Page 20 - Professorial Lecture - Professor Mapaure

5. CONCLUSIONS

Balancing wildlife-based tourism with biodiversity conservation is very important
for economic development and human survival on this planet. This essay has
highlighted some of the important considerations in order to achieve both of these
goals. There is need to determine and implement sustainable densities of animals,
humans and vehicle volumes in tourist destinations, particularly in protected areas.
Certain vehicle sizes must be strictly regulated or even banned in ecologically
sensitive areas. Road infrastructure must be planned in such a way to minimise
unacceptable habitat fragmentation while enhancing optimal visitor experience.
Managers should strive to establish working systems of water point opening and
closure to promote recovery of rangeland health and integrity, where necessary.
There is need to re-visit fire management policies and practices to allow historical
fire regimes in savannas - complete fire exclusion can be hazardous. Effective fire
management can only be achieved through participatory fire management
approaches which involve local communities. There is need to harmonize
local/domestic legislation and appropriate guidelines to promote biodiversity
conservation and sustainable tourism in southern African savanna ecosystems. Let
us avoid ‘biting the hand that feeds us’ - we must promote a balance between
biodiversity conservation and wildlife-based tourism.

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