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Strawberry or red leopards are a rare colour morph of leopard (Panthera pardus) characterised by spot markings that are red or brown instead of black, thought to be a result of a mutation in the tyrosinase-related protein (TYRP1) gene. We report the first record of this phenotype on the African continent outside of South Africa, from Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania. One female leopard with strawberry colouration was documented out of 373 individual leopards (0.3%) identified through camera trap surveys conducted from 2020 to 2022 over a combined area of more than 4600 km2 in the Nyerere-Selous landscape.
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Fierce international debates rage over whether trophy hunting is socially acceptable, especially when people from the Global North hunt well-known animals in sub-Saharan Africa. We used an online vignette experiment to investigate public perceptions of the acceptability of trophy hunting in sub-Saharan Africa among people who live in urban areas of the USA, UK and South Africa. Acceptability depended on specific attributes of different hunts as well as participants' characteristics. Zebra hunts were more acceptable than elephant hunts, hunts that would provide meat to local people were more acceptable than hunts in which meat would be left for wildlife, and hunts in which revenues would support wildlife conservation were more acceptable than hunts in which revenues would support either economic development or hunting enterprises. Acceptability was generally lower among participants from the UK and those who more strongly identified as an animal protectionist, but higher among participants with more formal education, who more strongly identified as a hunter, or who would more strongly prioritize people over wild animals. Overall, acceptability was higher when hunts would produce tangible benefits for local people, suggesting that members of three urban publics adopt more pragmatic positions than are typically evident in polarized international debates.
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Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Elefantes , Animales , Humanos , Animales Salvajes , Caza , Opinión Pública , EquidaeRESUMEN
Interspecific interactions can be a key driver of habitat use, and must be accounted for in conservation planning. However, spatial partitioning between African carnivores, and how this varies with scale, remains poorly understood. Furthermore, most studies have taken place within small or highly protected areas, rather than in the heterogeneous, mixed-use landscapes characteristic of much of modern Africa. Here, we provide one of the first empirical investigations into population-level competitive interactions among an African large carnivore guild. We collected detection/non-detection data for an eastern African large carnivore guild in Tanzania's Ruaha-Rungwa conservation landscape, over an area of ~45,000 km2. We then applied conditional co-occupancy models to investigate co-occurrence between lion, leopard, and African wild dog, at two biologically meaningful scales. Co-occurrence patterns of cheetah and spotted hyaena could not be modelled. After accounting for habitat and detection effects, we found some evidence of wild dog avoidance of lion at the home range scale, and strong evidence of fine-scale avoidance. We found no evidence of interspecific exclusion of leopard by lion; rather, positive associations were observed at both scales, suggesting shared habitat preferences. We found little evidence of leopard habitat use being affected by wild dog. Our findings also reveal some interspecific effects on species detection, at both scales. In most cases, habitat use was driven more strongly by other habitat effects, such as biotic resources or anthropogenic pressures, than by interspecific pressures, even where evidence of the latter was present. Overall, our results help shed light on interspecific effects within an assemblage that has rarely been examined at this scale. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of sign-based co-occurrence modelling to describe interspecific spatial patterns of sympatric large carnivores across large scales. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for large carnivore conservation in modern African systems.
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Canidae , Carnívoros , Hyaenidae , Leones , Panthera , Animales , EcosistemaRESUMEN
African large carnivores have undergone significant range and population declines over recent decades. Although conservation planning and the management of threatened species requires accurate assessments of population status and monitoring of trends, there is evidence that biodiversity monitoring may not be evenly distributed or occurring where most needed. Here, we provide the first systematic review of African large carnivore population assessments published over the last two decades (2000-2020), to investigate trends in research effort and identify knowledge gaps. We used generalised linear models (GLMs) and generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) to identify taxonomic and geographical biases, and investigated biases associated with land use type and author nationality. Research effort was significantly biased towards lion (Panthera leo) and against striped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena), despite the latter being the species with the widest continental range. African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) also exhibited a negative bias in research attention, although this was partly explained by its relatively restricted distribution. The number of country assessments for a species was significantly positively associated with its geographic range in that country. Population assessments were biased towards southern and eastern Africa, particularly South Africa and Kenya. Northern, western, and central Africa were generally under-represented. Most studies were carried out in photographic tourism protected areas under government management, while non-protected and trophy hunting areas received less attention. Outside South Africa, almost half of studies (41%) did not include authors from the study country, suggesting that significant opportunities exist for capacity building in range states. Overall, large parts of Africa remain under-represented in the literature, and opportunities exist for further research on most species and in most countries. We develop recommendations for actions aimed at overcoming the identified biases and provide researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with priorities to help inform future research and monitoring agendas.
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Canidae , Carnívoros , Hyaenidae , Leones , Animales , Especies en Peligro de Extinción , SudáfricaRESUMEN
Large carnivores increasingly inhabit human-affected landscapes, which exhibit heterogeneity in biotic resources, anthropogenic pressures, and management strategies. Understanding large carnivore habitat use in these systems is critical for their conservation, as is the evaluation of competing management approaches and the impacts of significant land-use changes. We used occupancy modeling to investigate habitat use of an intact eastern African large carnivore guild across the 45,000 km2 Ruaha-Rungwa landscape in south-central Tanzania. We determined the relative impact on five large carnivore species of biotic, anthropogenic, and management factors at the scales of home range selection and short-term use within home ranges. We also specifically tested the effect of abandonment of trophy hunting areas on large carnivore occurrence. Patterns of habitat use differed among species. Lions (Panthera leo) appeared affected by top-down limitation, as their occurrence was significantly negatively associated with illegal human activity (ß = -0.63 [SE 0.28]). African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), instead, were limited by biotic features; the species was negatively associated with riverine areas of high sympatric predator density (ß = -1.00 [SE 0.43]) and used less-productive habitats. Spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) and leopard (Panthera pardus) persisted in more disturbed areas and across habitat types. Large carnivore occurrence was not affected by whether an area was used for photographic or trophy hunting tourism; regular law enforcement was instead a better predictor of occurrence. All species fared better in actively managed hunting areas than those that had been abandoned by operators. Overall, our findings highlight the divergent habitat requirements within large carnivore guilds and the importance of adopting an integrated approach to large carnivore conservation planning in modern systems. We also identified a novel threat to African conservation areas in the form of decreased management investments associated with the abandonment of trophy hunting areas.
Uso de Hábitat y Amenazas para los Grandes Carnívoros de África en un Paisaje de Uso Mixto Resumen Cada vez más, los grandes carnívoros habitan paisajes afectados por los humanos, los cuales presentan heterogeneidad en los recursos bióticos, las presiones antropogénicas y las estrategias de manejo. El conocimiento sobre cómo usan el hábitat los grandes carnívoros en estos sistemas es crucial para su conservación, como lo es la evaluación de las estrategias competitivas de manejo y los impactos de los cambios significativos en el uso de suelo. Usamos modelos de ocupación para investigar el uso de hábitat por parte de un gremio intacto de grandes carnívoros en el este de África a lo largo de los 45,000 km2 del paisaje Ruaha-Rungwa en el centro-sur de Tanzania. Determinamos el impacto relativo que tienen los factores bióticos, antropogénicos y de manejo sobre cinco especies de grandes carnívoros a escala de selección de extensión doméstica y uso a corto plazo dentro de la extensión doméstica. También analizamos específicamente el efecto que tiene el abandono de las áreas de caza de trofeos sobre la presencia de los grandes carnívoros. Los patrones de uso de hábitat difirieron entre las especies. Los leones (Panthera leo) parecieron estar afectados por la limitación de arriba-abajo ya que su presencia estuvo asociada negativamente de manera importante con la actividad humana ilegal (ß = - 0.63 [SE 0.28]). El perro salvaje africano (Lycaon pictus) estuvo limitado por los elementos bióticos; la especie estuvo asociada negativamente con las áreas de alta densidad simpátrica de depredadores (ß = - 1.00 [SE 0.43]) y utilizó los hábitats menos productivos. La hiena moteada (Crocuta crocuta) y el leopardo (Panthera pardus) persistieron en áreas más perturbadas y en todos los tipos de hábitat. La presencia de los grandes carnívoros no se vio afectada si el área se usaba para caza de trofeos o turismo fotográfico; la aplicación regular de la ley fue un mejor pronóstico de la presencia. A todas las especies les fue mejor en las áreas de caza con gestión activa que en aquellas abandonadas por los operadores. En general, nuestros descubrimientos resaltan los distintos requerimientos de hábitat dentro de los gremios de grandes carnívoros y la importancia de adoptar un enfoque integrado para la planeación de la conservación de estas especies en los sistemas modernos. También identificamos una amenaza nueva para las áreas de conservación africana a manera de inversiones de manejo disminuidas asociadas con el abandono de las áreas de caza de trofeos.
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Carnívoros , Leones , Panthera , Animales , Humanos , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Conducta Predatoria , EcosistemaRESUMEN
It is time to acknowledge and overcome conservation's deep-seated systemic racism, which has historically marginalized Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities and continues to do so. We describe how the mutually reinforcing 'twin spheres' of conservation science and conservation practice perpetuate this systemic racism. We trace how institutional structures in conservation science (e.g. degree programmes, support and advancement opportunities, course syllabuses) can systematically produce conservation graduates with partial and problematic conceptions of conservation's history and contemporary purposes. Many of these graduates go on to work in conservation practice, reproducing conservation's colonial history by contributing to programmes based on outmoded conservation models that disproportionately harm rural BIPOC communities and further restrict access and inclusion for BIPOC conservationists. We provide practical, actionable proposals for breaking vicious cycles of racism in the system of conservation we have with virtuous cycles of inclusion, equality, equity and participation in the system of conservation we want.
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Racismo , Humanos , Racismo SistemáticoRESUMEN
Africa is home to some of the world's most functionally diverse guilds of large carnivores. However, they are increasingly under threat from anthropogenic pressures that may exacerbate already intense intra-guild competition. Understanding the coexistence mechanisms employed by these species in human-impacted landscapes could help shed light on some of the more subtle ways in which humans may impact wildlife populations, and inform multi-species conservation planning. We used camera trap data from Tanzania's Ruaha-Rungwa landscape to explore temporal and spatiotemporal associations between members of an intact East African large carnivore guild, and determine how these varied across gradients of anthropogenic impact and protection. All large carnivores except African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) exhibited predominantly nocturnal road-travel behaviour. Leopard (Panthera pardus) appeared to employ minor temporal avoidance of lion (Panthera leo) in all sites except those where human impacts were highest, suggesting that leopard may have been freed up from avoidance of lion in areas where the dominant competitor was less abundant, or that the need for leopard to avoid humans outweighed the need to avoid sympatric competitors. Lion appeared to modify their activity patterns to avoid humans in the most impacted areas. We also found evidence of avoidance and attraction among large carnivores: lion and spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) followed leopard; leopard avoided lion; spotted hyaena followed lion; and lion avoided spotted hyaena. Our findings suggest that large carnivores in Ruaha-Rungwa employ fine-scale partitioning mechanisms to facilitate coexistence with both sympatric species and humans, and that growing human pressures may interfere with these behaviours.
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Animales Salvajes , Carnívoros , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales/métodos , Ecosistema , Animales , Humanos , TanzaníaRESUMEN
Compared to emblematic large carnivores, most species of the order Carnivora receive little conservation attention despite increasing anthropogenic pressure and poor understanding of their status across much of their range. We employed systematic camera trapping and spatially explicit capture-recapture modelling to estimate variation in population density of serval, striped hyaena and aardwolf across the mixed-use Ruaha-Rungwa landscape in southern Tanzania. We selected three sites representative of different habitat types, management strategies, and levels of anthropogenic pressure: Ruaha National Park's core tourist area, dominated by Acacia-Commiphora bushlands and thickets; the Park's miombo woodland; and the neighbouring community-run MBOMIPA Wildlife Management Area, also covered in Acacia-Commiphora. The Park's miombo woodlands supported a higher serval density (5.56 [Standard Error = ±2.45] individuals per 100 km2) than either the core tourist area (3.45 [±1.04] individuals per 100 km2) or the Wildlife Management Area (2.08 [±0.74] individuals per 100 km2). Taken together, precipitation, the abundance of apex predators, and the level of anthropogenic pressure likely drive such variation. Striped hyaena were detected only in the Wildlife Management Area and at low density (1.36 [±0.50] individuals per 100 km2), potentially due to the location of the surveyed sites at the edge of the species' global range, high densities of sympatric competitors, and anthropogenic edge effects. Finally, aardwolf were captured in both the Park's core tourist area and the Wildlife Management Area, with a higher density in the Wildlife Management Area (13.25 [±2.48] versus 9.19 [±1.66] individuals per 100 km2), possibly as a result of lower intraguild predation and late fire outbreaks in the area surveyed. By shedding light on three understudied African carnivore species, this study highlights the importance of miombo woodland conservation and community-managed conservation, as well as the value of by-catch camera trap data to improve ecological knowledge of lesser-studied carnivores.
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Carnívoros/fisiología , Ecosistema , Animales , Carnívoros/crecimiento & desarrollo , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Fotograbar , Densidad de Población , TanzaníaRESUMEN
Conflict with humans is one of the major threats facing the world's remaining large carnivore populations, and understanding human attitudes is key to improving coexistence. We surveyed people living near Hwange National Park about their attitudes toward coexisting with lions. We used ordinal regression models with the results of the survey to investigate the importance of a range of tangible and intangible factors on attitudes. The variables investigated included the costs and benefits of wildlife presence, emotion, culture, religion, vulnerability, risk perception, notions of responsibility, and personal value orientations. This was for the purpose of effectively tailoring conservation efforts but also for ethical policy making. Intangible factors (e.g., fear and ecocentric values) were as important as, if not more important than, tangible factors (such as livestock losses) for understanding attitudes, based on the effect sizes of these variables. The degree to which participants' fear of lions interfered with their daily activities was the most influential variable. The degree to which benefits accrue to households from the nearby protected area was also highly influential, as was number of livestock lost, number of dependents, ecocentric value orientation, and participation in conflict mitigation programs. Contrary to what is often assumed, metrics of livestock loss did not dominate attitudes to coexistence with lions. Furthermore, we found that socioeconomic variables may appear important when studied in isolation, but their effect may disappear when controlling for variables related to beliefs, perceptions, and past experiences. This raises questions about the widespread reliance on socioeconomic variables in the field of human-wildlife conflict and coexistence. To facilitate coexistence with large carnivores, we recommend measures that reduce fear (through education and through protective measures that reduce the need to be fearful), reduction of livestock losses, and ensuring local communities benefit from conservation. Ecocentric values also emerged as influential, highlighting the need to develop conservation initiatives tailored to local values.
Importancia de los Factores Tangibles e Intangibles en la Coexistencia Humanos-Carnívoros Resumen Los conflictos con humanos son una de las principales amenazas que enfrentan las poblaciones permanentes de grandes carnívoros del planeta y el entendimiento de las actitudes humanas es importante para mejorar la coexistencia. Preguntamos a las personas que viven cerca del Parque Nacional Hwange sobre su postura hacia la coexistencia con leones. Usamos modelos de regresión ordinal en los resultados del cuestionario para investigar la importancia de una gama de factores tangibles e intangibles para estas posturas. Las variables investigadas incluyeron el costo y beneficio de la presencia de fauna, emociones, cultura, religión, vulnerabilidad, percepción de riesgos, nociones de la responsabilidad y orientaciones de valor personal. Realizamos esto con el propósito de diseñar efectivamente los esfuerzos de conservación pero también para la generación de políticas éticas. Los factores intangibles (p. ej.: el miedo y los valores ecocéntricos) fueron tan importantes, si no es que más importantes, como los factores tangibles (como la pérdida de cabezas de ganado) para el entendimiento de las actitudes, con base en los tamaños del efecto de estas variables. El grado al que el miedo que los participantes sienten por los leones interfiere con sus actividades diarias fue la variable con mayor influencia. El grado al que los hogares del área protegida cercana devengan beneficios también tuvo una influencia alta, como lo tuvo el número de cabezas de ganado perdidas, el número de dependientes, la orientación de los valores ecocéntricos y la participación en programas de mitigación del conflicto. Contrario a lo que frecuentemente se asume, las medidas de la pérdida de cabezas de ganado no dominó sobre las actitudes por la coexistencia con leones. Más allá, encontramos que las variables socioeconómicas pueden parecer importantes cuando se estudian de manera aislada pero su efecto puede desaparecer cuando se controlan las variables relacionadas con las creencias, percepciones y experiencias pasadas. Esto genera preguntas sobre la dependencia hacia las variables socioeconómicas en el área de estudios de conflictos y coexistencia entre humanos y fauna. Para facilitar la coexistencia con carnívoros mayores recomendamos tomar medidas que reduzcan el miedo (por medio de la educación y medidas de protección que reduzcan la necesidad de vivir con miedo), la disminución de la pérdida de cabezas de ganado y garantizarles a las comunidades locales los beneficios que proporciona la conservación. Los valores ecocéntricos también surgieron como influyentes, lo que resalta la necesidad de desarrollar iniciativas de conservación adaptadas a los valores locales.
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Carnívoros , Leones , Animales , Animales Salvajes , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Humanos , GanadoRESUMEN
One of the immediate responses to COVID-19 has been a call to ban wildlife trade given the suspected origin of the pandemic in a Chinese market selling and butchering wild animals. There is clearly an urgent need to tackle wildlife trade that is illegal, unsustainable or carries major risks to human health, biodiversity conservation or meeting acceptable animal welfare standards. However, some of the suggested actions in these calls go far beyond tackling these risks and have the potential to undermine human rights, damage conservation incentives and harm sustainable development. There are a number of reasons for this concerns. First calls for bans on wildlife markets often include calls for bans on wet markets, but the two are not the same thing, and wet markets can be a critical underpinning of informal food systems. Second, wildlife trade generates essential resources for the world's most vulnerable people, contributing to food security for millions of people, particularly in developing countries. Third, wildlife trade bans have conservation risks including driving trade underground, making it even harder to regulate, and encouraging further livestock production. Fourth, in many cases, sustainable wildlife trade can provide key incentives for local people to actively protect species and the habitat they depend on, leading to population recoveries. Most importantly, a singular focus on wildlife trade overlooks the key driver of the emergence of infectious diseases: habitat destruction, largely driven by agricultural expansion and deforestation, and industrial livestock production. We suggest that the COVID-19 crisis provides a unique opportunity for a paradigm shift both in our global food system and also in our approach to conservation. We make specific suggestions as to what this entails, but the overriding principle is that local people must be at the heart of such policy shifts.
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The SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 illness are driving a global crisis. Governments have responded by restricting human movement, which has reduced economic activity. These changes may benefit biodiversity conservation in some ways, but in Africa, we contend that the net conservation impacts of COVID-19 will be strongly negative. Here, we describe how the crisis creates a perfect storm of reduced funding, restrictions on the operations of conservation agencies, and elevated human threats to nature. We identify the immediate steps necessary to address these challenges and support ongoing conservation efforts. We then highlight systemic flaws in contemporary conservation and identify opportunities to restructure for greater resilience. Finally, we emphasize the critical importance of conserving habitat and regulating unsafe wildlife trade practices to reduce the risk of future pandemics.
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Animales Salvajes , Infecciones por Coronavirus , Pandemias , Neumonía Viral , África , Animales , Betacoronavirus , COVID-19 , Humanos , SARS-CoV-2RESUMEN
Human activity affecting the welfare of wild vertebrates, widely accepted to be sentient, and therefore deserving of moral concern, is widespread. A variety of motives lead to the killing of individual wild animals. These include to provide food, to protect stock and other human interests, and also for sport. The acceptability of such killing is widely believed to vary with the motive and method. Individual vertebrates are also killed by conservationists. Whether securing conservation goals is an adequate reason for such killing has recently been challenged. Conventional conservation practice has tended to prioritise ecological collectives, such as populations and species, when their interests conflict with those of individuals. Supporters of the 'Compassionate Conservation' movement argue both that conservationists have neglected animal welfare when such conflicts arise and that no killing for conservation is justified. We counter that conservationists increasingly seek to adhere to high standards of welfare, and that the extreme position advocated by some supporters of 'Compassionate Conservation', rooted in virtue ethics, would, if widely accepted, lead to considerable negative effects for conservation. Conservation practice cannot afford to neglect consequences. Moreover, the do-no-harm maxim does not always lead to better outcomes for animal welfare.
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Developing techniques to quantify the spread and severity of diseases afflicting wildlife populations is important for disease ecology, animal ecology, and conservation. Giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) are in the midst of a dramatic decline, but it is not known whether disease is playing an important role in the broad-scale population reductions. A skin disorder referred to as giraffe skin disease (GSD) was recorded in 1995 in one giraffe population in Uganda. Since then, GSD has been detected in 13 populations in seven African countries, but good descriptions of the severity of this disease are not available. We photogrammetrically analyzed camera trap images from both Ruaha and Serengeti National parks in Tanzania to quantify GSD severity. Giraffe skin disease afflicts the limbs of giraffes in Tanzania, and we quantified severity by measuring the vertical length of the GSD lesion in relation to the total leg length. Applying the Jenks natural breaks algorithm to the lesion proportions that we derived, we classified individual giraffes into disease categories (none, mild, moderate, and severe). Scaling up to the population level, we predicted the proportion of the Ruaha and Serengeti giraffe populations with mild, moderate, and severe GSD. This study serves to demonstrate that camera traps presented an informative platform for examinations of skin disease ecology.
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Antílopes , Fotogrametría/veterinaria , Enfermedades de la Piel/veterinaria , Animales , Fotogrametría/métodos , Enfermedades de la Piel/diagnóstico , Enfermedades de la Piel/patologíaRESUMEN
We reviewed recent work concerning the impact of geopolitics on wildlife conservation (and vice versa) and identified future priorities in conservation geopolitics research. Geopolitics is understood as both an analytical focus on geopolitical practices (especially concerning the behavior) of countries with respect to territory and national security and a set of theories developed to explain and predict those behaviors. We developed a typology of core geopolitical practices of relevance to conservation: territorial practices of colonization and the management of migrations and borders, and security practices relating to military, economic, and environmental security. We identified research that considers how these practices affect conservation situations and outcomes, noting the recent emergence of conceptual developments such as "environmental geopolitics" and "geopolitical ecology" that draw on multiple fields within the social sciences to theorize the links between geopolitics and environmental management. We defined a "geopolitical perspective" as a focus on geopolitical practices combined with an explicit engagement with geopolitical theory and identified conservation situations where this perspective could contribute to analytical clarity. We suggest the most pressing questions in conservation research to which the geopolitical perspective might contribute are how political and economic differences between countries affect biodiversity outcomes, how geopolitical practices to address those differences facilitate or frustrate conservation efforts, how national borders and human and wildlife movements can be better managed for the benefit of both, and how the most effective conservation strategies can be best selected to suit existing (and future) geopolitical realities.
Geopolítica de la Conservación Resumen Revisamos el trabajo reciente relativo al impacto que tiene la geopolítica sobre la conservación de la vida silvestre (y viceversa) e identificamos prioridades futuras para la investigación de la geopolítica de la conservación. Se define a la geopolítica como un enfoque analítico en las prácticas geopolíticas (especialmente en relación con el comportamiento) de los países con respecto al territorio y a la seguridad nacional y como un conjunto de teorías desarrolladas para explicar y predecir aquellos comportamientos. Desarrollamos una tipología de prácticas nucleares de geopolítica relevantes para la conservación: prácticas territoriales de colonización y el manejo de migraciones y de las fronteras, y prácticas de seguridad relacionadas con la seguridad militar, económica y ambiental. Identificamos las investigaciones que consideran cómo estas prácticas afectan a las situaciones de conservación y sus resultados, tomando en cuenta el surgimiento reciente de desarrollos conceptuales como los de "geopolítica ambiental" y "ecología geopolítica" que parten de múltiples campos de estudio situados dentro de las ciencias sociales para teorizar las conexiones entre la geopolítica y el manejo ambiental. Definimos una perspectiva geopolítica como el enfoque en las prácticas geopolíticas combinada con una participación explícita de la teoría geopolítica e identificamos situaciones de conservación en donde esta perspectiva podría contribuir a la claridad analítica. Sugerimos que las preguntas más urgentes para la investigación en la conservación para las cuales la perspectiva geopolítica podría contribuir son cómo las diferencias políticas y económicas entre los países afectan a los resultados de la biodiversidad, cómo las prácticas geopolíticas abordan esas diferencias facilita o frustra los esfuerzos de conservación, cómo las fronteras nacionales y los movimientos humanos y faunísticos pueden manejarse de mejor manera para el beneficio de ambos, y cómo las estrategias de conservación más efectivas pueden seleccionarse de mejor forma para acoplarse a las realidades geopolíticas existentes (y futuras).
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Biodiversidad , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Animales , Animales Salvajes , Ecología , Humanos , Ciencias SocialesRESUMEN
Protected areas (PAs) play an important role in conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, yet their effectiveness is undermined by funding shortfalls. Using lions (Panthera leo) as a proxy for PA health, we assessed available funding relative to budget requirements for PAs in Africa's savannahs. We compiled a dataset of 2015 funding for 282 state-owned PAs with lions. We applied three methods to estimate the minimum funding required for effective conservation of lions, and calculated deficits. We estimated minimum required funding as $978/km2 per year based on the cost of effectively managing lions in nine reserves by the African Parks Network; $1,271/km2 based on modeled costs of managing lions at ≥50% carrying capacity across diverse conditions in 115 PAs; and $2,030/km2 based on Packer et al.'s [Packer et al. (2013) Ecol Lett 16:635-641] cost of managing lions in 22 unfenced PAs. PAs with lions require a total of $1.2 to $2.4 billion annually, or â¼$1,000 to 2,000/km2, yet received only $381 million annually, or a median of $200/km2 Ninety-six percent of range countries had funding deficits in at least one PA, with 88 to 94% of PAs with lions funded insufficiently. In funding-deficit PAs, available funding satisfied just 10 to 20% of PA requirements on average, and deficits total $0.9 to $2.1 billion. African governments and the international community need to increase the funding available for management by three to six times if PAs are to effectively conserve lions and other species and provide vital ecological and economic benefits to neighboring communities.
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Conservación de los Recursos Naturales/economía , Leones/fisiología , Modelos Estadísticos , África , Animales , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales/legislación & jurisprudencia , Conjuntos de Datos como Asunto , EcosistemaRESUMEN
Understanding large carnivore occurrence patterns in anthropogenic landscapes adjacent to protected areas is central to developing actions for species conservation in an increasingly human-dominated world. Among large carnivores, leopards (Panthera pardus) are the most widely distributed felid. Leopards occupying anthropogenic landscapes frequently come into conflict with humans, which often results in leopard mortality. Leopards' use of anthropogenic landscapes, and their frequent involvement with conflict, make them an insightful species for understanding the determinants of carnivore occurrence across human-dominated habitats. We evaluated the spatial variation in leopard site use across a multiple-use landscape in Tanzania's Ruaha landscape. Our study region encompassed i) Ruaha National Park, where human activities were restricted and sport hunting was prohibited; ii) the Pawaga-Idodi Wildlife Management Area, where wildlife sport hunting, wildlife poaching, and illegal pastoralism all occurred at relatively low levels; and iii) surrounding village lands where carnivores and other wildlife were frequently exposed to human-carnivore conflict related-killings and agricultural habitat conversion and development. We investigated leopard occurrence across the study region via an extensive camera trapping network. We estimated site use as a function of environmental (i.e. habitat and anthropogenic) variables using occupancy models within a Bayesian framework. We observed a steady decline in leopard site use with downgrading protected area status from the national park to the Wildlife Management Area and village lands. Our findings suggest that human-related activities such as increased livestock presence and proximity to human households exerted stronger influence than prey availability on leopard site use, and were the major limiting factors of leopard distribution across the gradient of human pressure, especially in the village lands outside Ruaha National Park. Overall, our study provides valuable information about the determinants of spatial distribution of leopards in human-dominated landscapes that can help inform conservation strategies in the borderlands adjacent to protected areas.
Asunto(s)
Distribución Animal , Panthera , Agricultura , Animales , Teorema de Bayes , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Ecosistema , Agua Dulce , Humanos , Modelos Biológicos , Parques Recreativos , Conducta Predatoria , Análisis Espacial , TanzaníaRESUMEN
Despite their iconic status, lion (Panthera leo) populations continue to decline across the majority of their range. In the light of the recent decision (in October 2017) to add lions to the Appendices of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), this paper identifies the new and existing legal protections afforded to lions through five global treaties, and maps these protections against the most critical contemporary threats facing the species. It thus offers a new analysis of the CMS listing, and draws on existing legal reviews, to highlight the ways in which global treaties offer differing forms of protection for lions. It then combines multiple concordant assessments of lion populations, to highlight nine categories of threat: human-lion conflict, bushmeat poaching, human encroachment, trophy hunting, trade in lion bones, unpredictable environmental events, socio-economic factors, policy failures, and governance/institutional weakness. The paper assesses how the various treaties each address these different categories of threat. The analysis identifies two pathways for improving legal protection: expanding the application of global treaties in respect of lions and their habitats (the paper considers the CMS listing in these terms), and improving the implementation of treaty commitments through local and national-scale actions. Furthermore, it identifies local implementation challenges that include the local knowledge of rules, compliance with rules and enforcement capacity, alongside the variety in local contexts and situations, and suggests where global treaties might provide support in meeting these challenges. We suggest that this analysis has wider implications for how treaty protection can and is utilised to protect various species of large-bodied, wide-ranging animals.