Page 15 - Professorial Lecture - Professor Mapaure
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2. Establish a working system of water point closure and opening (temporal and
spatial management) to lessen and/or spread herbivore and visitor pressure
to acceptable levels.
4.3 Fire-herbivore-vegetation interactions
In African savannas, understanding interactions among large mammalian
herbivores, their habitats and fire is very important for tourism management and
biodiversity conservation. Fire has been part of African savanna landscapes for
millennia and its occurrence has been increasing with expanding human
populations. In a study we did in Sengwa Wildlife Research in north-western
Zimbabwe, it was shown that natural fire occurrence was only 3%, the rest were
anthropogenic fires (Mapaure et al., 2009; Figure 8).
Figure 8: Sources of ignition in Sengwa wildlife Research Area, north western
Zimbabwe.
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