Human- Wildlife Conflict - The case of elephant at Mole National Park

Conflicts between wildlife and humans, particularly people who share immediate boundaries with protected areas, are common phenomenon. Declining wildlife resources has been linked to human actions through overexploitation, habitat destruction, and habitat fragmentation among others. Local people also look at wildlife as a liability to them. This view is provoked by a bitter experience they have had due to costs inflicted by wildlife conservation. Such costs include; loss of access to legitimate and traditional rights, damage to crops and other properties, livestock depredation, and risk posed to people s lives through disease transmission and attacks by wild animals. The main objective of the study is to assess human-elephant conflicts at Mole National Park in Ghana. This study was carried out during the months of July and August, 2014 in the Larabanga, Mognori, Murugu and Kananto to look into the HEC Conflicts occurring in these villages. Data collection was through semi-structured questionnaires, desk study. Results from the study revealed that crop raiding were the main cause of human-wildlife conflicts occurring in the four villages. Elephants were identified as the most destructive in farm raiding incidences. More male performed positive attitudes to conservation of elephants than females, there were no significant difference in frequencies of positive or negative attitudes towards elephant conservation found between the different education levels or at different distances from the park