Wild Rangelands Conserving Wildlife While Maintaining Livestock in Semi-Arid Ecosystems

by du Toit, Johan T.; Kock, Richard; Deutsch , James

• ISBN13: 9781405177856
• ISBN10: 1405177853
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-26
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Rangeland ecosystems which include unimproved grasslands, shrublands, savannas and semi-deserts, support half of the world's livestock, while also providing habitats for some of the most charismatic of wildlife species. This book examines the pressures on rangeland ecosystems worldwide from human land use, over-hunting, and subsistence and commercial farming of livestock and crops. Leading experts have pooled their experiences from all continents to cover the ecological, sociological, political, veterinary, and economic aspects of rangeland management today. This is provides practitioners and students of rangeland management and wildland conservation with a diversity of perspectives on a central question: can rangelands be wildlands? The first book to examine rangelands from a conservation perspective Emphasizes the balance between the needs of people and livestock, and wildlife Written by an international team of experts covering all geographical regions Examines ecological, sociological, political, veterinary, and economic aspects of rangeland management and wildland conservation, providing a diversity of perspectives not seen before in a single volume

Author Biography

Johan T. du Toit is a professor at Utah State University, where he is the Head of the Department of Wildland Resources. He is especially interested in the ecology of large mammals and the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems through the fusion of science and management.

Richard Kock is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and specialist in wildlife medicine. He has worked with a focus on wildlife health and conservation, livestock and mixed wildlife/livestock communities and in rangelands throughout his career. He has worked for the Zoological Society of London for 26 years and now works in the African and South Asian region looking at wildlife health programmes in wild rangelands.

James Deutsch directs the Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, with over a thousand staff working to save globally important landscapes and species in twelve African countries. James has lectured at the University of East Anglia and Imperial College, helped found the Tropical Biology Association and AIDS Treatment Project, ran Crusaid, and chairs Aidspan.

Table of Contents

Contributors

Preface

Foreword

Introduction: A review of rangeland conservation issues in an uncertain future

Thematic Reviews

Riding the rangelands piggyback: a resilience approach to conservation management

Addressing the mismatches between livestock production and wildlife conservation across spatiotemporal scales and institutional levels

Rangeland conservation and shrub encroachment: new perspectives on an old problem

Health and disease in wild rangelands

Contemporary views of human-carnivore conflicts on wild rangelands

Financial incentives for rangeland conservation: addressing the show-us-the-money"

challenge

Case Studies

Biodiversity conservation in Australian tropical rangelands

Livestock grazing and wildlife conservation in the American West: historical, policy, and conservation biology perspectives

Guanaco management in Patagonian rangelands: a conservation opportunity on the brink of collapse

Multiple use of Trans-Himalayan rangelands: reconciling human livelihoods with wildlife conservation

Herders and hunters in a transitional economy: the challenge of wildlife and rangeland management in post-socialist Mongolia

Social and economic challenges for conservation in east African rangelands: land use, livelihoods and wildlife change in Maasailand

The future for wildlife on Kenya's rangelands: an economic perspective

Synthesis: Local and global solutions to the challenge of keeping rangelands wild

Index

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