Biological Conservation and Human Ecology: Conflict or Compatibility Between Wildlife and Pastoralists in Sub-Saharan Africa

该项目涉及人类学家和生态学家在非洲坦桑尼亚的一个保护公园进行的多学科研究。该项目的核心问题是，自给自足的牧民能否与大型非洲哺乳动物在保护公园共存。非洲牧民和野生动物之间，甚至世界任何地方的人类和其他物种之间的兼容性问题，对全球生物多样性的未来以及我们如何开展生物保护工作具有重大影响。如果我们假设不相容，这就迫使我们继续使用“公园”保护模式，在这种模式下，人们被排除在为保护生物多样性而留出的区域之外。如果我们假定相容，可能会采用一种“区域保护模式”，既包括环境保护，也包括维护生物多样性，并为人类发展和福利提供机会。该项目将通过测量坦桑尼亚恩戈罗保护区三种不同土地利用制度下的人类土地利用和生物保护来调查这些问题。具体研究将包括土地利用模式；人类营养、经济和人口学；牲畜营养生态、生产和人口学；野生动物多样性、密度和栖息地使用模式；以及植被和栖息地地图。这项研究应该有助于为政策制定者提供关于生物多样性保护战略的宝贵知识。

This project involves the multidisciplinary research of anthropologists and ecologists in a conservation park in Tanzania, Africa. The central question of the project is whether subsistence pastoralists can coexist with large African mammals in a conservation park. The question of compatibility between pastoralists and wildlife in Africa, or indeed between humans and other species in any part of the world, has major implications for the future of global biological diversity and how we go about the business of biological conservation. If we assume incompatibility, this obligates us to continue to use the "park" model of conservation, where people are excluded from exploiting those areas set aside for biodiversity preservation. If we assume compatibility, a "regional conservation model" may be adopted which incorporates both environmental conservation and maintenance of biological diversity as well as providing opportunities for human development and welfare. The project will investigate these issues by measuring human land use and biological conservation in three different land-use regimes in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Specific studies will include land use patterns; human nutrition, economy, and demography; livestock nutritional ecology, production and demography; wildlife diversity, density and habitat use patterns; and vegetation and habitat mapping. This research should contribute valuable knowledge to inform policy makers on strategies of biodiversity conservation.