A recent paper, co-authored by conservationists at the Namibian Chamber of Environment, examines human-wildlife conflict at a national level. This interesting mapping and analysis shines a light on some of the unique challenges of human-lion conflict – in particular the need for locally-based approaches to mitigate, manage, and prevent human-lion conflict. The exercise sought to identify whether certain environmental variables could meaningfully predict when and where human-lion conflict would take place. In the results Tavolaro et al. write “no predictor variable was found to have a significant effect on number of annual reports of livestock depredation by lion[.]” They continue in the discussion, “[n]one of the predictors for livestock depredation [for all carnivore species] were statistically significant, which could be because impacts are so pervasive and widespread across such diverse landscapes and farm management systems…that no variable or set of variables can explain the spatial variability patterns…This suggests that drivers of livestock depredation need to be explored at a finer scale (i.e., regional or conservancy level) for an improved understanding and subsequent mitigation.”

These findings underscore the importance of a locally-based approach to limiting human-lion conflict. With no predictable environmental patterns to draw-upon, lion movements, livestock movements, and human-lion conflict require eyes and boots on-the-ground. This is the approach of the Lion Rangers program.