Effect of management methods on the technical efficiency of local residents in the Pendjari Biosphere Reserve in north-west Benin

Abstract

The governance of a protected area shapes the way in which local farming communities perceive it and integrate it into their farming practices. The objective of the article was to evaluate the management methods of the Pendjari Reserve with regard to the use of inputs (chemical fertilisers) to preserve the Reserve. An evaluation approach based on the stochastic frontier function was used to assess the technical efficiency of three main crops (cotton, maize and soya) grown by 600 local residents. The results showed that inputs such as NPK fertiliser and insecticides have a positive and significant effect on productivity, particularly for cotton, suggesting that technical inefficiencies were low for cotton (0.001) and maize (0.007), but high for soya (6.878), suggesting that yield differences were often due to random factors. Community management of the park significantly improved farmers' technical efficiency, particularly for soya (p < 0.01), and marginally so for cotton and sorghum (p < 0.10). Community management of the park has a positive effect on efficiency. An alternative would be to adopt a hybrid model of delegated management to companies, supervised by community rules and bodies, in order to combine individual responsibility in the private sector with collective vigilance, which promotes a more efficient and sustainable use of resources. This will require strong involvement of the Village Associations for the Management of Wildlife Reserves in decision-making bodies and day-to-day management.