Transcript Document

C. Pringle Lecture: ECL 6080, 22 October 2009
Protected Areas and Managing
Parks from an
Ecosystems Perspective
Case Study:
Kruger National Park,
South Africa
Basic Principles of Good Ecological Management
A.
Critical ecological processes must be maintained
-key species management
-habitat or ecosystem management
B. Goals and objectives must derive from a deep
understanding of the ecological properties of the system
-you can’t effectively manage what you don’t understand
-be eternally vigilant for unintended consequences of
management
C. Minimize external threats and maximize external benefits
D. Conserve evolutionary processes
-keep populations large enough to ensure against stochastic
causes of extinction
-ensure species retain sufficient genetic diversity to permit
adaptation to changing environment
Playing God: Management decisions
The control of nature is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of
the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
Silent Spring (1962)
Man, in the words of one astute biologist, is faced with the problem
of escaping from his own ingenuity.
Loren Eisely (1907-1977)
Conservation is a bird that flies faster than the shot we aim at it.
Aldo Leolpold 1953
Case Study:
Kruger National Park,
South Africa
• Linking population and community
ecology to ecosystem-level
management of a protected area
• Importance of watershed management
and minimizing hydrological effects
originating outside of park boundaries
• National and international pressures
faced by park managers in Kruger
• Contrast with US park management
• View from the socioeconomic context
of Africa and make contrasts with US.
Kruger is the largest of the 22 South African National Park
(SANParks = government body responsible for managing national parks)
A Purist Approach
The precursor to SANParks - the National Parks Board historically had a purist approach from that of other
conservation organizations
- core areas of national parks considered sacrosanct
and managed with as little deviation from natural
ecological processes as possible
- example: game allowed to die naturally in parks
during droughts in contrast to the alternative of
culling and selling meat cheaply or donating it to
local black communities;
- principal at stake was natural selection
• 20,000 km2
(half the size of Switzerland)
• Employs almost 4,000 people
• 1.2 million visitors/yr
• Park extends from northto south (350 km) and is
bisected by 7 major rivers
that run from west to east.
• 300 tree species
• 49 fish species
• 33 amphibian species
• 118 reptile species
• 492 bird species
• 147 mammal species
- elephants
- lions
- rhinos
There is a fence around the park with 8 access gates
The Gardeners of Eden Syndrome?
The Gardeners of Eden Syndrome?
•Intensive water abstraction has
made some perennial rivers
ephemeral for prolonged periods
of time
•Crocodiles and hippos
vulnerable to reduced
water flows
•Keystone species which
Play an important role
in structuring riverine
ecosystems and their
loss can trigger
cascading events in
both aquatic and
terrestrial foodwebs
While elephants can dig down to water
in dessicated river beds……..
Most herbivorous mammals live within 6 km of surface water
and water dependence is a major factor limiting their abundance
To increase available
habitat - park managers
provided artificial watering
holes in formerly waterless
areas between major rivers.
…This altered the population
dynamics of many species
and resulted in increased
herbivore populations…
…followed by catastrophic
collapses of the inflated
herbivore populations
(e.g., in 1966 and 1983)
which became foodlimited resulting in
damaged vegetation especially near rivers
- and…..
….temporary increases in carnivores and scavengers for a year
or two after the herbivore population collapses followed by their
subsequent collapse as their food disappeared
Kruger Park managers have largely stopped using
groundwater fed watering holes between rivers
to increase carrying capacity of park for wildlife
The elephant situation in Kruger …too much of a good thing?
African elephant: ~3-5 million elephants in Africa in 1930s and 1940s
-habitat loss and heavy ivory poaching in 1970s and 1980s
-between 400,000- 660,000 elephants left in Africa today
The elephant management controversy
in Krueger National Park
•
currently ~12,000 elephants in park reproducing at 6-8% per year
•
some believe that the parks’ habitat can only sustain 7,000 elephants over a
long period; different theories
-elephants consume 440 lbs of plant matter in a single day and are
causing major changes to the vegetation of the park, destroying trees
and reducing habitat available for other species
• increased problems from human-elephant conflicts: elephants break the
park’s boundary fences and eat crops; buffalo escape (buffalo vectors for foot
and mouth disease and bovine tuberculosis in livestock); elephant attacks.
•
options for elephant population control
-translocation to under-populated areas
-contraception
-establishment of trans-frontier conservation corridors
and protected areas
-annual culling
What has happened in other areas when
elephant populations increase?
In northern Botswana there are an estimated 100,000-plus
elephants growing at a rate of 5% per yr and damaging
vegetation in protected areas such as Chobe National Park
Culling in Kruger practiced
from 1960s-1995;
500-600 elephants killed/yr
To maintain population
between 7,000-8,000
Give hunting quotas to local
communities?
The Cultural Context
of Management Decisions:
Balancing the African philosophy with
western ideals to protect international tourism
If it pays - it stays…..there is something wrong when the
opportunity to produce hundreds of tons
of meat a year is spurned on the grounds of sentimentality
Rogue elephants and the importance of matriarchy and clans
…young single and out of control: Rhinos are being murdered and the killers
are juvenile delinquents of the elephantine kind
Rhino bashing article in NY TIMES October 1997
Contraception: costly; primarily funded by international agencies
Elephant translocation expensive and labor intensive
- up to 14 transferred at a time
- translocating one elephant can cost as much as US $8,000
Establishment of trans-frontier conservation areas to
conserve elephants
-plan to establish an International
Park via cross-border collaboration
Between Mozambique, South Africa
and Zimbabwe
-would expand protected area from
20,000 to 35,000 km2 - hopefully
leading to the development of a
larger Transfrontier Conservation
Area of 99,800 km2 with a mosaic
of different land uses
-international funding from Germany,
World Bank, USAID, IUCN, and
Peace Parks Foundation
-involves the translocation of 1000
Elephants in Kruger to Mozambique
What does the future hold for elephants?
WWF launched its African Elephant Programme in 2000:
-increase protection and management of elephants in Africa
-build capacity within elephant range countries to manage and
mitigate conflict between humans and elephants
-control illegal trade in elephant products
CITES says ‘No’ to ivory stockpile sale in Oct 2006 (after giving
Botswana, Namibia and South Africa permission in 2002 to sell 60
tons despite widespread opposition by many governments and
NGOs). Conservation groups are concerned that any relaxation on
the ban on ivory will result in a explosion in both demand and supply
of ivory, and a flooding of the market of both legal and illegal stocks
which translates to tens of thousands of slaughtered elephants.
Effects of human activities
outside of the park:
- Water abstraction from rivers
(1.5 million people live near Kruger in
South Africa and several hundred
thousand in bordering Mozambique)
irrigation farming
tree farming
- Water pollution and erosion
cattle grazing
mining
large towns and cities
industrial activities
- Acid Rain (coal burning in cities
SW of the park result in harmful
acid deposition in park
Communities west of Kruger
Sugar plantations south of Kruger
Irrigation of sugarcane plantations
Highlands & irrigated
crops to the west of
Kruger
Reservoirs in rivers upstream of Kruger
Exotic Eucalyptus plantations
west of Kruger in highlands
Tea plantation west
of Kruger in higlands
Worker homes at tea plantation
Management solutions for Kruger Park’s water
quantity and quality problems: establishing water
rights for nature:
1. Changing operating criteria of existing dams outside and upstream
of Kruger to release water at critical periods and also to minimize
effects of salts and smothering sediments
2. Constructing additional dams to better regulate water flow into the
park during low flows.
3. Working with local stakeholders (industries to recycle effluents;
mine operators divert streams around mine operations)
4. Environmental outreach activities and local environmental activist
groups (e.g. Olifants River Forum)
5. Working with government (Department of Water Affairs) to treat
acid waters emanating from abandoned mines; to place holds on all
permits exempting mines and industries from provisions of Water Act
National pressures facing managers of Kruger Park
A. Human rights issues
-improving affirmative action programs, equal
employment opportunities and non-discriminatory
wage structure
B. Changes in elite culture of traditional park
administration and management
C. Environmental outreach - involving an alienated and
often disinterested national majority
D. Maintenance of financial self-sufficiency
International pressures
A. Wildlife management across international boundaries
(Mozambique, Zimbabwe)
1. international cooperation to establish trans
boundary protected area
2. control of poaching and human invasions
B. International Animal Rights Groups
1. elephant relocation (versus culling)
2. development and implementation of large
mammal birth control
Food for thought:
Would the creation of Kruger National Park have been
possible in the absence of apartheid?
Can its continued existence be maintained in light of
social, political and economic concerns?
What else can be done to insure the perpetuity of this
Park?