The Transboundary Mammal Project

 

Southern Africa is largely an arid and semi-arid region, with less than 5% of the land suitable for sustained cultivation. While livestock can be supported on much of the land, both staple food and livestock production are failing to keep pace with population growth. Large tracts of this land are, however, well suited to wildlife and other natural resource management approaches. In southern Africa, community-based approaches to diversified natural resource management have shown considerable potential for both rural development and economic empowerment of rural communities, and enhanced biodiversity conservation.

A high proportion of the areas with the greatest potential for CBNRM occur where international boundaries have divided ecosystems, river basins, wildlife migration routes and populations of high value species. These areas also support a disproportionately large number of locally rare and endangered species.

In the past, shared ecosystems and divided populations where managed largely at the national level, with little account being taken of the larger picture. In many cases, this approach exacerbated the decline of some species and the markedly sub-optimal status of others. As a result, more recent approaches have promoted the collaboration of neighbouring states to manage these transboundary resources together. The process of achieving greater ecological stability and productivity through transboundary conservation is also strongly influenced by non-ecological factors, including a desire to improve regional political cooperation and stability, and to promote economic growth and development.

The study area

One of the transboundary areas with the greatest potential for both conservation and economic growth is that around the Caprivi Strip in Namibia, bordering onto northern Botswana, western Zimbabwe and southern Zambia - with the potential to link to south-eastern Angola once the political situation in that country has been resolved - the so-called "4-corners" TBNRM area. This area is rich in national parks, CBNRM initiatives, biological diversity (including charismatic megafauna and high value wildlife species) and tourism potential. The Caprivi area has recently been the subject of a Namibian Cabinet review. This review endorsed the great potential of the area for conservation, nature-based economic development and transboundary collaboration with neighbouring states.

Project Aims

This proposal aims to achieve two main outcomes.

1. to facilitate transboundary collaboration and cooperation around the management of rare, endangered and high-value wildlife species, leading to the establishment of sustainable institutional arrangements for transboundary wildlife management in the 4-corners region, taking full cognisance of the CBNRM approaches, the existing protected and designated wildlife areas and working constructively with the many other initiatives currently being undertaken and planned in the region.
2. to develop strategic management plans for selected mammal species, which will serve for both national management objectives as well as provide a basis for a common transboundary approach. The management plans will have supportive information systems consisting of both biological information - e.g. distribution, numbers, habitat, populations dynamics, changes over time, etc. - as well as management actions and responses. These information systems will be linked to a specially developed computer-aided decision support system for management based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods and technologies.