Each individual animal received points
Ruaha Carnivore Project
Developing a system to allocate benefits
African wild dogs were the top spot, each of these 17 generated 20,000 points
Ruaha Carnivore Project
It is crucial to develop a process for linking wildlife presence to desired local benefits. Here, we worked with the communities to establish a points system, where each wild animal camera-trapped received a certain number of points. Species which were more threatened, traded or caused more conflict generated more points. However, all species over the size of small mammals generated points, to ensure that a wider diversity of species were conserved.
The community being interested and involved in the process, and having sufficient communty-wide discussions to ensure the system of allocating points is locally driven and understood.
Clear outlines were vital to avoid conflict, such as defining the rules for counting animals when the numbers were unclear, or when a single animal appeared to be getting photographed multiple times in succession. Discussing these issues with the community and clarifying them together was very important.