Developing Countries and Wildlife Management

Managing Wildlife Reserves in Third World Countries is Tough Task

Feb 24, 2009

The biggest challenges of conservation in developing countries are more often not technical in nature. It is mainly an array of economic, political and social factors.

Often well-intentioned conservation plans run aground due to opposition from the local populace. Burgeoning human population invariably places increasing demands on the shrinking resources base in many of these countries. In the ensuing scramble for resources, interests of forests and wildlife gets a back seat. Many wildlife reserves are getting isolated like islands blocking effective transfer of gene pool resources, endangering the very survival of the denizens of the wild.

Tourism has come in as a handy tool in many areas. The revenue from the tourism keeps the local people economically independent with no direct dependency on the forests. Here also it is not as simplistic as it looks. Interests of external stakeholders may come in to play and conflict with that of the direct users.

Here the need for effective conflict resolution comes in to play throwing up the dilemma, which is best - Community-centered approaches or government-centered approaches? Good policing by the state has to be an integral part of the whole process of community participation if the system is to run like a well-oiled machine. Many countries have learned it the hard way.

Local Wisdom

Respecting local wisdom can give an unexpected bonus at times. Many indigenous groups have learned to manipulate natural forests to meet their demands. Indigenous Dayaks in Borneo is a good example. This has been beautifully documented by C.M Petersin his book, Borneo in transition (p. 230-244,Oxford University Press).

Examples abound from other countries also.Before dismissing the ancient practices as outlandish, the prudent thing to do would be to study them from a scientific angle.

Role of Metapopulations

The key to long-term survival of wildlife reserves in danger of isolation and fragmentation, is to ensure effective interplay of metapopulations. A metapopulation is a collection of relatively isolated, spatially distributed, local populations. Occasional dispersal between these populations occurs and this dispersal ensures that they continue to survive in the face of local extinctions.

Landscape Connectivity

For the effective interplay of metapopulations, landscape connectivity is very important. Connectivity is the degree to which the structure of a landscape helps or hinders the movement of wildlife species. Proper landscape connectivity would act also as an effective insurance against future man animal conflict. Voluntary land protection and incentive-based habitat management programs on private lands has a great role here.

Pharmacological potentials

We have not fully explored the pharmacological potentials of rain forests so far.We have only touched the tip of the iceberg. Instead of spending billions of dollars for developing new drugs it is far more easier to isolate active ingredients from traditional medicines. A veritable goldmine is waiting to be tapped. But alas, even before we do a proper prospecting, the forests are being hacked down at an alarming rate in the name of development.

The developed world has a big stake in protecting and ensuring the continued existence of these forests. The global meltdown has hastened the process of deforestation.It is time to act without rhetoric. At stake is something that is of interest for the whole humanity and the coming generations. Innovative approaches clearly divesting past shibboleths are the need of the hour if tropical forests and wildlife are to survive along with exploding populations in developing countries.

The copyright of the article Developing Countries and Wildlife Management in Wildlife Conservation is owned by Mohan Alembath. Permission to republish Developing Countries and Wildlife Management in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.