Browsing by Subject "interdisciplinary"

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    An interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach to understanding the community-based natural resource management system and human-wildlife interactions in Namibia
    (2026) Tavolaro, Francesca Marina; O'Riain, Justin; Brown, Chris; Woodgate, Zoe
    Agricultural activities have adversely impacted biodiversity worldwide, and wildlife continues to affect farmers' livelihoods. A common strategy to mitigate these impacts is to implement programmes that promote the sustainable use of natural resources in multi-use landscapes. One such example is Namibia's community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme, which aims to promote biodiversity while alleviating poverty and improving rural livelihoods. However, questions remain about how equitably the costs and benefits of such programmes are distributed among community members, and whether they deliver on their promises of both conservation and community development. To assess how well the community goals are being met, this thesis adopts an interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach that combines anthropology, biology, psychology and other social sciences. The aim of this thesis was to understand how human-wildlife interactions vary across Namibia's communal conservancies, and how these interactions shape community members' perceptions of the costs and benefits of living with wildlife, as well as their tolerance of damage-causing species. The study further employs the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a framework for exploring drivers of behavioural intentions in response to human-wildlife impacts (HWIs). I had four main objectives: 1) to write an ethnographic account of living and working in conservancies while performing annual game counts and other core activities of the CBNRM programme; 2) to quantify the type and frequency of HWIs within communal conservancies across Namibia and to explore possible drivers of their temporal and spatial variation; 3) to investigate the TPB factors that influence the likelihood of a community member to report livestock depredation events to authorities and to engage in legal killing of hyena species relative to farmers outside conservancies; 4) to assess tolerance, perceptions and beliefs of farmers inside and outside conservancies regarding damage-causing species, and what they deem are the tangible and intangible benefits and costs they derive from living with wildlife. To address these objectives, I conducted participant observation and recorded field notes while engaging in conservancy activities (2019), analysed 112,165 HWI incident reports from the NACSO ConInfo database (2001–2019), and administered 1,139 mixed-method questionnaires across 22 conservancies and five adjacent areas outside of communal conservancies (2029-2020). Findings revealed that the CBNRM programme enjoys broad support and that annual game counts are viewed as essential to sustainable wildlife-use. However, many community members felt forgotten by the system, with little to no perceived benefits reaching individuals. Livestock depredation was the most frequently reported HWI, though impact types varied by region. Elephant, jackal, hyena, cheetah and leopard (in descending order) were most commonly involved. The frequency and distribution of HWIs were significantly influenced by a suite if factors including distance to protected areas, terrain ruggedness, and annual rainfall. Farmers inside conservancies were significantly more likely to intend to report hyena-related livestock losses (90%) compared to those living outside conservancies (78%), but no significant differences were found in intention to kill hyena between groups. Using the TPB, I found that Attitude toward the behaviour was the strongest predictor of intention to report and kill hyena, except for Perceived Behavioural Control being the most significant predictor of intention to kill among respondents outside communal conservancies. Tolerance levels differed between groups, with only conservancy members reporting any benefits from wildlife. Despite this, 46% of respondents inside conservancies reported that benefits were decreasing, and 36% said there were no benefits at all. While Namibia's community-based conservation efforts have driven wildlife recovery at a national level outside protected areas, pressures from agriculture, population growth, and climate change may undermine their sustainability by altering the cost-benefit ratio for communities. Improving communication around long-term benefits and making individual costs tolerable is essential to ensuring continued support for conservation in multi-use landscapes. 
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    Medicine and the Arts Week 1 - In dialogue about the heart
    (2015-01-21) Reid, Steve; Brink, Johan; Anderson, Peter; Henkeman, Stanley
    In this video, Professor Steve Reid poses additional questions to Professor Johan Brink, poet Peter Anderson, and heart transplant recipient Stanley Henkeman to try to tease out the different disciplinary perspectives on the heart and heart transplantation. This is the seventh video in Week 1 of the Medicine and the Arts Massive Open Online Course.