Protection of Wildlife

Population pressure and agriculture encroachment on natural ecosystems is increasing rapidly in many countries, threatening wildlife. Livestock farming or agricultural activity often requires prior transformation of natural land and leads to progressive deterioration of wild animal habitats and the reduction of indigenous animal and plant biodiversity. | Policy Pressures and Policy Options Technology Options

A large proportion of wild animals live in unprotected areas. For example, it is recognised 70% of the big mammals in Kenya live outside reserves. Areas of extensive livestock ranching are equally suitable as habitats for wildlife: protection of the biodiversity should also occur in unprotected areas.

Protected areas are expensive, not always economically sustainable, not always easily accepted or respected by neighbouring rural people, and consequently cause conflicts.

However, economic exploitation and conservation of natural habitats are not incompatible. They may be achieved simultaneously by proper management of wild animal populations. Utilisation combining livestock and wildlife has many advantages because the wild species are locally adapted and the farmers find it advantageous to diversify activities and productions.

The conventional approach to rural development has been to promote increased agricultural production of cattle and cereal crops but in the arid and semi-arid areas in which many communities live, results are often disappointing. Intensified efforts in this sector have not managed to release communities on marginal lands from the subsistence existence, forcing a paradigm shift in thinking concerning the most appropriate way to achieve sustainable development on marginal lands. Increasingly, for example in sub-Saharan Africa, in line with the Agenda 21, development efforts are being based on indigenous resources and knowledge in which existing but hitherto undervalued management systems and resources are being included within the development process - resulting in a more holistic approach towards attainment of sustainable livelihoods.

Many marginal areas are in fact resource rich, but not in conventional terms. Once we look beyond the usual preoccupation with agriculture and include wildlife a whole new range of development opportunities and options present themselves.

Indigenous natural resources including wild species, unquestionably have significant value, but in the great majority of locations this has not been fully realised in development terms at the community level. At the national level, wildlife populations, national parks and tourism are recognised as important for economic growth, but attention has rarely been given to the extension of benefits to rural people who live side by side with wildlife. In many countries in Africa, and in southern Africa in particular, governments, NGOs and communities, together with international supporters have initiated multidisciplinary programmes of community development. One of the main elements of this approach include broadening of the resource base from cattle and crops, adding the possibility of using wild species, landscapes and cultures to generate income through controlled use of common property resources. Similar approaches are also underway in other parts of the world, although largely due to more abundant wildlife populations the majority of examples and initiatives come from Africa, especially southern Africa.

Success in this approach critically hinges on changes in policy and legislation towards resource tenure and access, as part of a decentralisation and democratisation process.

See Also

The Nature of Traditional Farmland: European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism. http://www.efncp.org/farm_uk/farm_nat.html

Traditional Mixed Farming: European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism. http://www.efncp.org/farm_uk/farming2.html

Farming on the Edge. European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism. http://www.efncp.org/farm_uk/farm_edge.html

Distribution of Traditional Farmland in Europe. European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism. http://www.efncp.org/farm_uk/farm_distrb.html

FAO publications on Biological Diversity, Wildlife and Protected Areas. http://www.fao.org/sd/epdirect/EPre0010.htm

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