the decisions behind farming practices in these areas are rarely considered when looking at the causes of changes in these bird populations. This study, as part of the Curlew Conservation Programme established in 2017, gathered data through the distribution of questionnaires to landowners found within three kilometres of Curlew breeding territories in Ireland. In this study, we identify the current land uses being employed in Curlew breeding territories, and query future projections of land use in these areas. We investigate landowners’ perceptions of the requirements to sustain favourable environments for breeding Curlew. We also explore landowner values with respect to farming. The landowners in this study identified habitat loss and predation as the main drivers for Curlew declines. The majority of farming systems in this study were cattle rearing, the sustainability of which is under threat across Ireland. The results indicate that these landowners are not financially motivated, however, the availability of financial aid and expert advice are listed by landowners as requirements for traditional farming practices to continue. These results give an insight to the lifestyle, values and perceptions owners of land adjacent or within Curlew breeding territories. This information can be used to design Curlew conservation programmes that align with these values.     

Can Public Meetings Accurately Reflect Public Attitudes Toward Wildlife Management?

Abstract: State wildlife agencies often use input obtained through public meetings to develop management policies. Because public meetings can be dominated by single stakeholder groups, these policies may not reflect the attitudes of new wildlife stakeholders. In 2000 the Utah Wildlife Board, after a series of public meetings, adopted a statewide policy for winter-feeding mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). The policy was implemented by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources from 2001 to 2007 in Cache County of northern Utah, USA. In 2007, we surveyed Utah households representing metropolitan, nonmetropolitan, and Cache County residents (n = 1,800) to evaluate whether the winter-feeding policy reflected the attitudes of all wildlife stakeholders. Survey respondents, regardless of residence strata, believed winterfeeding programs were essential for managing mule deer in Utah (χ²₆ = 7.02, P = 0.32). However, most respondents were reluctant to support feeding programs at the expense of habitat restoration projects (χ²₆ = 11.64, P = 0.07). Our results suggest that the winter-feeding policy represented the attitudes of the Utah residents surveyed, though few had participated in its development. Respondents' strong utilitarian attitudes toward wildlife (e.g., strong support for hunting and feeding) influenced those respondents' perceptions of the policy. Given the effects of increased urbanization on utilitarian attitudes toward wildlife in many parts of the United States, coupled with decreasing numbers of traditional wildlife stakeholders, state wildlife agencies should continually reevaluate their public involvement processes to ensure new wildlife stakeholders' attitudes and concerns are represented.     

Causes of Deforestation: The Maine Case

Many of the world’s forests are being destroyed at a rapid rate. This article analyzes the decisions of landowners in Maine, where forests have been heavily harvested and much land has been converted to non-forest use. Data on these landowners and their land were obtained from primary and secondary sources, satellite change detection analysis, and structured interviews. We found that there are several different landowner groups making different harvesting decisions in response to different incentives. In northern Maine, deforestation occurred at a rapid rate in the 1970s–1990s due to the activities of paper companies, which were harvesting heavily in the aftermath of a spruce budworm epidemic and which were doing liquidation harvesting preparatory to leaving Maine. In the southern area of the state, deforestation is due primarily to small landowners converting land for development and contractors doing “cut and run” forestry. The Maine case shows that even in a small area, there can be multiple causes for deforestation.     

Entrepreneurs, Elites, and Exclusion in Maasailand: Trends in Wildlife Conservation and Pastoralist Development

Maasai pastoralists in Kenya are rapidly diversifying. Maasai may now derive their main livelihoods (and sometimes considerable income) from farming, wildlife tourism, and/or the leasing of land for large-scale cereal cultivation. The spread of large-scale commercial cultivation competes with wildlife for grazing land, and wildlife populations around protected areas are rapidly declining as a result. This paper presents new data to analyse the way returns from different land uses, and the social structures affecting their distribution, influence the land-use choices being made by Maasai around the Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Returns to different interest groups from livestock, cultivation, and wildlife enterprises, seen in the light of current social, economic, and political trajectories, can help to clarify likely future land-use trends in the Mara. In particular, community conservation initiatives that seek to make conservation worthwhile to reserve-adjacent dwellers inevitably have a strong economic dimension. However, the choices made by Maasai landowners are not a simple function of the economic returns potentially accruing from a particular enterprise. They are as much or more influenced by who is able to control the different flows of returns from these different types of enterprise. These findings are relevant not only for the wider Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem, but also for pastoral livelihoods and wildlife conservation elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Collective Factors Reinforce Individual Contributions to Human-Wildlife Coexistence

Conserving large carnivores while keeping people safe depends on finding means for peaceful coexistence. Although large carnivore populations are generally declining globally, some populations are increasing, causing greater overlap with humans and increasing potential for conflict. One method of reducing conflict with large carnivores is to secure attractants like garbage and livestock. This method is effective when implemented; however, implementation requires a change in human behavior. Human-wildlife interaction is a public good collective action problem where solutions require contributions from many and individual actions have effects on others. We used the collective interest model to investigate how individual and collective factors work in concert to influence landowner attractant securing behavior in Montana, USA, in black (Ursus americanus) and grizzly bear (U. arctos) range. We used data from a mail-back survey to develop logistic regression models testing the relative effects of collective and individual factors on landowners' attractant securing behaviors. The most important factor was whether individuals had spoken to a wildlife professional, a reflection of social coordination and pressure. Other collective factors (e.g., social norms [i.e., expectations and behaviors of peers] and the existence of discussion networks [i.e., how much social influence an individual has]) were equally important as individual factors (e.g., beliefs, age, gender) for influencing attractant securing behavior among Montana landowners. This research suggests pathways for wildlife managers and outreach coordinators to increase attractant securing behavior by emphasizing collective factors, such as social norms, rather than appealing exclusively to individual factors, such as risk perception of large carnivores. Furthermore, wildlife agencies would be justified in increasing their efforts to connect with landowners in person and to connect with members of the public who play an important role in discussion networks. This research demonstrates that, even on private lands, collective interests may be a missing and important piece of the puzzle for encouraging voluntary attractant securing behavior and improving wildlife-human coexistence. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.     

Forestry Matters: Decline of Oaks Will Impact Wildlife in Hardwood Forests

Abstract: Acom production by oaks (Quercus spp.) is an important food resource for wildlife in many deciduous forests. Its role as a hard mast crop that can be either stored or used to build fat reserves for winter survival cannot be replaced by most other potential foods. Changes in forest management, introduced pests and pathogens, and increased deer populations have resulted in significant changes in the demography of oaks in eastern North America, as evident in Forest Inventory and Analysis data. Specifically, maples (Acer spp.) are replacing oaks in many forests through dominance of the younger age classes. These changes are not yet obvious in mast production but will take decades to reverse. Effective forest management for mast production is arguably one of the more important tasks facing wildlife professionals, yet receives scant attention by both public and private land managers. Public forests need to explicitly include mast production in their forest planning and reduce adversarial relationships over forest management. Market forces are driving commercial forests toward forest certification. Private forests compose 80% of our oak forests and are the hardest group to influence. States have not been able to effectively market forest plans and we recommend joining with advocacy groups more adept at motivating the public. Increased communication between wildlife and forestry professionals is needed through agency restructuring and joint meetings of professional agencies at the state level. Professional wildlife and forest managers are encouraged to make increased use of monitoring data and form a multiagency cooperative using a joint venture model, which has been successful for other organizations.     

Impact of land use and tenure changes on the Kitenden wildlife corridor,Amboseli Ecosystem,Kenya

This study assesses the ecological pressure exerted by changing land use and tenure on the Kitenden wildlife corridor, a critical cross‐border link between the Amboseli and Kilimanjaro national parks. The implications on viability of the two high‐value protected areas and their respective dispersal areas are both negative and serious. The extent of land use change and its impacts were assessed through household and vegetation surveys, while wildlife abundance was measured using transect walks. Approximately 30% of the study area has shifted from community to private land ownership over the last two decades. Except for baboon and vervet monkey, most wildlife avoided the cultivated area. Vegetation composition on the noncultivated area has been greatly altered by intense wildlife and livestock use, where mean herbaceous vegetation cover differed significantly among range‐plant categories (F_{3, 524} = 29.015, p < 0.05). The frequency of increaser I (21.4%) differs greatly from that of decreaser and forbs, at 8.3% and 7.4%, respectively Tree recruitment was low, with a significant difference in mean density among age classes (F_{2, 110} = 3.663, p < 0.05). Only through land leasing agreements between landowners and conservation organisations, and a widely supported land use plan, can the spread of cultivation be controlled and complete cessation of wildlife movement be prevented.     

The Zambian Wildlife Ranching Industry: Scale,Associated Benefits,and Limitations Affecting Its Development

The number and area of wildlife ranches in Zambia increased from 30 and 1,420 km² in 1997 to 177 and ∼6,000 km² by 2012. Wild ungulate populations on wildlife ranches increased from 21,000 individuals in 1997 to ∼91,000 in 2012, while those in state protected areas declined steeply. Wildlife ranching and crocodile farming have a turnover of ∼USD15.7 million per annum, compared to USD16 million from the public game management areas which encompass an area 29 times larger. The wildlife ranching industry employs 1,200 people (excluding jobs created in support industries), with a further ∼1,000 individuals employed through crocodile farming. Wildlife ranches generate significant quantities of meat (295,000 kg/annum), of which 30,000 kg of meat accrues to local communities and 36,000 kg to staff. Projected economic returns from wildlife ranching ventures are high, with an estimated 20-year economic rate of return of 28%, indicating a strong case for government support for the sector. There is enormous scope for wildlife ranching in Zambia due to the availability of land, high diversity of wildlife and low potential for commercial livestock production. However, the Zambian wildlife ranching industry is small and following completion of field work for this study, there was evidence of a significant proportion of ranchers dropping out. The industry is performing poorly, due to inter alia: rampant commercial bushmeat poaching; failure of government to allocate outright ownership of wildlife to landowners; bureaucratic hurdles; perceived historical lack of support from the Zambia Wildlife Authority and government; a lack of a clear policy on wildlife ranching; and a ban on hunting on unfenced lands including game ranches. For the wildlife ranching industry to develop, these limitations need to be addressed decisively. These findings are likely to apply to other savanna countries with large areas of marginal land potentially suited to wildlife ranching.