Wildlife Conservation Analysis

Africa's wildlife is one of a kind. It is the last place on earth where large herds of animals are free to move across grasslands. It is also the home of the greatest diversity of primates, our closest biological relatives. Through national parks and protected areas, privately and publically owned organisations strive to preserve the environment and its wildlife. Wildlife management formally came to existence in the nineteenth century following the trend that the natural resources are non-renewable and need to be conserved (Decker, 2012). During this time, wildlife conservation was just setting areas aside where people weren’t allowed to have influence on the natural environment, nowadays it incorporates way more complex issues such as politics,

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3. Aspects of Wildlife Management:

According to Yarrow, there are different aspects to wildlife management, each playing a role to a specific goal. This includes conservation, preservation, passive management strategies and general management.

Conservation is aimed at using resources in such a way, that future generations are granted the same opportunity of using and witnessing them as we did. It involves the continuous management of area the resources, fauna and flora, and may include hunting or preserving (Yarrow, 2009). The public need to understand that methods are followed for a reason and may not always be acceptable in their opinion. Sustainable hunting for example is a beneficial for both the animal, as populations need to be controlled, and the local communities are offered with employment opportunities and financial benefits.

A different approach to the environmental conservation and management tactics is preservation. The process includes leaving the natural resources alone in totality, and according to preservationists it is believed that nature should not be altered by humans

(Yarrow, 2009). Nature can be responsible for itself. However, surely this can only be applicable where humans have not already had a negative influence, which has led

Governments and conservation organisations have succeeded in bringing the importance of wildlife management to regional and international attention, but ultimately it is responsibility of the rural people that influence the success thereof.

Wildlife is seen differently by them, as a gift from nature, opposed to the natural resources and heritage we perceive them as (Kiss, 1990).

6. Wildlife Management Success

The African Lion is Africa’s largest cat, but has unfortunately decreased dramatically in populations especially in East and West Africa. This is mainly due to habitat loss and conservation. Most Lions in South Africa were removed from their native areas during the 1900s, where today, historic populations only occur in the Kruger National

Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. The unrightfully killing of the species for protection from life and livestock, the bush meat trade, and uncontrolled hunting has also contributed to the decrease in numbers (DEA, 2015).

The IUCN Red Data List and the South African list of Threatened and Protected

Species in terms of Section 56 (1) of the National Environmental Management

Biodiversity Act, 2004 (Act No 10 of 2004), both list the African Lion as vulnerable

(DEA, 2015).