Authors

Richard Fynn, Associate professor, Rangeland Ecology, at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana.

Olekae Thakadu, Associate Professor, Environmental Communications at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana, and Ngamiland CBNRM chairman 

Joseph Mbaiwa, Full Professor, Tourism Science at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana.

Abstract

Numerous scientific studies are demonstrating that wildlife and biodiversity are in decline across Africa; large herbivore numbers in most regions have declined greatly, migrations are lost, forests and woodlands are depleted, rangelands degraded, ecosystems fragmented and biodiversity lost. This is despite a growing and extensive network of protected areas (PAs) and militarisation of anti-poaching units within conservation agencies. It is becoming increasingly recognised that PAs embedded in larger human-dominated landscapes are too small, not covering sufficient habitats and different resource types distributed across the larger landscape. A key point not recognized by many is that wildlife ecosystems are not merely ecological systems, driven only by ecological factors, but in reality are social-ecological systems where social and political forces play a major role in determining the character and sustainability of wildlife populations and their associated habitats. Thus conservation of wildlife in Africa, if it is going to be sustainable and successful, must be managed under the social-ecological systems (SESs) framework developed by Nobel Prize winner, Elinor Ostrom and her colleagues. In the past, both wildlife and local communities (LCs) were able to move over large landscapes and gain access to the required seasonal resources but can no longer do so because resources within PAs are not accessible to people and resources outside PAs are not accessible to wildlife.