The interplay of drought, human–wildlife conflict and food security: Insights from rural Zimbabwe

The frequency and severity of drought has been increasing in Southern Africa against the backdrop of an increase in the population of both humans and wildlife, most notably elephants. This has increased the incidents of human–wildlife conflict (HWC) due to competition for food and water, further complicating both conservation efforts and food security for farmer-households juxtaposed to wildlife corridors. We seek insights into these issues by examining the role of drought in inducing HWC in rural Zimbabwe and investigate the effect of HWC on the food-security status of rural households. We utilise data from the 2023 nationally representative survey of rural Zimbabwean households in this endeavour. To avoid the confounding problem associated with self-selection into a HWC household and taking into account the count nature of our outcome variable, we employ the endogenous switching regression model with count data. The results provide three major insights. First, drought occurrence increases the likelihood of HWC among rural farmer-households. Second, HWC increases rural household vulnerability to food insecurity. Finally, the HWC shock is inconsequential on farmer-household food insecurity if the farmer-household has already suffered the drought shock.