Conservation on community lands: the importance of equitable revenue sharing

Attempts to establish local support for wildlife and conservation through the sharing of revenues and empowerment of local communities to manage their wildlife have proliferated over the past two decades. Data from two neighbouring Maasai group ranches in the wildlife dispersal area of Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks (Kenya) indicated one ranch generated considerable wildlife revenues from a tourist operation and community trust while the other received no direct benefits from wildlife. The overall attitude to wildlife on the ranch with wildlife revenues was significantly more positive, but attitudes within the ranch varied significantly, depending on both costs from wildlife and perception of the distribution of wildlife revenues. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that it was not the amount of revenue received or the scale of costs from wildlife which determined people's attitudes, but simply the presence or absence of wildlife benefits. The importance of addressing inequitable distribution of benefits is emphasized.