NAIROBI ― Grassland restoration, which uses nature-based solutions for climate adaptation, can help farmers adapt to climate change by improving human security through reducing conflicts, which may lessen retaliatory actions against wildlife, according to a study.

Tree planting activities to restore degraded areas and rotational grazing to halt overgrazing and soil erosion are examples of nature-based solutions used in Chyulu Hills, near Kenya’s southern border with Tanzania.

The researchers also say that restoring grasslands may aid farmers in making more money by providing more water and pasture for cattle during dry spells.

Elephants, giraffes, hyenas and zebras are among the wild creatures that depend on grassland environments that are drying out due to climate change, the study says, pushing both animals and humans to compete for limited resources. The Chyulu Hills are seeing an increase in tensions and violence as a result.

In their study published in the Frontiers in Environmental Science, the researchers note that grasslands account for more than 60% of fodder for livestock in Kenya and support 70% of wildlife living out of protected areas. This leads to wild animals, livestock and people who rely on these grasslands for their survival living near each other.

The researchers monitored both grassland restoration and conflicts in Chyulu Hills, home to lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, rhinos, elephants and various antelopes. They found that restoration can help reduce human-wildlife conflict and improve community relations: The more local grassland is restored, the less human-wildlife conflict.

“Nature can help people in so many ways, and we [wanted] to make sure that those connections are identified and communicated to the public. We wanted to assess the importance of nature for climate change adaptation, more specifically to assess the potential of nature in providing an overlooked but critical climate adaptation benefit: human security and peace,” says the study’s lead researcher, Camila Donatti, a senior director of climate change adaptation at the Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science at Conservation International.

The study found that restoration was helping reduce human-wildlife conflicts, social conflicts and the overall feeling of insecurity in Chyulu Hills, where 11,000 hectares (27,180 acres) of land has been under restoration since 2021. The restoration project implemented grassland restoration practices for climate mitigation, including managing livestock as per restoration plans, pruning encroaching bushes, sourcing seeds from existing seed banks and reseeding degraded areas.

The study entailed surveys in 1,567 households to collect information on conflicts between September 2022 and October 2023 when the grassland restoration project was also implemented. The researchers assessed human-wildlife conflict, including crop raids, attacks on humans, livestock killings or property damage as well as strategies that households adopted to protect themselves.

But, Donatti says, they did not ask about retaliatory killings of wildlife because these are illegal. They also asked about social conflicts, the participants’ perception of insecurity or damaged community relationships and related mitigation strategies.

More than 88% of the households interviewed had experienced human-wildlife conflicts while 32% had experienced social conflicts. Using time as a proxy for restoration, the study did not find a decrease in human-wildlife conflicts over time, but a decrease in social conflicts and also a reduction in the feeling of insecurity.

Women-led households experienced more social conflicts than men-led households. According to Donatti, 23% of the households had at least one member experiencing nonlethal attacks by wildlife, with elephants, giraffes, lions, spotted hyenas and buffalo being the most likely species to be involved.

“The pathway between grassland restoration and human security is a long one.… But the first step [is] grassland restoration, and the last, human-wildlife conflicts and social conflicts. However, as the restoration of grasslands increases the availability of water and pasture for both livestock and wildlife, we hypothesized that grassland restoration reduces the movement of pastoralists to access water and fodder for livestock, minimizing conflicts with other pastoralists looking for the same resources in the same areas and reduces the attacks of wildlife on crops and livestock as well as retaliatory measures on wildlife, reducing human-wildlife conflicts,” Donatti tells Mongabay.

Ernest Lenkoina, rangelands restoration manager at the conservation NGO Big Life Kenya says that scarcity of resources, especially pasture, is one of the key drivers of human-wildlife conflict.

“The rangelands are becoming so degraded, the only areas that are lush and have sufficient food become the farmlands. So, animals like elephants, zebras, eland… you find a lot of them going into farms to graze there, and that creates a lot of conflict with farmers. But if the rangelands were in good condition, the wildlife wouldn’t have any reason to go into those farms to seek pasture,” Lenkoina, who works in Chyulu Hills, tells Mongabay.

He adds that when grasslands are restored, there is reduced competition between wildlife and livestock and thus less chance of conflict. “People and wildlife are sharing the same spaces. Conflict with farmers has been quite [intense] over these periods where we have had a decline in pasture. If we don’t manage that well, we might lose that population of wildlife that lives within this area,” he says.

“If the rangelands are degraded, it’s a serious problem. Wildlife, together with livestock, all depend on it, so it has a direct impact on human livelihoods. It’s not just about conservation; it’s about survival,” Lenkoina says.

The researchers call for continued support for the conservation of grasslands and animal species, especially for the Maasai communities to foster a healthy relationship between people and wildlife.

Study co-author Maureen Mwanzia, formerly with Conservation International Kenya but who also worked as a statistician at the World Health Organization from Apr 2024 – Jan 2025, calls for the integration of grassland restoration into national and international environmental and development strategies, with dedicated funding and resources for restoration in Kenya. She urges policies that address human-wildlife and social conflicts and are cognizant of gender-sensitive mechanisms tailored to address the unique challenges facing men and women in grassland areas.

“The importance of grasslands in providing biodiversity, climate mitigation and socio-economic benefits is well known, but this study highlights that grassland restoration is playing a role in peace and human security by reducing human-wildlife conflicts, social conflicts and the overall feeling of insecurity in Chyulu Hills. The significantly higher number of social conflicts experienced by households led by women, combined with the lower number of mitigation strategies implemented to address conflicts in those households, are concerning. Therefore, any future policies and strategies implemented in the area to minimize human-wildlife conflicts and social conflicts must be gender-sensitive. … They should consider the needs, perceptions and interests of women to be effective,” Donatti says.

Banner image: A lion is approaching a wildebeest herd roaming in a grassland in Kenya. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay.

Citation:

Donatti, C. I., Moraga-Lewy, N., Nyongesa, J., Mwanzia, M., Edmond, J., & Fedele, G. (2025). Grassland restoration impacts human-wildlife and social conflicts in the Chyulu hills, Kenya. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 12. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2024.1431316