Coordination of Large Landscapes for Cheetah Conservation

Cheetahs are often found outside of state-owned protected areas and require landscape scale management not provided by individual farms. Collaborative ventures between landowners or users have a potential to provide management at the spatial scale intrinsic to the species. And, collaborative networks can fill gaps in the landscape not protected by public reserves. We use models of collaborative ventures among freehold livestock farmers in Namibia and communal livestock farmers in Namibia and Kenya to illustrate benefits and challenges of collaborative management for wildlife conservation. Benefits include creation of large, managed landscapes, the potential for increased profits, and a potential reduction or compensation for losses from predators. Challenges to successful collaborations include the need to provide sustained, tangible benefits to land users, the need for coordination and expertise, and the potential for gaps in the newly protected landscape when collaboration between neighbors is not complete. The land-use models we share here have attempted to solve these challenges through local innovations and strategies that keep the livelihoods of the landowners or land users at the forefront of consideration.