Document Detail


Conservation value of multiple-use areas in East Africa.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  18173475     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Despite wide agreement that strictly protected areas (World Conservation Union categories I-III) are the best strategy for conserving biodiversity, they are limited in extent and exclude many species of key conservation importance. In contrast, multiple-use management areas (categories IV-VI), comprising >60% of the world's protected-area network, are often considered of little value to biodiversity conservation, particularly in Africa, where they typically contain few charismatic large mammals. We sampled small mammals, amphibians, birds, butterflies, and trees at 41 sites along a four-step gradient of increasing human activity and decreasing conservation protection, from a well-protected Tanzanian national park to nonintensive agricultural land. Although preliminary, our results indicate that species richness of these five taxa did not decline along this gradient, but different management areas, occupying areas of largely similar habitat, hosted distinct communities of each taxon. Differences in species composition in the absence of manifest differences in species richness highlight the importance of developing landscape-scale conservation strategies and the danger of using either a limited suite of indicator taxa or umbrella species as surrogates for biodiversity. Although strictly protected areas perform a unique and vital conservation service in East Africa by protecting large mammals, areas that allow varied resource extraction activities still possess vital and complementary conservation value.
Authors:
Toby A Gardner; Tim Caro; Emily B Fitzherbert; Tasila Banda; Punit Lalbhai
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology     Volume:  21     ISSN:  1523-1739     ISO Abbreviation:  Conserv. Biol.     Publication Date:  2007 Dec 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2008-01-04     Completed Date:  2008-01-24     Revised Date:  2008-11-21    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9882301     Medline TA:  Conserv Biol     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1516-25     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Center of Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom.
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Africa
Amphibians
Animals
Biodiversity*
Birds
Butterflies
Conservation of Natural Resources / methods*
Human Activities
Humans
Mammals
Population Dynamics
Trees

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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