Dynamic Conservation in Africa

Extract

For some years past I have had a feeling that our approach to the conservation of the flora and fauna all over the world, but especially in Africa, has been too static. This does not fit in well with the natural situations which we want to perpetuate, for they are nearly all dynamic situations. Admittedly we have moved our standpoint to some extent recently: for instance, the idea that particular species endangered by advancing civilization could survive by giving them individual protection has been generally discarded in favour of conserving the habitats in which such species live and which are prerequisites to their continued existence. But there is still much emphasis on trying to retain the status quo, say in a national park or strict natural reserve, by putting around it a real or symbolic fence and regarding the area and its ecology as sacrosanct and there for ever. And yet wherever a particular ecological situation has been studied, whether it is hinged on elephants or earthworms, the conclusion is always reached that it is dynamic–subject to continual change of balance of populations, of food relations, of chemistry and physics of the environment. Indeed nature will never stand still however much we might sometimes wish it to; and on top of all the natural changes are others imposed by mankind.