Showing papers by "International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources published in 1990"

Stability in a multi-species assemblage of large herbivores in East Africa.

Abstract: Animal census data from Lake Manyara National Park in northern Tanzania are presented. The data refer to large mammalian herbivores, that is individually heavier than twenty kg, of which the numbers were counted in nine different years between 1959 and 1984. The total biomass of these herbivores was comprised mainly of African buffalo and African elephant. Five functional groups of herbivores were distinguished (buffalo, "elephant-as-grazer", "elephant-as-browser", "other grazers", and "other browsers"). The pressures of all these groups were constant over time with the exception of that by buffalo. Buffalo numbers increased since the last outbreak of rinderpest in 1959. There was no correlation between herbivore biomass and rainfall fluctuations. Individual species showed large fluctuations in their numbers but within the total herbivore assemblage the different species compensated the fluctuations of the other species. This resulted in an overall constancy of herbivore biomass, and, thus, the carrying capacity of the system has to be viewed on the level of all species combined and not on that of the individual species. This view is supported by the result that size of the stability index showed that the system of herbivore species was stable.

How conservation strategies contribute to sustainable development.

Abstract: The world is now so tied together by flows of energy, information, and commodities, that action in one part of it is likely to have implications for many other parts. Numerous biological resources — particularly wildlife and forests — are being depleted more by foreign demand than by direct local consumption. Money earned by depleting resources is then often invested in imported industrial products, which themselves may have had negative environmental impacts in the country of their production. As examples we may cite certain pesticides which, on being banned in the countries of their production, are exported to others.

Underselling national parks in Zimbabwe: The implications for rural sustainability

Abstract: Tourism in Zimbabwe relies heavily on the Parks and Wild Life Estate and associated wildlife populations, giving these resources a tangible value. Protected areas, competing with conventional agriculture for space, can be justified in the context of a developing country only if their total benefits remain competitive with other forms of land use. In this paper we argue that, by underselling the Parks and Wild Life Estate, Zimbabwe is discouraging the development of an economically important rural resource in favor of its less environmentally sustainable agricultural competitors. Low prices are threatening the retention of large protected areas and the very resources on which future tourism, as a desirable, sustainable form of land use, is likely to depend. Yet, wildlife‐based tourism provides one of the few ways to reverse the trend toward human destitution in Africa's marginal areas and provides a major justification for conserving Africa's wildlife.

Data on 113 Community Food Webs

Abstract: This appendix presents the references to the original sources, the predation matrices, and the lists of organisms in the 113 webs used in the empirical studies in this book.

Towards the Evaluation of Natural-Resource Management Projects in the Sahel

Abstract: Recent drought in the Sahel has focussed attention on the important role played by natural resources in the rural economy and, together with the increasing environmental awareness of donors, has spawned a series of field projects aimed at improving the management of existing natural resources. This paper is a working document; a contribution to the discussion of how to evaluate the success or failure of natural resource management projects and of whether important components of successful projects can be replicated elsewhere.

Fact and fantasy

Abstract: Tom Slick and the Search for the Yeti. By Loren Coleman. Faber and Faber: 1989. Pp. 176. Pbk $11.95.