Health InsuranceNational Parks Are Not Enough To Protect Kenya's Wildlife
For the past half-century or more, conservation goals
have focused on saving endangered species and establishing national parks,
which now cover 10% of the earth"s land surface. But do parks really
protect wildlife, and more importantly, biodiversity? Survey results from
Kenyan scientists who looked at 30 years of wildlife data published on
July 8th in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE show that
though
vital, Kenya"s parks are insufficient to protect species.
"The decline in Kenya"s park populations is not surprising, given the
inherent shortcomings in their design. Only a modest portion of the annual
migratory range of large herbivores is included in Kenya"s parks," said
senior author Dr. David Western in a paper titled The Status of Wildlife
in Protected Areas Compared to Non-Protected Areas of Kenya, co-authored
with Samantha Russell and Innes Cuthill.
"We need a radical review of conservation policies in East Africa in order
to sustain biological diversity, ecosystem function, and ecological
services," said Western, who was raised in Tanzania and has been studying
wildlife and people in Kenya for 40 years. "To do that we must monitor
wildlife in and outside parks. We must also foster local conservation
efforts and encourage "parks beyond parks" to protect vital landscapes
outside national parks.
"Quantification of species trends and the factors governing population and
ecosystem viability are vital to forecasting, planning and managing
wildlife populations, and in auditing the success of alternatives
conservation policies and practices."
Dr. Western co-founded the African Conservation Centre (ACC) in 1996 in
Nairobi and today he remains on the board of directors; the African
Conservation Fund is the U.S.-based support organization for ACC.
This study was supported by funds from the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg
Foundation and
the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis,
decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors have
stated no conflicts of interests.
Link to article
Public Library of Science