God's Country: vol i - Plunderers of Eden
Abstract
Volume I of God’s Country, Plunderers of Eden, is a conservation history-cum-memoir of Zambia – and briefly, of other parts of Africa. I have always been motivated by a sense of adventure and a spiritual need for places wild and free and filled with big game. Latterly, I became more focused on the indigenous people who live with wildlife: on Bantu villagers, fishermen and hunters; on the Bushmen, Pygmy, Maasai and Mbororo. The book also deals with my attempt from 2002 to implement my Landsafe framework for the customary and public commons – the chiefdoms and protected areas of Zambia.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Research into the ecology of the sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekei Rothschild, 1898.) in the south-east Bangweulu, Zambia, was carried out between 1973 and 1976. The sex ratio for sitatunga does not differ significantly from 1:1, although 47.3% of the population are adult females and 25.6% adult males, 12.1% immature males, 4.3% immature females and 10.6% calves. Two conception peaks are related to the onset and cessation of the rains with breeding occurring throughout the year. Sitatunga occur singly (50%), in twos (22.2%) or in threes (16.7%). Females and their calves are the only group with any integrity. The maximum number observed in a group was 7. The minimum home range for males is 0.0363 km2 and for females 0.176 km2. Aggression and the mutual avoidance of dominant males suggests territoriality. Sexual dimorphism is marked. Pelage colouration is variable. The white facial markings are important in male agonistic displays. Criteria for relative age determination of sitatunga were derived from eruption and attrition sequences of impressions taken from maxillary teeth. Males reach a theoretical maximum weight of 106 kg at 8.1 years and females 51.5 kg at 7.34 years. Males are 54.6% heavier than females and maximum horn length is achieved at 7.5 years. Age is significantly correlated with weight, horn length and the length/weight index. The mean horn length for adults is 64.2 cm (measured according to Rowland Ward’s) and the mean front hoof length, for both sexes, is 7.6 cm.
This review essay critiques two REDD+-focused special issue journals: Environmental Science and Policy, ‘Governing and Implementing REDD+’, and Forests (2, 2011). This is an effort to address the varying assumptions from the academic journals – that REDD+ can be fixed with more governance, finance and/or community engagement – through a critique of the wider neoliberal climate regime, issues of ‘governance’ as an unproblematised category, and by exploring, from de-colonialist and environmental
justice perspectives, the issues of real participation and sustainability. We conclude that REDD+ is framed within an epistemological understanding of forests and lands which supports the domination of nature by humans for economic profit, regardless of financial input, governance and/or participation from communities, and therefore will not be a successful means of climate mitigation or forest protection. In addition, the essay stresses the goal that any climate change policy should include: keeping fossil fuels in
the ground, and devising just and effective ways to protect the environment, lands, forests and peoples. Finally, emphasizing that deforestation is a complex socio-political and economic event, the article strongly voices other knowledges opposing REDD+ projects, which are largely marginalized in these discussions, especially those from Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities.
Resource management agencies commonly defend controversial policy by claiming adherence to science-based approaches. For example, proponents and practitioners of the “North American Model of Wildlife Conservation,” which guides hunting policy across much of the United States and Canada, assert that science plays a central role in shaping policy. However, what that means is rarely defined. We propose a framework that identifies four fundamental hallmarks of science relevant to natural resource management (measurable objectives, evidence, transparency, and independent review) and test for their presence in hunt management plans created by 62 U.S. state and Canadian provincial and territorial agencies across 667 management systems (species-jurisdictions). We found that most (60%) systems contained fewer than half of the indicator criteria assessed, with more criteria detected in systems that were peer-reviewed, that pertained to “big game,” and in jurisdictions at increasing latitudes. These results raise doubt about the purported scientific basis of hunt management across the United States and Canada. Our framework provides guidance for adopting a science-based approach to safeguard not only wildlife but also agencies from potential social, legal, and political conflict.
Savannas once constituted the range of many species that human encroachment has now reduced to a fraction of their former distribution. Many survive only in protected areas. Poaching reduces the savanna elephant, even where protected, likely to the detriment of savanna ecosystems. While resources go into estimating elephant populations, an ecological benchmark by which to assess counts is lacking. Knowing how many elephants there are and how many poachers kill is important, but on their own, such data lack context. We collated savanna elephant count data from 73 protected areas across the continent estimated to hold ~50% of Africa’s elephants and extracted densities from 18 broadly stable population time series. We modeled these densities using primary productivity, water availability, and an index of poaching as predictors. We then used the model to predict stable densities given current conditions and poaching for all 73 populations. Next, to generate ecological benchmarks, we predicted such densities for a scenario of zero poaching. Where historical data are available, they corroborate or exceed benchmarks. According to recent counts, collectively, the 73 savanna elephant populations are at 75% of the size predicted based on current conditions and poaching levels. However, populations are at <25% of ecological benchmarks given a scenario of zero poaching (~967,000)—a total deficit of ~730,000 elephants. Populations in 30% of the 73 protected areas were <5% of their benchmarks, and the median current density as a percentage of ecological benchmark across protected areas was just 13%. The ecological context provided by these benchmark values, in conjunction with ongoing census projects, allow efficient targeting of conservation efforts.
Es posible pensar la crisis económica actual como el resultado de una matriz multidimensional de causas sistémicas que operan de acuerdo con un número finito de dinámicas estructurales y de variables geoeconómicas y geopolíticas cuyas lógicas definen la reproducción de la estructura social de acuerdo con las pautas de comportamiento generadas por el capitalismo histórico o tan solo debemos interpretarla como el desajuste parcial de un sistema económico que carece de historia y racionalidad sistémica y cuya lógica únicamente puede reconstruirse de acuerdo con el concepto neoclásico y neoliberal de mercado y con el modelo de elección racional del homo economicus? ¿Es la crisis que arranca de 2008-2009 una crisis antropológica y ética, una crisis del mercado y de sus modos de organización de la competencia, una crisis de los modelos de regulación y de governance inspirados por el frame neoliberal impuesto durante las últimas décadas o estamos ante una crisis del capitalismo concebido como sistema de reproducción social y de los equilibrios de su último ciclo sistémico de acumulación estadounidense así como de las relaciones de fuerza existentes entre los sujetos colectivos que se involucran en los procesos de producción y de reproducción social y en la traducción política de sus necesidades en los ámbitos nacionales, regionales y globales? ¿Es posible ofrecer una interpretación de la crisis de acuerdo con el concepto estándar de racionalidad económica que inspira los paradigmas interpretativos predominantes en las ciencias sociales y humanas contemporáneas o es preciso recurrir simultáneamente a una teoría coherente del capitalismo como sistema social e histórico y a una teoría del poder inherente al mismo que nos ofrezcan herramientas para comprender el ciclo integral de la dominación y la explotación social, política, económica y cultural que definen los contornos de un momento histórico determinado?