Crop-raiding Baird’s Tapir Provoke Diverse Reactions from Subsistence Farmers in Belize
Tapir Conservation
2015
Journal Article
8-10
Agricultural areas where people grow crops to feed themselves and their families are often physically enclosed by a fence or represented by a forest edge (Figure 1). The purpose of these physical boundaries is obvious to people but not necessarily recognised by the wild animals they are designed to obstruct (Waters, 2014). Wild animals that cross these boundaries to feed on agricultural crops are commonly referred to by researchers as crop-raiders. A major grievance of subsistence farmers is the damage that crop-raiders do or farmers believe they might do to their crops and thus their livelihoods. Political, social and/or cultural factors as well as livelihood constraints will influence a farmer’s reaction to wildlife crop-raiders (Hill, 1997; Riley, 2007; Waters, 2014).