WILDLIFE SNARING - AN INDICATOR OF COMMUNITY RESPONSE TO A COMMUNITY-BASED CONSERVATION PROJECT

The use of wire snares for catching wildlife to support household need s was treated as an indicator to evaluate community support and unders tanding for a community-based resource management project. Data were b ased on snare counts in areas surrounding the targeted community as we ll as from interviews with individuals purported to have had a history of snaring. The high use of snares conflicted with expected behaviour for a community benefiting from the project. Snaring levels were high enough to threaten the viability of the safari industry and the deriv ed revenues that were meant to be shared with the community. These con tradictions suggested flaws in the project: an overdependence on exter nal donor-supported management and lack of real community involvement and leadership in management of the resource. This study underscores t he critical importance for monitoring land-use behaviour as an indicat or of the success of community-based management projects.