The dynamic natural environment and abundant wildlife are the most prominent features of the African continent. Due to its wide variety of biomes ranging from tropical forests to arid deserts, Africa consists of bountiful wildlife diversity. However, because of environmentally harmful human interactions, the variety of biomes is shrinking to all-time lows, which causes wildlife to die out. These detrimental human interactions, particularly livestock overgrazing and desertification, occur partly because the native people who depend on the land for daily life do not realize the potential benefits of wildlife and the unsustainability of their current ways. Poaching for horns and other valuable animal parts has also contributed to the decreasing amount of species present in the wild. However, the methods for conserving the wildlife environment differ in how they address the issue of the dwindling wildlife populations. The conventional method of conservation created in the mold of the Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State (also known as the London Convention) involves the complete centralization of wildlife resources to the government. The newer, more effective method called the Sustainable Use Approach makes drastic changes to the London Convention principles by decentralizing ownership of wildlife and allowing small communities and villages to manage it themselves.
Livestock grazing or herding is a human activity that has been taking place for thousands of years in Africa. Pastoral lifestyles emerged in Africa about nine thousand years ago with the arrival of domesticated herbivores like goats, sheep, and aurochs from Asia. Pastoralism thrived in its early stages in Africa because these ...
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...e value, protect the wild species. By creating this mutual relationship between the African people and their environment both sides can thrive.
References
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Child, Brian. “Physical Environment.” In-class Lecture. 16 Nov. 2013
Child, Brian. “The sustainable use approach could save South Africa’s rhinos.” S Afr J Sci. 2012; 108(7/8), Art.#1338, 4 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajs. 17 Nov. 2013
Child, Brian. “Wildlife, Environment, Agriculture.” In-class Lecture. 17 Nov. 2013
"Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in Their Natural State." The Faculty of Law. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
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In his book “Cattle Brings Us to Our Enemies”, McCabe does a 16-year stint in East Africa, specifically in Northern Kenya, doing research on the Turkana. He does this through STEP, the South Turkana Ecosystem Project. In “Cattle Bring Us to Our Enemies”, McCabe follows four families through his years in Kenya and notes how they live in a very demanding environment. He uses ecological data to analyze how and why the Turkana people make decisions about their everyday life. McCabe focuses on four main areas of study: how the Turkana survive and adapt to a stressful environment by nomadic pastoralism, how the techniques used to extract resources and manage livestock modify the environment, the effects of the environmental and cultural practices have on
Colonist believed that Maasai did not deserve these herds of cattle or live on land that they did not know how to use. Igoe explains how the Maasai control their resources and how they understand their environment. “Because Africans did not appreciate the beauty of nature, the therefore had no right to be in that nature. Nature was therefore set aside for the enjoyment of Europeans.” (Igoe 2004: 71) This idea is discussed thoroughly in the book Fortress Conse...
The second half of the 20th century has seen the continent of Africa in continuous turmoil. Civil wars, the AIDS epidemic, deforestation, and desertification are just a few of the problems facing Africa. A more recent threat to this ancient and fragile environment has emerged and is quickly gaining strength at devouring life – the bush meat trade. “Bush meat” refers to the smoked carcasses of various wild, and often endangered species that are sold illegally at rural markets of undeveloped countries and even at ethnic markets in developed nations. The meat of gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants are considered delicacies and the demand for these endangered species is increasingly high. Countries at the center of this crisis are Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya, Zimbabwe, the Congo, Cameroon, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania. Bush meat plays a crucial socio-economic role to many in Africa, and as such epitomizes the need to balance protection against such factors as poverty, health, and food security. Certain key issues are necessary to understand the bush meat trade:
V6. N1:140-143. Netscape Web Sites - "The Web" Biology 65: Biological Conservation (lecture 1-Introduction). http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/pjbryant/bio65/lec01/b65/lec01.htm EDF Letter: Moratorium Ends, but Wildlife Needs a Better Law? http://www.edf.org/pubs/EDF-Letter/1996/Jul/l_mbean.html. Endangered Species Act:.
Unmanaged or poorly managed use of pastures can led to damage of ecosystems. The current practice of changing forest into pasture lands is causing considerable damage. The Maasai of East Africa provide us with an example of properly managed pastures. The Maasai burn brush to create pasture land, when the herd must be moved so that the pasture can regain its strength, other animals such as deer and small wild pigs enter the fallow fields, thus creating another resource of food for them. The governments of Kenya and Tanzania took about 75% of the Maasai lands to use for tourism. The land soon began to grow over and the brush took over. The large game that the government was counting on to create revenue from the tourists began to leave to find more suitable land. The governments are slowly giving the Maasai people their land back in hope that their properly managed pastures can bring the large game back.
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Investigations are carried out primarily in towns and villages outside the conservation areas. Particularly attention should be paid to the principal source areas for commercial hunting (Bell et at., 1992). The essential feature of investigations is the following up of information concerning illegal activity back to its source in the villages or towns. Sources of information may include offenders arrested by patrols in the field, linking patrols to investigation activities, illegal hunters and dealers who have been persuaded to provide information, informers of various kinds and information volunteered by members of the public. Investigations are non-standard and unappreciable which makes them less easy to quantify than
Poaching is a serious matter in countries overseas. In one specific area is Africa. Hunters who are poaching in Africa are damaging the wildlife and proper precautions should be taken in preventing this crime; however, African leaders are not doing much about it. If proper precautions were being taken, then there would be less poaching in Africa. Also, poaching is very damaging to the wildlife because all animals depend on each other. Some conservation activists have tried to speak out about this issue by writing letters to hunters, but this has not been a big success. Hunters have also responded and written letters defending themselves and their actions. Over the years there has been a steady decline in the animal populations such as rhino’s
2. Loh, Jonathan. 2002, Living Planet Report 2002. The UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre <http://www.panda.org/downloads/general/LPR_2002.pdf>
Habitat loss is one of the main reasons why some species of animals are considered endangered. For example, the population of Africa doubles every twenty-four years. This means forests are destroyed to create space for people, to live and to grow crops, with the wood fro...
Whenever I think about the African rainforest, I always think about the large variety of animals that hide in the dense forests. For several centuries the rainforest has not just been a large forest but a home to the thousands of wild animals who have made their homes in the trees, soil, and waters of the African rainforests. However, the rainforest is now in danger. Deforestation has struck the once-great forest that covered nearly a third of Africa’s surface and is still being reduced by the amount of trees being cut down by people who want to use the land for agricultural reasons. This is why I am going to discuss some ways that people have done to prevent further loss of the rainforest
Balmford, Andrew, Georgina M. Mace, and Joshua R. Ginsberg. "The challenges to conservation in a changing world: putting processes on the map," in Conservation in a Changing World, ed. Mace, Balmford, and Ginsberg. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998.
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2009). Within wildlife conservation in southern Africa, small, fenced reserves are playing an increasingly large role (Wiseman et al. 2004). This results in restricted movement and year-round utilization of vegetation, thereby magnifying the negative impacts elephant have on vegetation (Van Aarde and Jackson 2007, Loarie et al. 2009). Slotow et al. (2005) analysed elephant populations in small fenced reserves and found that population growth rates were far higher than in large open system, sometimes growing over 15% per year. This is much more than was anticipated when elephants were translocated to many of these small parks, and exacerbates the negative impact these elephant can have (Mackey et al.