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

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

• ISBN13: 9781444317091
• ISBN10: 1444317091
• Edition: 1st
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2009-11-07
• 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 book 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 by Anthony R. E. Sinclair & George B. Schaller

1. Introduction: A review of rangeland conservation issues in an uncertain future (Monica L. Wrobel & Kent H. Redford).

Part I - Thematic Reviews

2. Riding the rangelands piggyback: a resilience approach to conservation management (Brian Walker).

3. Addressing the mismatches between livestock production and wildlife conservation across spatiotemporal scales and institutional levels (Johan T. du Toit).

4. Rangeland conservation and shrub encroachment: new perspectives on an old problem (Steven R. Archer).

5. Health and disease in wild rangelands (Richard Kock, Mike Kock, Sarah Cleaveland & Gavin Thomson).

6. Contemporary views of human-carnivore conflicts on wild rangelands (Alexandra Zimmermann, Nick Baker, Chloe Inskip, John D.C. Linnell, Silvio Marchini, John Odden, Greg Rasmussen & Adrian Treves).

7. Financial incentives for rangeland conservation: addressing the “show-us-the-money” challenge (Ray Victurine & Charles Curtin).

Part II – Case Studies

8. Biodiversity conservation in Australian tropical rangelands (Stephen T. Garnett, John C.Z. Woinarski, Gabriel M. Crowley, and Alex S. Kutt).

9. Livestock grazing and wildlife conservation in the American West: historical, policy, and conservation biology perspectives (Thomas L. Fleischner).

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

Ricardo Baldi, Andrés Novaro, Martín Funes, Susan Walker, Pablo Ferrando, Mauricio Failla & Pablo Carmanchahi

11. Multiple use of Trans-Himalayan rangelands: reconciling human livelihoods with wildlife conservation (Charudutt Mishra, Sumanta Bagchi, Tsewang Namgail & Yash Veer Bhatnagar).

12. Herders and hunters in a transitional economy: the challenge of wildlife and rangeland management in post-socialist Mongolia (Katie M. Scharf, María E. Fernández-Giménez, Batjav Batbuyan & Sumiya Enkhbold).

13. Social and economic challenges for conservation in east African rangelands: land use, livelihoods and wildlife change in Maasailand (Katherine Homewood & Michael Thompson).

14. The future for wildlife on Kenya's rangelands: an economic perspective (Michael Norton-Griffiths & Mohammed Y. Said).

15. Synthesis: Local and global solutions to the challenge of keeping rangelands wild (James C. Deutsch).

Index