Determinants of Community Attitudes and Participation in Wildlife Conservation. A case of Swagaswaga Game Reserve, Dodoma, Tanzania

Understanding local peoples’ conservation attitudes is crucial to achieve effective wildlife conservation. This study aimed to assess the factors influencing communities’ attitudes and participation in wildlife conservation around Swagaswaga game reserve (SGR). A household questionnaire survey of 150 respondents were randomly selected from Handa, Mangoroma and Serya villages between February and June 2024. Results showed that most respondents (88.67%, n = 133) were aware of the SGR and (90.67%, n = 136) of respondents had positive attitudes influenced by accrued benefits such as ecosystem goods and services (74.26%, n = 101), social services (11.03%, n = 15) and economic benefits (14.71%, n = 20); (H = 35.66, df = 2, P < 0.001). Crop damage by wild animals (77.33%, n = 116) was the main challenge followed by livestock depredation (14%, n = 21) and people injury (8.67%, n = 13). The major determinants of peoples’ attitudes were benefits associated with SGR, distance of households from SGR boundary, sex and occupation of respondents (Table 2). Majority (72.67%, n = 109) of respondents participated in different conservation related activities such as tree planting (46.79%, n = 51), maintenance of protected area boundary (29.36%, n = 32) and ant-poaching activities (23.85%, n = 26); H = 28.32, df = 2, P < 0.001. The study highlights that respondents who benefit directly from conservation activities tend to have more positive attitudes and are more likely to participate in conservation efforts. We recommend active engagement of local communities in conservation activities alongside implementation of inclusive policies to ensure equitable benefit sharing and effective mitigation of conflicts to foster both sustainable conservation and improved local livelihoods.