Insights into the Management of Large Carnivores for Profitable Wildlife-Based Land Uses in African Savannas

Large African predators, especially lions (Panthera leo) and leopards (Panthera pardus), are financially valuable for ecotourism and trophy hunting operations on land also utilized for the production of other wildlife species for the same purpose. Predation of ungulates used for trophy hunting can create conflict with landholders and trade off thus exists between the value of lions and leopards and their impact on ungulate populations. Therefore productionist and conservation trade-offs are complexly graded and difficult to resolve. We investigated this with a risk-benefit analysis on a large private wildlife production area in Zimbabwe. Our model showed that lions result in substantial financial costs through predation on wild ungulates that may not be offset by profits from hunting them, whereas the returns from trophy hunting of leopards are projected to exceed the costs due to leopard predation. In the absence of additional income derived from photo-tourism the number of lions may need to be managed to minimize their impact. Lions drive important ecological processes, but there is a need to balance ecological and financial imperatives on wildlife ranches, community wildlife lands and other categories of multiple use land used for wildlife production. This will ensure the competitiveness of wildlife based land uses relative to alternatives. Our findings may thus be limited to conservancies, community land-use areas and commercial game ranches, which are expansive in Africa, and should not necessarily applied to areas where biodiversity conservation is the primary objective, even if hunting is allowed there.     

Private Lands Programs and Lessons Learned in Illinois

ABSTRACT State wildlife agencies commonly offer private landowners cost-share and technical assistance to improve habitat, but the cost-effectiveness and long-term outcomes of these efforts are rarely evaluated. In 1998, we began a 3-part, statewide evaluation of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ (IDNR; USA) Private Land Wildlife Habitat Management Program (hereafter the program) as it functioned from 1986 to 1996. We sent a mail-back questionnaire to IDNR biologists to collect information on their perceptions of the program. We sent a separate mail-back questionnaire to private landholders who participated in the program to ascertain their demographic profile, motivations for participation, and attitudes regarding the program. We also conducted on-site evaluations of private properties that were managed under the guidance of the program. We conducted our study to 1) assess if the program effectively assisted participants in establishing and maintaining wildlife habitat, and 2) determine factors associated with optimal management of wildlife habitat on private lands to refine the program and improve effectiveness. We found significant differences between participants in their land use priorities and motivations for managing wildlife and in the resources available to participants to establish and maintain habitat. Our results indicate that although financial incentives may increase participation in private lands initiatives, improving technical and material assistance to landholders is essential for maintaining quality wildlife habitat over the long-term.     

Spill-over effect in media framing: Representations of wildlife conservation in Zimbabwean and international media, 1989–2010

Myths and metaphors that occur in media frames play an important role in influencing public perceptions of an issue in times of war, political conflict, crisis and disaster. This, in turn, influences policy makers and (inter)national assistance and aid programmes. We investigated whether a metaphoric spill-over of frames used in connection with political events could explain the misrepresentation in the framing of wildlife conservation. Zimbabwe experienced a severe political conflict and economic downturn in 2000 when land reforms took place. We analyzed newspaper articles on Zimbabwe's wildlife conservation published between 1989 and 2010 from newspapers in Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. We selected three issues about wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe in the local and international media, namely, the ivory ban, rhino protection, and Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources to investigate the spill-over effect. Our results show that in the 1990s, the majority of newspaper articles highlighted that wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe was largely successful. However, two major changes occurred after 2000 following the land reforms in Zimbabwe. First, the international media showed little interest in wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe as evidenced by a sharp decline in published articles and second, the frames changed in the international media with the “political unrest and land reform” blame frame becoming more dominant. This transition in reporting, frames, and low frame parity shows that there was a spill-over effect of political frames into wildlife conservation following Zimbabwe's land reforms in 2000. Metaphoric spill-over effects may thus create myths in the readership, in turn influencing policy-derived actions in a sector that is not or poorly related to the actual disaster.     

Outcomes of a community controlled wildlife utilization program in a Zambezi Valley community

Zimbabwe is devolving substantial wildlife management responsibility to local government, and ultimately to local communities, through its Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) program. This paper's purpose is to explore the notion that CAMPFIRE offers a useful model for sustainable development discussions by examining the program's impacts in one case study location. It presents a legislative history of the CAMPFIRE Program before specifying the spatial criteria that explain ideal CAMPFIRE sites. Thereafter, it reports results from a study of the development impacts of locally controlled wildlife management in Masoka, an isolated CAMPFIRE community in the Zambezi Valley. The village has developed a land use plan, fenced its fields and settlements, reduced wild animal attacks on people and crops, provided access to primary education for both boys and girls, created local employment, and provided money for household food purchases during a severe drought. In Masoka, the implementation of CAMPFIRE seems to successfully provide incentives to protect megafauna and their habitats. For Masoka, CAMPFIRE has provided an alternative model to statist solutions emphasizing centralized control for biodiversity conservation purposes.     

Reckoning perverse outcomes of resource conservation policies using the Ecological Footprint

Spatially expanding economies threaten the status of basic natural resources. In particular, wildlife habitats rarely benefit. Apart from protected areas, political-economic decision-making is ill-prepared to accommodate wildlife habitats with standard valuation methods. In some cases habitat loss is an inadvertent outcome of resource conservation policies intended to lower resource consumption.We recognize the term resource conservation as multifaceted, with a range of meanings from protecting wildlife habitats to efficiently allocating and using materials and energy. Resource conservation policies that spur economic benefits may produce unwanted outcomes. This is partly because linkages between economic and conservation goals seem tangential. Moreover, relevant information is imperfect and predictive tools are limited. This is particularly true for land converting impacts, which are often addressed after the fact, not during policy formulation, and can lead to successive resource degradation.We argue for the need to calculate the positive and negative land converting impacts from resource conservation policies that may expand the economy. Using the Ecological Footprint (EF) approach, we tested for potentially perverse outcomes of an existing resource conservation policy. In doing so, we conceptually mapped linkages among economic sectors to their cumulative effects of converting land. We assume an inverse relationship between economic expansion and land conservation.A New York State energy efficiency incentive program was tested using recent data from all tracked economic sectors. The economic data were converted in a series of steps from dollar values to energy units, to carbon dioxide emissions, and ultimately expressed in hectares of net land conversion. A policy scenario was compared to a reference scenario (no resource conservation policy), and the results anticipate a net gain in conserving land (0.6% reduced conversion). We interpret this as a potentially proportional offset favoring wildlife habitat retention. Two sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the policy’s impact on conserving land depended on both the affected economy’s scale (tripling reduces the estimated benefit to 0.2%), and the level of economic expansion that followed (doubling leads to a net loss of wildlands).This novel use of the EF approach may serve as a model for a more general approach to assessing a broader class of policies. It may also hold promise toward developing tools that can better examine well-intentioned resource conservation policies with uncertain outcomes. Our hope is that work like this can lead to better sets of tools for examining critical ecological–economic linkages for improved policy design.     

生态伦理与湿地保护

生态伦理对于湿地保护的重要性主要体现为促进人类对湿地及其价值的正确认识、加强人类保护湿地的自我约束与社会舆论监督、提供制定和实施湿地保护法律法规的伦理基础。生态伦理对于湿地保护的要求主要体现在:人地伦理方面要求人类应当合理利用湿地资源、反对掠夺性的湿地开发、要特别保护湿地濒危野生动植物;代内伦理方面认为当代人在利用湿地资源、满足自身利益上的机会平等,对湿地资源的保护是全人类共同的责任与义务,要求地区之间、国家之间共同协作保护湿地;代际伦理方面要求当代人在对湿地资源开发利用时,应遵循责任原则、节约原则与慎行原则,防止给后代人造成不可挽回的损害。湿地保护伦理的培育途径主要有与湿地科学研究相结合、与湿地法律法规相结合、与社会实践活动相结合、与宣传教育相结合。     

Perceptions of the Forestry and Wildlife Policy by the local communities living in the Maputo Elephant Reserve, Mozambique

A survey was undertaken in the Maputo Elephant Reserve to establish the level of people's dependence on wildlife, and their perceptions of the extant Forest and Wildlife Policy and the associated legislation, including the new Land law. The underlying assumption was that the local communities residing in the Reserve may not have been involved, or consulted in the process of formulating the policy and legislation. Results overwhelmingly confirmed this hypothesis – as 65% of the community members interviewed were unaware of the approved Forest and Wildlife Policy, and associated Legislation. 74% had never even heard of the new Land Law, 88% indicated they were not involved in any management of natural resources in the Reserve, and the majority, 53% had never even heard of any community-based natural resource management programme. The widespread unawareness of the various enabling mechanisms established by the Mozambican Government to ensure that rural people actively participate in, and sustainably and tangibly benefit from the management of natural resources is of great concern. More particularly so, as the frameworks, and strategies for achieving this have been developed under the Transfrontier Conservation Areas Project (TFCA). This study recommends, inter alia: (i) that the Directorate for Forestry and Wildlife establishes a Community Education and Public Relations Unit (CEPRU) in the Maputo TFCA in order to improve community awareness of the opportunities, and various enabling policies and legislation, especially with respect to communities' rights vis-à-vis ownership of land and the associated natural resources; (ii) the introduction of community-based tourism as a means of diversifying communities' income base. Currently nearly 82% of community members in the Reserve depend on consumptive use of wildlife, and as the human population grows the pressure may overwhelm the resource base. Generation of revenues through community-based tourism may be an incentive for communities to adopt biodiversity conservation based market economy as an alternative to their subsistence livelihood styles.     

A note on the effectiveness of incorporating management objectives with ecological variables when modeling red deer abundance

Big game populations are being raised in areas characterized by different land uses and are being managed under a wide range of circumstances which might influence their population densities and structure. However, the consideration of explanatory variables related to management activities is not generally explicitly considered in game population models. This paper focuses on how estate owners’ management objectives and strategies influence red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) hunting yields. We study red deer harvest in 187 hunting estates in Andalusia (Spain) and use both ecological and management predictors to describe capture levels in each hunting estate. We have found that the main land use of the area where red deer are being raised, the type of hunting holder, and the long-term management strategies (such as fencing and the hunting practices implemented) significantly explain red deer hunting bag, which is often used as proxy of population abundance. Therefore, ecological variables alone are not always sufficient to determine big game harvests. We provide empirical support that reinforces the relevance of considering humans and their long-term decisions when trying to interpret wildlife harvests, populations, and trends. We urge scientists and technicians to incorporate human aims in the game species distribution models and resource user decision models, particularly when game populations are being intensively managed.     

Carnivore conservation under land use change: the status of Zimbabwe’s cheetah population after land reform

Large terrestrial carnivores especially have experienced substantial declines in range and numbers. Changes in land use are a main driver of such declines, yet various developing countries have accelerated land use change through state-led land reform programmes. One of the most renowned land reform programmes is Zimbabwe’s fast track land reform programme (FTLRP), which resulted in fast and compulsory subdivision of large commercial farms into indigenized small scale commercial and subsistence farms. Several case studies have shown an impact of the FTLRP on wildlife, however, its effect on wildlife populations at a nationwide scale remains largely unknown. Due to its wide-ranging nature, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is particularly vulnerable to changes in land use. In this study I used questionnaire survey and citizen science data to determine the population status and distribution of the cheetah 15 years after introduction of the FTLRP. I also assessed the level of human-cheetah conflict, and attitudes of commercial and subsistence farmers towards cheetah. I found dramatic range contractions and population declines, particularly in the landscape outside protected areas. Despite minimal conflict, subsistence farmers were less tolerant to cheetah than commercial farmers. Consequently, land reform is likely to have increased the hostility of the cheetah landscape outside protected areas. This study is one of the most comprehensive species assessments to date. It provides valuable empirical data on the implications of land use change and emphasizes how a lack of knowledge impedes our ability to recognize a species vulnerability to (local) extinction risk.     

Managed retreat of settlements and infrastructures: ecological restoration as an opportunity to overcome maladaptive coastal development in France

The effects of climate change on coastal risk factors are increasing due to both rising sea levels and increasingly intense coastal floodings. However, these changes are only just beginning to be incorporated into planning strategies for coastal economies and land use in France. Recent coastal storms marked the turning point, and public authorities have now started to revise coastal management legislation, stating that the managed retreat of settlements and infrastructure is the preferred strategy to adapt to climate change. To date, this managed retreat has almost exclusively been discussed in relation to the current political, social, and economic obstacles that make it difficult to relocate equipment and houses inland. Here, we add to this discussion by depicting how the careful ecological restoration of dunes and salt marshes on land made available by managed retreat could overcome some of these obstacles. First, we describe three possible strategies to adapt to sea‐level rise as well as the maladaptation of the current strategy. Then, we focus on the limitations and advantages of ecological restoration in terms of managed retreat and vice versa. Finally, we depict how a new kind of land lease, introduced in draft legislation, can help tackle the multitemporal and multispatial issues that currently hinder managed retreat.     

Land use changes and conservation threats in the eastern Selous–Niassa wildlife corridor,Nachingwea, Tanzania

Selous–Niassa miombo woodland ecosystem has been and continues to face conservation threats. Understanding of changes happening in such ecosystem overtime is important for establishing management baseline data. This study identified land use changes, socio‐economic factors and conservation threats to the Selous–Niassa wildlife corridor across Nachingwea district, Tanzania. Landsat images of 1978, 1993 and 2000 were used to assess land use changes. Household survey was conducted to obtain socio‐economic data; logistic regression model was used to analyse the data. In 15 years (1978–1993) cultivated land only increased by 131% while forestlands decreased by 8.7%. In 12 years (1993–2005) cultivated land increased by 65.6% while forestland decreased by 10.7%. Land cover change per year has been found 0.54% relatively low compared to national land cover change of 45%per year. Land tenure, shifting cultivation and crops prices were major factors influencing land use changes while wildfires, farm encroachment and illegal timber harvesting were major conservation threats. Basing on the results, it was recommended that there is a need for a government to introduce community‐based natural resource management plans to improve natural resource utilization and reduce human stress to the corridor.     

Wildlife control,access and utilisation: Lessons from legislation,policy evolution and implementation in Zimbabwe

This paper retraces: (1) the promulgation of protectionist wildlife policies by colonial administrators at the turn of the 19th Century in Zimbabwe, and their evolutionary trajectory over distinct time periods, (2) the paradigmatic shift and the extent of evolution of wildlife policies with respect to the devolution thrust and local community participation to date. The aim is to re-ignite and keep alive the debate for the improvement of local community livelihoods by meeting their aspirations and addressing poverty. Another section explores the robustness of local community institutional framework following decades of research on their efficacy in the face of internal weaknesses and external pressures. This is discussed in the context of contested devolution and decentralisation concepts which not in the distant past became fashionable rhetoric in the field of local community empowerment in natural resource management. Areas of contests have been explored using a case study approach. Extensive literature consultation and gleaning of 127 published and relevant sources cutting across national, regional and global realms reveal that Zimbabwe and most southern African countries have evolved progressive policies. However, consistent with most literature, the implementation of these otherwise progressive policies remains problematic. Hence, the question, ‘when will community-based wildlife conservation initiatives like communal areas management programme for indigenous resources (CAMPFIRE) achieve their initially intended goals of devolution?’ remains largely unaddressed.     

Grazing management influences the subsidy of terrestrial prey to trout in central Rocky Mountain streams (USA)

1. Research in forest and grassland ecosystems indicates that terrestrial invertebrates that fall into streams can be an important prey resource for fish, providing about 50% of their annual energy and having strong effects on growth and abundance. However, the indirect effects of land uses like cattle grazing on this important prey subsidy for stream salmonids are unclear. 2. During summer 2007, we compared the effects of three commonly used grazing systems on terrestrial invertebrate inputs to streams in northern Colorado and their use by trout. Cattle graze individual pastures for about 120 days under traditional season‐long grazing (SLG), about 35–45 days under simple rotational grazing and 10–20 days under intensive rotational grazing in this region. We also compared these effects to a fourth group of sites grazed only by wildlife (i.e. no livestock use). 3. Overall, rotational grazing management (either simple or intensive), resulted in more riparian vegetation, greater inputs of terrestrial invertebrates, greater biomass of terrestrial invertebrate prey in trout diets, a higher input compared to trout metabolic demand and more trout biomass than SLG. However, these differences were frequently not statistically significant owing to high variability, especially for trout diets and biomass. 4. Despite the inherent variability, riparian vegetation and terrestrial invertebrates entering streams and in trout diets at sites managed for rotational grazing were similar to sites managed for wildlife grazing only. 5. These results indicate that rotational grazing systems can be effective for maintaining levels of terrestrial invertebrate subsidies to streams necessary to support robust trout populations. However, factors influencing the effect of riparian grazing on stream subsidies are both spatially variable and complex, owing to differences in microclimate, invertebrate and plant populations and the efforts of ranchers to tailor grazing systems to specific riparian pastures.     

Reconciling Wildlife Management's Conflicted Purpose With a Land Community Worldview

ABSTRACT To reach its potential wildlife management needs a coherent purpose. Traditional divisions between science, society, and nature, however, create conflicts between responsibility to science, the public, and nature. These divisions emerged as early as Plato's (400 BC) allegory of the cave. In Plato's allegory human society existed inside a cave formed by its own delusions, and a philosopher or scientist could leave the cave and apprehend reality in nature. Wildlife management's simultaneous responsibility to public preferences, objective truth, and biotic integrity provides the foundation for a conservation worldview capable of transcending the divisions embodied in Plato's allegory. In this paper we deconstruct the conflicted worldview standing on that foundation and describe a land community-based worldview for wildlife management that could replace it. The transition from traditional views of science, society, and nature to a land community worldview requires 1) changing scientific stewardship from seeking objective truth to seeking credible truth, 2) changing political stewardship from following societal dictates to representing wildlife within the land community, and 3) changing ethical stewardship from protecting biotic integrity to fighting permanent closure of land community boundaries. Adopting a land community worldview for wildlife management requires relinquishing the illusion of absolute objectivity and a fall from status as neutral arbiters of knowledge but provides a means for honorably seeking reliable knowledge, serving the public and respecting the land community.     

基于熵值法的我国野生动物资源可持续发展研究

在构建我国野生动物资源可持续发展指标体系、采用熵值法确定各指标权重的基础上,研究了野生动物及栖息地的保护与资源经济协调发展情况,分析了野生动物资源可持续发展的总体运行趋势.结果表明:(1) 2001-2009年,我国野生动物及栖息地保护综合指数、资源经济综合指数和社会进步综合指数总体呈上升趋势.(2)2001-2005年、2007-2009年,野生动物及栖息地保护与资源经济的协调发展度值在0.14-0.35之间,整体协调发展水平较低,属于失调衰退类;2006年的协调发展度值为0.45,处于保护与利用协调发展的过渡阶段.(3)野生动物资源可持续发展水平呈上升趋势,但总体水平不高,2001-2005年的可持续发展综合指数在0.15-0.31之间,属于传统较落后的发展阶段,2007、2008年的可持续发展综合指数分别为0.45和0.47,属于传统较落后的发展阶段;2006年、2009年的可持续发展综合指数分别为0.55和0.56,实现了由传统发展向可持续发展的过渡.     

Land use designation and vegetation community structure in the Adirondack uplands (New York,USA)

Question: Does forest vegetation community structure reflect legislative land use designations? Location: Adirondack Park, New York, USA. Methods: The Adirondack Park, located in northern New York State, is a mixture of public and private lands, with state‐owned Forest Preserve lands comprising ca. 42% of the 2.4 million ha, on which timber harvesting and many other forms of anthropogenic disturbance are prohibited. A survey of vegetation communities was conducted in eighteen upland catchments with differing land use history (managed and Forest Preserve), including overstory, understory, and dead wood (snags and downed woody debris) using randomly placed plots. Results: Mean overstory density and basal area were not significantly different between land uses, although mean overstory tree size was greater in Preserve catchments. Sapling densities were greater in managed catchments, while mean herb/shrub coverage was not affected by land use. Densities of 25% of common species were affected by land use, determined by GIS coverages constructed using an Inverse Distance Weighted estimation procedure. Discriminant Analysis of per‐plot plant community data correctly classified 89% of both managed and Preserve plots. Conclusion: The success of the Discriminant Analysis in classifying land uses based on vegetation communities indicates its potential utility of this method in comparing forest vegetation to a reference condition in this and other areas. The analysis suggests that at least 85 years is required for Adirondack up‐land catchments to recover following harvesting. Uncertainty in classification was related to heterogenous management and disturbance patterns within catchments.     

Pastoralism and conservation

Traditional subsistence pastoralists are often seen as causing environmental degradation through overgrazing, and are also seen as responsible for a decline in wildlife numbers through resource competition and habitat change. This paper investigates recent ideas on the interaction of pastoralism and conservation that question the validity of the concepts of overstocking and overgrazing as applied to arid and semiarid rangelands. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a Maasai pastoralist/wildlife conservation joint land use area in northern Tanzania, shows no clear signs of pastoralist-induced environmental degradation despite a preoccupation with this possibility by successive administrations. Ecological studies together with other considerations suggest that joint land use works to the long-term benefit of both pastoralism and conservation in this and other areas.     

Inadequate community engagement hamstrings sustainable wildlife resource management in Zambia

We propose improvements for addressing the inadequate sustainable use of wildlife resources in the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme in game management areas (GMAs) using case study data from Mumbwa and Lupande GMAs in Zambia. Firstly, we assess the sustainability of wildlife resources in these GMAs using design principles for enduring common pool institutions. Secondly, we propose the steps required to address the lack of sustainability of wildlife resources in the CBNRM programme in the two GMAs by building on indicators suggested by Ostrom's principles. The resource use patterns in the two GMAs were assessed according to their socio-economic and institutional factors. Comparisons were made between the two GMAs in relation to Ostrom's design principles. Accordingly, the combination of socio-economic and institutional factors restrains the sustainable use of wildlife resources in the two GMAs. Unless the Zambian government provides local communities with meaningful decision-making powers and benefits for the utilisation and management of wildlife, this resource is likely to disappear outside national parks.     

Why conservationists should be concerned about natural resource legislation affecting indigenous peoples’ rights: lessons from Peninsular Malaysia

For conservation to be effective in forests with indigenous peoples, there needs to be greater recognition of indigenous customary rights, particularly with regards to their use of natural resources. Ideally, legislation regulating the use of natural resources should include provisions for the needs of both indigenous peoples and biodiversity. In reality, however, legislative weaknesses often exist and these can result in negative impacts, either on indigenous peoples’ livelihoods, their surrounding biodiversity, or both. Here, our case study demonstrates why conservationists need to pay greater attention to natural resource legislation affecting indigenous peoples’ rights. Apart from examining relevant laws for ambiguities that may negatively affect biodiversity and livelihoods of indigenous people in Peninsular Malaysia (known as the Orang Asli), we also provide supporting information on actual resource use based on questionnaire surveys. In order to address these ambiguities, we propose possible legislative reconciliation to encourage policy reform. Although there are positive examples of conservationists elsewhere adopting a more inclusive and participatory approach by considering the needs of indigenous peoples, greater recognition must be afforded to land and indigenous rights within natural resource laws for the benefit of indigenous peoples and biodiversity.     

Zimbabwe's wildlife conservation regime: Rural farmers and the state

This article examines the rhino and elephant conservation policies of Zimbabwe, focusing on the historical experiences of rural farmers with colonial and post-colonial wildlife policies. It begins by defining the social and political ramifications of the current environmental conservation debate in Africa, and how these are crucially affected by rural people's perceptions of environmental goods. Next, the paper explores the exploitative colonial legacy of wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe, and how that legacy has or has not been transformed since independence. The paper pays close attention to the development of linkages between rural farmers, local conservation NGOs, and local and national governmental bodies. Finally, the paper finds that, while many positive linkages have been made between conservation authorities and rural farmers and ranchers in elephant conservation programs, few such linkages have been made in the various rhino conservation schemes. Since Zimbabwe has been relatively successful in conserving its elephant population, but relatively unsuccessful in stopping rhino poaching, the paper concludes that the development of positive linkages between rural farmers and the state, which include heavy doses of popular participation at the grassroots level, is crucial for any successful natural resource policy.