Human encroachment on wildlife habitats is one of the biggest challenges to UWA and conservation in general. The main cause of this are changes in land use and the increasing search for farmland which lead to a decrease in the wildlife range.
UWA has a team of skilled staff to respond to reports about crop raiding and threats to livestock and to communities. These are dealt with using methods such as scare shooting to chase the problem animals back into the protected area; capturing and translocation; and sensitizing the communities.
As a last resort, individual animals that fail to return to the protected area may be sport hunted or killed in order to reduce the threat. Those killed under sport hunting generate revenue for the communities through the hunting fees, which in turn discourages poaching and contributes to conservation.