Page 321 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

with international agencies and with U.S. funding to replant
and protect areas of the forest.
The world’s highest-profile restoration project today is an
effort to restore the vast marshes of southern Iraq. For several
thousand years, people lived sustainably among the wetlands
of this region in the floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, thriving on its plentiful fish and shellfish. In the 1990s
following the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein
ordered a huge system of dikes and canals built to drain the
marshes. He aimed to devastate the people living there, whom
he viewed as disloyal. After Saddam’s death, ecologists from
many nations joined the people of the marshes in a multi-mil-
lion-dollar ecological restoration effort. The international pro-
ject, led by Iraqi scientist Azzam Allwash, was able to restore
natural water flow to most of the region, so that vegetation
grew back and wildlife and people began returning. Following
this rapid success, however, drought descended on the region,
and Iraq’s upstream neighbors Turkey and Syria began divert-
ing water from the rivers for their own purposes. As of 2013,
ecologists and human rights supporters alike were searching
for ways to complete this ambitious restoration project. Figure 11.23 Scientists and conservation advocates work
cooperatively with local people to conserve wildlife. Biologist
Alayne Cotterill of the conservation research group Living with
Lions works with Maasai warriors to monitor lion populations near
WEIGhING ThE ISSUES the Serengeti.
SINGLE-SPECIES CONSERvATION? What would you say are
some advantages of focusing on conserving single species, and buffaloes might spread disease to their cattle. Farmers lost
versus trying to conserve broader communities, ecosystems, produce when elephants roamed into their fields at night and
or landscapes? What might be some of the disadvantages? ate their crops. Moreover, the economic benefits of ecotour-
Which do you think is the better approach, or should we use ism were not being shared with all people in the region.
both, and why? In response, proponents of conservation have tried to
reallocate tourist dollars to local villages and to transfer some
authority over wildlife management to local people. Gov-
Community-based conservation is growing ernment agencies have begun to work with local people to
manage wildlife jointly, in a type of community-based con-
Helping people, wildlife, and ecosystems all at the same time is servation called co-management. In the regions around the
the focus of many current efforts in conservation biology. In the Maasai Mara Reserve, the Kenya Wildlife Service and inter-
past, conservationists from industrialized nations, in their zeal to national NGOs have been helping farmers and ranchers build
preserve ecosystems in other parts of the world, often neglected strong electric fences to keep wildlife away from their crops
the needs of people in the areas they wanted to protect. Develop- and livestock. Scientific studies are showing that these efforts
ing nations came to view this as a kind of neocolonialism. Today are reducing human–wildlife conflicts and giving local people
this has changed, and many conservation biologists actively a more favorable attitude toward conservation, but that they
engage local people in efforts to protect land and wildlife—a also raise new challenges. For instance, in some cases ele-
cooperative approach called community-based conservation. phants are thriving and reproducing on reserves, but because
As of 2010, 23% of the world’s protected areas were being they are now hemmed in by fences, they become overcrowded
managed under some kind of community-based conservation. and overgraze the vegetation, destroying trees and endangered
Community-based conservation has been widely prac- plants the reserves were meant to protect.
ticed in East Africa. Conservationists and scientists began Working cooperatively with local people to make conser-
working with the Maasai and other people of the region years vation beneficial for them requires determination, patience,
ago, understanding that in order to conserve animals and eco- investment, and trust on all sides. Setting aside land for pres-
systems, the local people need to be stewards of the land and ervation may deprive local people of access to exploitable
feel invested in conservation (Figure 11.23). This has proved resources, but it also helps ensure that those resources can be
challenging because the parks and reserves were created on sustainably managed and will not be used up or sold to foreign
land historically used by local people. Sometimes people were corporations. If tourism revenues are adequately spread, peo-
forcibly relocated; by some estimates 50,000 Maasai were ple see direct economic benefits of conserving wildlife and
evicted to create Serengeti National Park. In the view of many may be willing to work alongside government agencies and
local people, the parks were a government land grab, and laws international conservationists. Community-based conserva-
against poaching deprive them of a right to kill wildlife. As tion has not always been successful, but in a world of rising
human population grew in the region, conflicts between peo- human population, sustaining biodiversity will require locally
320 ple and wildlife increased. Ranchers worried that wildebeest based management that sustainably meets people’s needs.

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