**6. Conclusion and recommendations**

The study concludes that the ban has significantly boosted the District Council revenues. Despite this positive development, the livelihood of the communities has been significantly affected in many ways including increased human-wildlife conflicts, food insecurity, malnutrition, and lack of bush meat which to many is regarded as cheap source of protein. In addition, the ban led to the increase of wildlife populations particularly in the first 2–5 years. This increase corresponded with increased human-wildlife conflicts as a result of crop destruction and livestock predation. The study recommends the need for involvement of communities in major decisions affecting people's livelihood such as hunting ban. We also recommend that before instituting hunting ban(s), this has to be informed by research.
