- requirements for monitoring systems -

Habitat: Satellite imagery can be used for detailed fire mapping (Mendelsohn & Roberts 1997, p 24-25). Minimum effective requirements should be defined.

Artificial water point utilization needs to be monitored and quantified to asses their success e.g. through aerial surveys in the late dry season and spoor and buffalo sightings near waterholes.

Radio-tracking studies might establish whether contact is taking place between buffalo from the eastern and western ends of the Caprivi Strip.

Distribution: The status of the buffalo range can be simply assessed by the amount of land settled and cleared for agriculture. This can be measured using air photography or satellite imagery.

Progress in establishing buffalo populations in northern Namibia requires detailed record-keeping beginning with the age and sex of all animals in each founder cohort and the subsequent natality and mortality in the new population.

Numbers: A system of monitoring law enforcement effort and illegal activity needs to be put into place.

Buffalo surveys are problematic (DSS 2002 p26). At the Kasane Workshop it was agreed that

An adequate monitoring system must be implemented to monitor trends;

The monitoring system must be repeatable and consistently implemented;

There is a need for collaboration between Botswana and Namibia on this activity.

Economics: A record of ages of buffalo trophies taken on sport hunting will indicate the sustainability of the operation and give a reasonable assessment of the trends in the buffalo population. It is possible with the aid of the population model for buffalo to estimate the size of the buffalo population from the age structure of the trophies.

The Conservancies should take responsibility for this monitoring in their areas at an early stage.

The annual record of revenues and incomes earned from safari hunting in State Protected Areas and Conservancies will provide the data needed to assess the overall progress towards achieving the economic objectives.

Critical requirements for monitoring systems

In general, most monitoring activities should be applied within an adaptive management framework. This includes keeping the levels of research and monitoring affordable and sustainable.

An important purpose of monitoring is to assess whether the objective of increasing buffalo populations is being achieved. .

Aerial surveys are not ideal for monitoring buffalo and should be coupled with other, cheaper monitoring techniques such as the conservancy monitoring systems.

Critical requirements are:

• must allow self-diagnosis and self-correction of management
• must be capable of being expanded depending on the priorities which emerge for monitoring.

Martin (2002) suggests monitoring population performance with the aid of an adaptive management system to set hunting quotas.