Evolution and Innovation in Wildlife Conservation

Over the past century wildlife and habitat conservation has undergone significant evolution with bursts of innovation and change. Nowhere is this more evident than in southern Africa, a crucible of change and innovation in which wildlife conservation has co-evolved with decolonization, political transformation and the rise of development, ownership, management and livelihood debates. Based on the most widespread research to date, this book provides a record of the evolving thought and approaches to achieving conservation in southern Africa. Early chapters deal with the traditional "fines and fences" conservation that occurred in the colonial and early post-independence period, with subsequent sections focusing on the experimentation and innovation that occurred on private and communal land as a result of the break from these traditional methods. The final section deals with more recent innovations in the sector, focussing on building and strengthening the relationships between parks and society. The conceptual models upon which these innovations were based and the adaptive learning process and evolution of these developments are described in some 21 carefully selected case studies and reviews from across the region. These range from game ranching in Zimbabwe to the creation of Cape Peninsula National Park in South Africa to trans-boundary conservation areas to community based natural resource management in Botswana. The book provides a data-rich summary of experimentation with more inclusive models of conservation in terms of ecological, social, political and economic indicators. Ultimately, the innovations and lessons from the diversity of southern Africa offer substantial insight for wildlife conservation and management across the continent and the world. Published with the Southern African Sustainable Use Specialist Group (SASUSG) of IUCN