The implications of human behavioral ecology for chimpanzee conservation in Budongo forest, Uganda

This project seeks to apply theories of behavioral and evolutionary ecology to the situation in which chimpanzee habitat is being depleted by deforestation due to natural resource use. Chimpanzees are highly susceptible to this habitat destruction due to their large home range, slow growth and birth rate, and a negative intrinsic growth rate. While 97% of the energy used in Uganda comes from fuelwood, forbidding the use of the resource is unlikely to solve the problem of chimpanzee endangerment. Human behavioral ecology suggests that people behave for the short term rather than for unforeseeable future costs or benefits, regardless of their professed beliefs concerning conservation. This hypothesis is tested in an attempt to understand how cultural perceptions and an evolved psychology of resource utilization and consumption interact to produce a set of behaviors in a Nyakafunjo village near Budongo forest reserve, Uganda. Oral interview questions cover four objectives: To understand the indigenous perception of chimpanzees in the forest; To understand any underlying cultural philosophy regarding the environment and its usage; To assess the local knowledge of the forest as a finite resource, and of the availability of alternative resources; To determine the proximate motivators and immediate rewards desired by indigenous resource users. Results suggest that these villagers see chimpanzees as economically beneficial and therefore worthy of conservation. They also suggest that given the recent and diverse histories of the villagers, there is no unified cultural ecological philosophy, and much of one's behavior is governed by the government. In general, this study supports the idea that people want immediate rewards, such as money or land, if they are asked to change their behavior for the good of future resource availability and chimpanzee survivorship.