Wildlife conservation policies and incentives to hunt: an empirical analysis of illegal hunting in western Serengeti, Tanzania

This paper investigates factors determining participation and effort in illegal hunting, using cross-section survey data from households in western Serengeti, Tanzania. One purpose of the analysis is to study the impact on illegal hunting of the integrated conservation and development project established in this area, namely the Serengeti Regional Conservation Project (SRCP). The paper also investigates how the pattern of crop production in agriculture, market accessibility and wildlife-induced damage to crops and domestic animals affect illegal hunting. The empirical results suggest that effort in illegal hunting is inversely related to participation in SRCP. The results also show that the likelihood of illegal hunting is a decreasing function of the amount of agricultural land cultivated for maize production. Further, the hunting effort is negatively related to the size of cotton and maize land, as well as wildlife-induced damage to crops and domestic animals.