The interactions between humans and mammals in Africa in relation to conservation: a review

Most human-mammal interactions are detrimental to wild mammals. In Africa, mammalian population numbers and the geographical distribution of many species have been reduced due to hunting, pastoralism, habitat modification and disease control. The importance of each of these factors depends on the species, its location and habitat, and density of the human population. In contrast, some small- and medium-sized species have benefited from human activities, and there has been an increase in the population numbers of some species in well-managed and well-protected conservation areas. There appears to be a strong negative correlation (at least for some well-studied species) between density of humans and density of mammals. Recently, several African countries, notably in southern Africa, have developed the principle of integrated rural development in which local people are involved in the planning and administration of their traditional lands. Managed conservation areas are an integral part of good land-use policies. Surveys indicate that most Africans living close to conservation areas, especially those with a higher level of education, understand and support the ideals of conservation; nevertheless it is important that the benefits of conservation and integrated development (such as money, jobs, and food) directly benefit the local people. Conservation of mammals (and all other species) in Africa in the future will only succeed if there is participation at the grass roots level, better food production in designated agricultural areas, reduction in the rate of increase of human populations, stabilization of human densities, and active programmes of conservation education.     

Do local communities support the conservation of endangered Przewalski’s gazelle?

Understanding local attitudes and opinion is vital to the success of conservation programs, especially in areas of expanding human populations such as China. Przewalski’s gazelle (Procapra przewalskii) is an endangered ungulate found only in the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The gazelle is a conservation focus; however, little is known regarding how this animal is perceived by local people. To understand the relationship between demography, levels of conservation knowledge, and attitudes, we conducted 174 interviewer-led surveys in villages located inside, near, and away from the gazelle’s home ranges around Qinghai Lake, China. About half of the interviewees were aware of gazelle conservation. No more than half of the interviewees were aware that grassland fence, livestock, roads, and wolves negatively impact upon gazelle. On the whole, the majority of interviewees supported the conservation of gazelle. There were high levels of support for both establishing a special protected area and investing more funds in conservation but very few interviewees reported personal benefits from gazelle conservation. Overall attitude of interviewees toward the gazelle differed significantly among regions and people living near the range of gazelle were the most positive. Interviewees with conservation information were more positive than interviewees lacking such information. People who had more education or possessed more grassland had more positive attitudes toward the gazelle. This study suggests that greater communication is needed with local people. Programs that promote public engagement and participation are required for the conservation of Przewalski’s gazelle and other larger herbivores on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.     

Rural change and nature conservation in Africa: A case study from Swaziland

High population growth and deteriorating economic conditions imperil Africa's natural environment. Conservationists are trying to cope with the threat by working in rural communities. Yet it is unclear whether they can be effective when social and economic change in rural areas is so rapid. Northeast Swaziland provides a case study. The landscape has been transformed since the 1950s, and conservationists are the only people now giving nature conservation a high priority. Land uses incompatible with local nature reserves are supported because they provide jobs. Thus, conservationists find themselves facing a world where wildlife is increasingly devalued as the forces of change accelerate. This paper concludes: (1) conservationists must expand their influence into rural communities, (2) an integrated development and conservation plan is required for northeastern Swaziland, and (3) only the alleviation of poverty will secure the future of nature conservation in Swaziland as well as the rest of Africa.     

Conflicting human interests over the re-introduction of endangered wild dogs in South Africa

In South Africa, a plan was launched to manage separate sub-populations of endangered African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in several small, geographically isolated, conservation areas as a single meta-population. This intensive management approach involves the re-introduction of wild dogs into suitable conservation areas and periodic translocations among them. To assess the attitudes towards re-introduced wild dogs, we conducted a questionnaire survey of multiple stakeholders—local community members, private landowners and tourists—in and around Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP), one of the meta-population conservation areas. Here, we document conflicting human interests over the re-introduced wild dogs. Tourists in HiP, on the one hand, expressed overwhelmingly positive opinions about wild dogs across personal details of the respondents, but especially after having seen free-ranging wild dogs. On the other hand, we found misconceptions and perceptions that were more negative among the rural population around HiP, again largely independent of personal details of the participants, although educated respondents voiced more favourable views of wild dogs. These negative attitudes were in particular due to perceived and real threats of livestock losses. In a follow-up questionnaire survey, we also discovered apparent shortcomings of a previous short-lived conservation education programme among the local communities adjacent to HiP. Consequently, the mitigation of the conflict between wild dogs and rural people requires an understanding of the conditions under which livestock predation occurs, the encouragement of practices that prevent such predation, and increasing local tolerance of co-existence with wild dogs through both economic and non-monetary incentive schemes as well as continued conservation education.     

Priority areas for the conservation of South African vegetation: a coarse-filter approach

Abstract.  South Africa has an important responsibility to global biodiversity conservation, but a largely inadequate conservation area network for addressing this responsibility. This study employs a coarse-filter approach based on 68 potential vegetation units to identify areas that are largely transformed, degraded or impacted upon by road-effects. The assessment highlights broad vegetation types that face high biodiversity losses currently or in the near future due to human impacts. Most vegetation types contain large tracts of natural vegetation, with little degradation, transformation or impacts from road networks. Regions in the grasslands, fynbos and forest biomes are worst affected. Very few of the vegetation types are adequately protected according to the IUCN's 10% protected area conservation target, with the fynbos and savanna biomes containing a few vegetation types that do achieve this arbitrary goal. This investigation identifies areas where limited conservation resources should be concentrated by identifying vegetation types with high levels of anthropogenic land use threats and associated current and potential biodiversity loss.     

Urban indicators for UK butterflies

Most people live in urban environments and there is a need to produce abundance indices to assist policy and management of urban greenspaces and gardens. While regional indices are produced, with the exception of birds, studies of the differences between urban and rural areas are rare. We explore these differences for UK butterflies, with the intention to describe changes that are relevant to people living in urban areas, in order to better connect people with nature in support of conservation, provide a measure relevant to human well-being, and assess the biodiversity status of the urban environment.Transects walked under the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme are classified as urban or rural, using a classification for urban morphological zones. We use models from the Generalised Abundance Index family to produce urban and rural indices of relative abundance for UK butterfly species. Composite indices are constructed for various subsets of species. For univoltine and bivoltine species, where we are able to fit phenomenological models, we estimate measures of phenology and identify urban/rural differences. Trends in relative abundance over the period 1995–2014 are more negative in urban areas compared to rural areas for 25 out of 28 species. For the composite indices, all trends are negative, and they are significantly more negative for urban areas than for rural areas. Analysis of phenological parameters shows butterflies tend to emerge earlier in urban than in rural areas. In addition, some fly longer in urban than in rural areas, whereas in other cases the opposite is the case, and hypotheses are proposed to account for these features.Investigating new urban/rural indicators has revealed national declines that are stronger for urban areas. For continued monitoring, there is a need for an urban butterfly indicator, and for this to be evaluated and reported annually. We explain how this may be interpreted, and the relevance for other monitoring schemes. The results of this paper, including the phenological findings, shed new light on the potentially deleterious effects of urbanisation and climate change, which require suitable monitoring and reporting to support policy and management, for example of urban greenspaces and gardens.     

Evidence of a High Density Population of Harvested Leopards in a Montane Environment

Populations of large carnivores can persist in mountainous environments following extensive land use change and the conversion of suitable habitat for agriculture and human habitation in lower lying areas of their range. The significance of these populations is poorly understood, however, and little attention has focussed on why certain mountainous areas can hold high densities of large carnivores and what the conservation implications of such populations might be. Here we use the leopard (Panthera pardus) population in the western Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa, as a model system and show that montane habitats can support high numbers of leopards. Spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) analysis recorded the highest density of leopards reported outside of state-protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa. This density represents a temporally high local abundance of leopards and we explore the explanations for this alongside some of the potential conservation implications.     

Rural and Urban Students’ Perceptions of and Attitudes toward Brown Bears in Turkey

Many studies have examined adults’ perceptions of and attitudes toward large carnivores to assess human–wildlife conflict and inform conservation strategies, but there have been few studies concerning children. I studied secondary school students’ perceptions of and attitudes toward brown bears (Ursus arctos) and other large mammals in Turkey via a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire, consisting of 18 questions, was completed by 215 rural and 98 urban secondary school students. Both sets of students liked bears; they were also afraid of them and unsure about living with them in the future. While there were no gender differences in attitudes and perceptions, there were marked differences between urban and rural students. Urban students had less contact with nature, gained more of their knowledge about bears from documentaries, and had less positive attitudes toward bears. They were also more likely to be afraid of species not present in Turkey, for example, anaconda, while rural students were most afraid of wild boars. Factor analysis identified three important themes: familiarity with bears, conservation of bears, and experiencing conflict with bears, which explained 49.8% of the variance in attitudes toward bears. The most important factor for the development of negative attitudes toward bears was personal experience of human–bear conflict, suggesting that measures to reduce human–bear conflict in rural areas may help to sustain students’ positive attitudes toward the conservation of bears.     

Biogeography in the life and literature of John Muir: a ceaseless search for pattern

John Muir has long been known as a significant figure in the history of conservation, including for promoting the recognition of the Yosemite Valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California as a national park by the American people and government. Muir is known particularly for his pivotal involvement in the establishment of the Sierra Club, one of North America’s leading conservation associations. His place in the history of biogeography has been largely unrecognized, although a reading of his books shows that there is a rich seam of innovative historical and ecological biogeographical ideas resulting from his many years living in the Sierras. Added to Muir’s interests in the Sierra Mountains and the Sierra Club were his explorations of the mountain ranges and forests of Alaska, as well as his near world‐wide travels to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific. The literature on biogeography has remained very largely isolated from Muir’s writing, a dissociation that the present paper seeks to remedy.     

Nature conservation at the edge

Currently, there is an increasing need for evidence-based strategies in nature conservation, for example when designing and establishing nature reserves. In this contribution, we critically assess the ecological relevance of recent nature conservation practices in Kenya (East Africa), a region of global biodiversity hotspots. More specifically, we overlay the distribution of species richness (here based on mammals, birds, amphibians and vascular plants) with the location of nature reserves, the Kenyan agro-ecological zones (areas representing diverging agricultural potentials), and with the spatial distribution of human population density. Our analyses indicate that the majority of protected areas are located in areas with comparatively low species richness, while areas with extraordinary high levels of species richness are not adequately covered by nature reserves. Areas of high agricultural productivity (and with high human demographic pressure) are mainly reserved for high-yield agriculture; however, these regions are also characterised by high species richness. The majority of nature reserves are restricted to the semi-arid regions of Kenya, marginal for agricultural usage, but also with low levels of species richness. Based on this analysis, we prioritize areas for future protection. This single-country case illustrates that agricultural production in high-yield areas outweighs nature conservation goals, even in global biodiversity hotspot regions, and that priority setting may conflict with effective nature conservation.     

Conservation Heroes Versus Environmental Villains: Perceiving Elephants in Caprivi,Namibia

This article investigates the impact of transnational environmental organizations on rural people involved in conservation by exploring the impacts of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) ivory trade ban on Namibia’s elephant conservation policy. This case study examines how rural African people are put into categories of ‘conservation heroes’ or ‘environmental villains’ by local conservation practitioners, government officials in Namibia and transnational conservation actors. Findings indicate that the approach of state officials and conservation organizations (CO) results in incomplete representations of both rural African people and the cultural importance these people attach to elephants. The article concludes that current environmental narratives associated with rural African people have been used as powerful ‘tools of persuasion’ at the state and international level to support and legitimate conservation policy and resource use in relation to the concerns of transnational environmental actors to the exclusion of rural African people.     

Local people value environmental services provided by forested parks

Garnering support from local people is critical for maintaining ecologically viable and functional protected areas. However, empirical data illustrating local people’s awareness of the importance of nature’s services is limited; hence possibly impeding effective ecosystem (environmental)-services based conservation efforts. Using data from five protected forests in four developing Southeast Asian countries, we provide evidence that local people living near parks value a wide range of environmental services, including cultural, provisioning, and regulating services, provided by the forests. Local people with longer residency valued environmental services more. Educated as well as poor people valued forest ecosystem services more. Conservation education has some influence on people’s environmental awareness. For conservation endeavors to be successful, large-scale transmigration programs should be avoided and local people must be provided with alternative sustenance opportunities and basic education in addition to environmental outreach to reduce their reliance on protected forests and to enhance conservation support.     

The Policy Terrain in Protected Area Landscapes: Challenges for Agroforestry in Integrated Landscape Conservation

Integrated ecosystem and landscape approaches to conservation are moving from concept to practice in many parts of the developing world. Agroforestry – the deliberate management of trees on farms and in agricultural landscapes – is emerging as one of the most promising approaches to enhance and stabilize rural livelihoods, while reducing pressure on protected areas, enhancing habitat for some wild species, and increasing connectivity of landscape components. For the potential of agroforestry to be effectively harnessed, however, the policy and institutional environment needs to provide farmers with clear incentives to plant and protect trees that contribute to both ecosystem function and rural livelihoods. This paper analyzes the policy terrain affecting agroforestry around protected areas in five very different contexts across Sub-Saharan Africa, finding both expected and unexpected similarities. Across the sites in Uganda, Cameroon and Mali, the study revealed a rough policy terrain for agroforestry – systemic market constraints, contradictions between development approaches and conservation objectives, and inconsistencies in institutional and regulatory frameworks. Making the conservation landscape approach more effective will require that both agriculturalists and conservation planners have much greater appreciation for the conservation and livelihood potential of agroforestry.     

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.     

Vascular plant and bryophytes species representation in the protected areas network on the national scale

The complexity of nature conservation raises questions about biodiversity protection at the level of species as well as their spatial distribution between differently designated nature conservation areas. We have concentrated on comparison of the existing protected areas and recently established conservation initiative areas—Important Plant Areas. We have estimated how well these areas support the protection of two plant groups—bryophytes and vascular plants. We sought answers to the following questions: (a) are there any trends in the distribution of protected bryophyte and vascular plant species in the protected areas network, and (b) does the Important Plant Areas network promote better protection of bryophyte species compared with the existing protected areas network. Our results demonstrated that bryophytes need special care in nature conservation decisions to reach the reasonable conservation target. Important Plant Areas that were targeted to vascular plants have less importance in preserving bryophyte diversity than already existing conservation areas system. Conservation programs like IBA, IPA etc. have their specific tool and outcome to add conservation values to the existing protected areas system.     

The first range-wide assessment of Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis distribution

The Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis exemplifies a case in conservation research in which a species is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and the resulting consideration of low conservation priority has precluded proper scientific study. As a first step in understanding this stork’s true status, we collated all available data to develop a distribution map and then investigated range-wide patterns of occurrence. The updated map greatly improves on past knowledge of the stork’s distribution and helps to identify regions where range contractions have occurred, particularly in Central Africa and parts of West Africa. We found that the stork’s distribution closely overlaps with protected areas and that there has been an overall increase in surface water (largely manmade water bodies)—a proxy for habitat—across the species’ extent of occurrence in recent decades. While this research represents a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Saddle-billed Stork, it also highlights the need for unbiased empirical data, especially from areas that are poorly surveyed, for developing a science-based conservation status assessment.     

Striking a balance: socioeconomic development and conservation in grassland through community-based zoning

The goal of preserving nature is often in conflict with economic development and the aspirations of the rural poor. Nowhere is this more striking than in native grasslands, which have been extensively converted until a mere fraction of their original extent remains. This is not surprising; grasslands flourish in places coveted by humans, primed for agriculture, plantations, and settlements that nearly always trump conservation efforts. The Umgano grassland conservation and poverty reduction project in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa uses community-based spatial planning to balance the conversion of its lower-conservation value grasslands to a timber plantation, while conserving higher-value grasslands for heritage purposes and managed livestock grazing. Ten years after project launch, we measured the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of the project using Normalized Differential Vegetation Index remote sensing data and over 500 household interviews, as compared with similar non-conserved areas. Zoned management of the Umgano area had resulted in between 9% and 17% greater average peak production in the grassland areas compared to control sites. There was also a 21% gain in incomes for the roughly one hundred people employed by the forestry efforts, when compared to others in their village. Community-based spatial zoning is an overlooked tool for balancing conservation and development but may require, as we found in Umgano, certain critical factors including strong local leadership, an accountable financial management mechanism to distribute income, outside technical expertise for the zoning design, and community support.     

Economic incentives for conservation: beekeeping and Saturniidae caterpillar utilization by rural communities

The economic viability of the wildlife based enterprises (bee-keeping and caterpillar utilization) in Malawi is discussed in relation to conventional agricultural enterprises (maize, beans and ground-nuts). A strong incentive emerges for rural people to adopt wildlife management as an adjunct to subsistence agriculture, and therefore, to promote conservation of natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats in the face of growing human population and demand for land. Dependence on agriculture has depleted the wildlife resource outside protected areas and has been less effective in improving the wealth and living standards of most rural people. This study illustrates that the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife needs to introduce economic incentives that integrate biological conservation with economic development for the rural people. The management programme involves the adoption of a rotation burning policy that promotes vegetation coppicing, eases harvesting and promotes high caterpillar yields.     

Stakeholder Perceptions of the Impacts of Rural Funding Scenarios on Mountain Landscapes Across Europe

This article examines how alternative rural funding scenarios might influence the pattern of functional land types in mountain areas. The study aims were to explore the use of stakeholders to predict landscape change and to provide a future policy context for other papers in the Carbomont program. EU rural funding policies could have a strong influence on land use and landscapes in mountain areas. At eight sites across Europe, groups of local stakeholders were asked to compare the possible effects of three contrasting funding scenarios over an imagined period of 20 years on (1) the importance of the main land-use sectors; (2) the areas of the main land functional land types; and (3) the management of individual land types. Stakeholders also listed their interests in the area to help define the perspective of the group. The protocols used were ranking and scoring procedures that permitted quantification of changes and of the degree of consensus within the group. The scenarios were (1) continuation of current rural funding (status quo), (2) rapid reduction of farm income support (reduce support), and (3) increasing rural diversification funding (diversification). The eight countries sampled included five established EU members (UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain), two new accession members (Czeck Republic and Slovakia), and Switzerland. There were predicted to be widespread reductions in the importance of the agricultural sector across Europe and increases in the transport, built environment, and tourism sectors. In general, the status quo scenario was perceived to be unsatisfactory in various respects, reduce support was worse, but diversification offered opportunities for conservation and development of mountain communities and land use. Changes in the areas of land types would mainly involve loss of arable and grazing land and increases in scrub, and settlements. Some elements of the landscape such as most forests, mountain tops, and wetlands would, however, be little affected by any of the scenarios. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Urbanicity and Lifestyle Risk Factors for Cardiometabolic Diseases in Rural Uganda: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background

Urban living is associated with unhealthy lifestyles that can increase the risk of cardiometabolic diseases. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where the majority of people live in rural areas, it is still unclear if there is a corresponding increase in unhealthy lifestyles as rural areas adopt urban characteristics. This study examines the distribution of urban characteristics across rural communities in Uganda and their associations with lifestyle risk factors for chronic diseases.

Methods and Findings

Using data collected in 2011, we examined cross-sectional associations between urbanicity and lifestyle risk factors in rural communities in Uganda, with 7,340 participants aged 13 y and above across 25 villages. Urbanicity was defined according to a multi-component scale, and Poisson regression models were used to examine associations between urbanicity and lifestyle risk factors by quartile of urbanicity. Despite all of the villages not having paved roads and running water, there was marked variation in levels of urbanicity across the villages, largely attributable to differences in economic activity, civil infrastructure, and availability of educational and healthcare services. In regression models, after adjustment for clustering and potential confounders including socioeconomic status, increasing urbanicity was associated with an increase in lifestyle risk factors such as physical inactivity (risk ratio [RR]: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.24), low fruit and vegetable consumption (RR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.23), and high body mass index (RR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.24, 1.77).

Conclusions

This study indicates that even across rural communities in SSA, increasing urbanicity is associated with a higher prevalence of lifestyle risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases. This finding highlights the need to consider the health impact of urbanization in rural areas across SSA. Please see later in the article for the Editors'' Summary