ABSTRACT Co-management of natural resources, i.e., management shared between multiple actors, has... more ABSTRACT Co-management of natural resources, i.e., management shared between multiple actors, has received increasing attention as it is seen to enhance sustainability of resource governance. However, there is little empirical research to date that examines the dynamics of the interplay between actors over time. We present two case studies from the highlands of Ethiopia that trace interactions between governmental and community actors in the governance of local natural resources through history, over a period of 50–150 years, and discuss implications of our analysis for the concepts of “co-management” and “adaptability,” and for the design of joint resource management schemes.
With rabies emerging as a particular threat to wild canids, we report on a rabies outbreak in a s... more With rabies emerging as a particular threat to wild canids, we report on a rabies outbreak in a subpopulation of endangered Ethiopian wolves in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, in 2003 and 2004. Parenteral vaccination of wolves was used to manage the outbreak. During the last decade, infectious diseases have posed a major risk to small populations of wild vertebrates. Highly pathogenic infectious agents have been implicated in the decline and extirpation of a considerable number of populations (1–3). Analysis of disease outbreaks suggests that carnivores appear to be particularly susceptible (2). Specifically, the susceptibility of wild canids may arise from a variety of intrinsic social and ecologic factors but is undoubtedly also due to their susceptibility to general pathogens carried by the most abundant carnivore, the
In areas where national parks are unlikely to be economically viable or socially desirable, an al... more In areas where national parks are unlikely to be economically viable or socially desirable, an alternative approach is required. Community-led conservation initiatives are one possible approach. Their eventual success requires both an understanding of the ecosystem itself and of the interaction between the indigenous population and the varying components of the ecosystem that they utilise. In this thesis I investigate the indigenous common property resource management system in the Guassa area of Menz in the central highlands of Ethiopia, and the consequences of resource utilisation by the community on the populations of rodents, and of the critically endangered Ethiopian wolf. The area traditionally has been, and still is, a valuable natural resource for the local community that depend on it primarily for thatching grass, firewood and grazing. The indigenous resource management system was structured under an indigenous resource management institution, known locally as the Qero syst...
ABSTRACT: Human-wildlife conflict in and around the Simien Mountains National Park was assessed u... more ABSTRACT: Human-wildlife conflict in and around the Simien Mountains National Park was assessed using a questionnaire survey of 300 people living in and around the Park during 2005 and 2006. Logistic regression was used to identify important factors. The result indicated that common jackal caused the most pronounced problems (57.1%) to the local community compared to other animals. Among the respondents, 27 % reported loss of oxen, cows, donkeys, mules and horses to spotted hyaenas. The Ethiopian wolf, leopard, vervet monkey, hamadryas baboon and crested porcupine caused minimal problems on the local community in the study area. The Park was utilized by 47.9 % of the respondents as grazing land for their livestock. The average period of utilization of the Park as grazing land was 2.03 ± 0.11 months. The duration of grazing in the Park was negatively correlated (r =-0.69, p < 0.05) with distance from the Park. Among the respondents, 19.1 % collected firewood from the Park. Collect...
Mutually supportive relationships between communities and nearby protected areas arecritical to t... more Mutually supportive relationships between communities and nearby protected areas arecritical to the long-term success of conservation efforts.In sub-Saharan Africa,many protect-ed areas were first created during colonial times as hunting grounds or parks for Europeanelites, with little or no regard for the needs or desires of local communities (Anderson andGrove 1987; Neumann 1998; Adams 2003).Today, many of these areas harbor long-stand-ing conflicts over land tenure and resource use (IIED 1994). These conflicts may create ten-sions between local communities, protected area staff, and conservation goals (Newmark etal.1994; Lilieholm and Romney 2000; Whitesell et al. 2002).In Ethiopia,40 protected areas cover roughly 16.4% of the country’s land area (186,000km
Many communities world-wide face serious environmental degradation, including deforestation, over... more Many communities world-wide face serious environmental degradation, including deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, overexploitation of biodiversity and serious air and water pollution problems, all associated with mismanagement of natural resources. However, natural resource management institutions that are based on systems of common property can often prevent many instances of mismanagement of natural resources. To this end this paper examines how a common property resource management system in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia survived various government sponsored development packages and social changes. In the district of Menz, the Guassa area, common property resource management worked under an indigenous resource management institution known us the Qero system, based on the existing Atsme Irist indigenous land tenure system. The rules of exclusion governing access to the use of the Guassa area resource were aspects of the Atsme Irist land tenure system that conferred usufr...
The cheetah has experienced a dramatic decline in its distribution, with an estimated adult and a... more The cheetah has experienced a dramatic decline in its distribution, with an estimated adult and adolescent population of 7100 individuals remaining in the wild. Southern and eastern Africa have the largest populations, whereas western, central, and northern Africa have considerably smaller populations as a regional total. In Asia cheetahs are critically endangered, with small populations remaining only in Iran. For many countries, national and regional efforts to map the distribution of cheetahs have identified resident populations and highlighted knowledge gaps in areas that require surveying. Most (67%) cheetahs are found outside protected areas, suggesting that unprotected private and public lands need increased attention when devising cheetah conservation strategies. Conservation of the world’s remaining cheetah populations will require securing the cheetah’s habitat and prey base, reducing the causes of human-mediated mortality, while identifying and securing corridors to conne...
ABSTRACT Co-management of natural resources, i.e., management shared between multiple actors, has... more ABSTRACT Co-management of natural resources, i.e., management shared between multiple actors, has received increasing attention as it is seen to enhance sustainability of resource governance. However, there is little empirical research to date that examines the dynamics of the interplay between actors over time. We present two case studies from the highlands of Ethiopia that trace interactions between governmental and community actors in the governance of local natural resources through history, over a period of 50–150 years, and discuss implications of our analysis for the concepts of “co-management” and “adaptability,” and for the design of joint resource management schemes.
With rabies emerging as a particular threat to wild canids, we report on a rabies outbreak in a s... more With rabies emerging as a particular threat to wild canids, we report on a rabies outbreak in a subpopulation of endangered Ethiopian wolves in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, in 2003 and 2004. Parenteral vaccination of wolves was used to manage the outbreak. During the last decade, infectious diseases have posed a major risk to small populations of wild vertebrates. Highly pathogenic infectious agents have been implicated in the decline and extirpation of a considerable number of populations (1–3). Analysis of disease outbreaks suggests that carnivores appear to be particularly susceptible (2). Specifically, the susceptibility of wild canids may arise from a variety of intrinsic social and ecologic factors but is undoubtedly also due to their susceptibility to general pathogens carried by the most abundant carnivore, the
In areas where national parks are unlikely to be economically viable or socially desirable, an al... more In areas where national parks are unlikely to be economically viable or socially desirable, an alternative approach is required. Community-led conservation initiatives are one possible approach. Their eventual success requires both an understanding of the ecosystem itself and of the interaction between the indigenous population and the varying components of the ecosystem that they utilise. In this thesis I investigate the indigenous common property resource management system in the Guassa area of Menz in the central highlands of Ethiopia, and the consequences of resource utilisation by the community on the populations of rodents, and of the critically endangered Ethiopian wolf. The area traditionally has been, and still is, a valuable natural resource for the local community that depend on it primarily for thatching grass, firewood and grazing. The indigenous resource management system was structured under an indigenous resource management institution, known locally as the Qero syst...
ABSTRACT: Human-wildlife conflict in and around the Simien Mountains National Park was assessed u... more ABSTRACT: Human-wildlife conflict in and around the Simien Mountains National Park was assessed using a questionnaire survey of 300 people living in and around the Park during 2005 and 2006. Logistic regression was used to identify important factors. The result indicated that common jackal caused the most pronounced problems (57.1%) to the local community compared to other animals. Among the respondents, 27 % reported loss of oxen, cows, donkeys, mules and horses to spotted hyaenas. The Ethiopian wolf, leopard, vervet monkey, hamadryas baboon and crested porcupine caused minimal problems on the local community in the study area. The Park was utilized by 47.9 % of the respondents as grazing land for their livestock. The average period of utilization of the Park as grazing land was 2.03 ± 0.11 months. The duration of grazing in the Park was negatively correlated (r =-0.69, p < 0.05) with distance from the Park. Among the respondents, 19.1 % collected firewood from the Park. Collect...
Mutually supportive relationships between communities and nearby protected areas arecritical to t... more Mutually supportive relationships between communities and nearby protected areas arecritical to the long-term success of conservation efforts.In sub-Saharan Africa,many protect-ed areas were first created during colonial times as hunting grounds or parks for Europeanelites, with little or no regard for the needs or desires of local communities (Anderson andGrove 1987; Neumann 1998; Adams 2003).Today, many of these areas harbor long-stand-ing conflicts over land tenure and resource use (IIED 1994). These conflicts may create ten-sions between local communities, protected area staff, and conservation goals (Newmark etal.1994; Lilieholm and Romney 2000; Whitesell et al. 2002).In Ethiopia,40 protected areas cover roughly 16.4% of the country’s land area (186,000km
Many communities world-wide face serious environmental degradation, including deforestation, over... more Many communities world-wide face serious environmental degradation, including deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, overexploitation of biodiversity and serious air and water pollution problems, all associated with mismanagement of natural resources. However, natural resource management institutions that are based on systems of common property can often prevent many instances of mismanagement of natural resources. To this end this paper examines how a common property resource management system in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia survived various government sponsored development packages and social changes. In the district of Menz, the Guassa area, common property resource management worked under an indigenous resource management institution known us the Qero system, based on the existing Atsme Irist indigenous land tenure system. The rules of exclusion governing access to the use of the Guassa area resource were aspects of the Atsme Irist land tenure system that conferred usufr...
The cheetah has experienced a dramatic decline in its distribution, with an estimated adult and a... more The cheetah has experienced a dramatic decline in its distribution, with an estimated adult and adolescent population of 7100 individuals remaining in the wild. Southern and eastern Africa have the largest populations, whereas western, central, and northern Africa have considerably smaller populations as a regional total. In Asia cheetahs are critically endangered, with small populations remaining only in Iran. For many countries, national and regional efforts to map the distribution of cheetahs have identified resident populations and highlighted knowledge gaps in areas that require surveying. Most (67%) cheetahs are found outside protected areas, suggesting that unprotected private and public lands need increased attention when devising cheetah conservation strategies. Conservation of the world’s remaining cheetah populations will require securing the cheetah’s habitat and prey base, reducing the causes of human-mediated mortality, while identifying and securing corridors to conne...
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