The role of wildlife, livestock, and humans in ecosystem restoration: Insights from an African savanna

Wildlife populations are declining globally and much of the remaining terrestrial wildlife cohabit rangelands alongside humans and their livestock. Over a quarter of the world’s land surface is grazed by livestock, which are replacing wildlife, potentially impairing ecosystem structure and function. The aim of this study is to facilitate ecosystem restoration by deepening our understanding of the relationships between wildlife, livestock, humans, and vegetation. Whether livestock can functionally replace wildlife and what factors influence equity in ecosystem restoration, including cost/benefit sharing and involvement in decision-making, remain critical knowledge gaps. I explore three specific aspects through interrelated studies from Laikipia County, Kenya: 1) the individual and interactive effects of cattle at varying stocking rates and large wild herbivores on smaller wildlife; 2) and on understory vegetation; and 3) the influence of socio-economic variables on equity in ecosystem restoration through exotic invasive cactus removal. To address these, I employed a mixed methods approach, incorporating camera trapping and vegetation surveys in a long-term exclosure experiment, together with spatially explicit questionnaires and key-informant interviews. Findings show that smaller wildlife habitat use responds to total herbivory, whether by domestic or wild animals, while understory plant communities are primarily shaped by herbivore identity at high cattle stocking rates. Interactions between cattle and large wild herbivores were evident in their effects on both smaller wildlife and understory vegetation. Employment and distance to restoration site can interact in counterintuitive ways in their influences on perceived equity. Restoration is influenced by different but intimately linked dimensions of equity and incorporating equity into project planning and implementation may improve restoration outcomes. This research is one of the first to experimentally demonstrate interactive effects of cattle stocking rates and large wild herbivores on vegetation and smaller-bodied wildlife and provides novel insights into the factors that influence equity in restoration initiatives.