Socio‐ecological systems and distress 645
allowed to kill them, meaning you just suffer. But if you get time, you can go and wait for them. You chase them.’
FIG. 4 The reported sources of ‘thinking too much’ and related idioms of distress amongst respondents in Nyabyeya Parish, Uganda. The width of the lines illustrates the relative number of interviewees that reported connections between nodes. The node size represents the number of interviewees mentioning the associated theme for that node.
What are the perceived roles of socio-ecological processes in these stressors?
Wefocus on poverty and hunger because they were the most frequently mentioned intermediaries between the broader socio-ecological context of respondents and ‘thinking too much’. Further evidence and other pathways of interest are presented in Supplementary Figs 1–3.
Hunger, nature conservation and the sugarcane industry The main reported drivers of hunger included insufficient land (linked to the sugarcane industry, discussed below), in- adequate money to buy food, and crop losses. Many subsis- tence farmers said unexpected and unseasonal rains during June–July 2019 left crops rotting in their fields. Many also reported that crop foraging by wildlife (baboons Papio anu- bis, chimpanzees Pan troglodytes and red river hogs Potamochoerus porcus) contributed to crop losses. For in- stance,R16 (lower-income younger female) stated, ‘Wild an- imals are good at [destroying] most of our food crops.’ Whether or not they farmed adjacent to the reserve, inter- viewees said that crop-eating wildlife most affected farmers at the forest edge. In response to crop-eating by wildlife, many subsistence
farmers reported having to guard their crops, which several respondents said disrupted other income-generating activ- ities and leisure time. Consequently, several subsistence farmers had negative attitudes towards wildlife and a desire to trap or kill wild animals. However, it was unclear whether respondents had acted upon these desires. For instance, R18 (middle-income middle-aged female) stated, ‘[Wild ani- mals] cannot leave you to eat your food, and you are not
Poverty, farm size and the sugarcane industry The primary reported contributors to poverty were low farm production, poor health and lack of employment. For in- stance, R29 (lower-income middle-aged male) stated, ‘What has caused poverty in this community is lack of enough land. You do not have [enough land] where you can farm; you just have a plot [a small unit of land].’When discussing farmpro- duction, many subsistence farmers suggested that there was inadequate or ‘squeezed’ land. For instance, when asked to describe the history of the community, R25 (medium-income middle-agedmale) said, ‘Others are getting problems of land because [there is not enough land] where they can do good farming to get good money [...] that’s what is making us suffer.’ When asked why there was inadequate land, most subsistence farming respondents said that the expan- sion of contract farming and large-scale commercial estates had displaced small-scale farming. For instance, R02 (middle-income middle-aged male) stated, ‘You cannot struggle for a small piece of land since sugarcane has taken most of the land.’ Mechanisms of displacement included the voluntary selling or renting of land to meet immediate needs, forced displacement by large-scale commercial estates and increased prices restricting land purchase. However, both subsistence and small-scale contract farm-
ers said that the sugarcane industry benefitted those able to engage in it. For instance, when describing the drivers of household development,R01 (middle-income middle-aged fe- male) said that some households engage in ‘sugarcane grow- ing, and after growing, they sell and get a lot of money’. Nevertheless, many subsistence farmers reported barriers to small-scale contract farming; insufficient land was most com- monly mentioned. Consequently, several respondents said that the benefits of the sugarcane industry mainly accrued to wealthier households with large amounts of land.
The importance of the forest during hunger and poverty As well as the threats posed by crop-eating wildlife, many said that subsistence farmers and landless young men har- vested forest resources to cope with hunger or poverty. This forest use included legal (e.g. harvesting wild plants and mushrooms) and illegal activities (e.g. producing charcoal, hunting and timber harvesting). Several respondents said that wealthier households, including those outside the study area, often paid landless young men to illegally harvest timber. Similarly, several respondents said charcoalwas typi- cally produced by poorer households and sold to wealthier ones. For instance, R02 (middle-income middle-aged male) said, ‘[People are struggling to survive] as the sugar- cane is the most [common] crop grown on the ground, so [food crop] gardens are few.’ R02 then proceeded to say,
Oryx, 2024, 58(5), 641–649 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323001710
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