Biology is (almost) irrelevant. Governance is

(almost) everything.

For successful biodiversity conservation outcomes in Africa.

Examples from the Miombo Biome

• Dry Tropical Forests cover 70%-80% of forested land in Africa

• About 50% of Africa’s population live in areas where the forests occur

• The forests are essential for rural livelihoods

Zambia is at the heart of the Miombo

Biome

One of the highest rates of deforestation

in the world

Charcoal is the main fuel for urban poor

Examples from a 5 year study of land use

change over 30 years

Scale of Environmental Change (time/area) is

staggering• This is a major crisis. No time for decade long studies or just adding to the literature - IF the aim is conservation

• Social, economic and political (Governance) factors are driving this faster - not slower

• What role is there for biological research?

Location of the study area

An aerial view

Kalahari Woodland Zambezi Teak Forest

Zambezi Teak Forests

1975

Zambezi Teak Forests

2005 - 53% reduction in area

What role for

biological/ecological research?

• Fire? - already important -may increase with climate change

• Phenology? - important for predicting effects of climate change

• Modelling landcover change?

Fire Frequency 2000-2005Data from MODIS FIRMS (Davies et al., 2009; Giglio et al.,

2003)

There is justification for fire study – will it help?

A General Drying Trend

From www.climatewizard.orgbased on data from Mitchell et al. (2004)

Could phenological studies assist with conservation?

A General Warming Trend

From www.climatewizard.orgbased on data from Mitchell et al. (2004)

Could phenological studies assist with conservation?

In the Midst of Destruction

• What new biological knowledge will help to conserve forested landscapes in the Miombo ecoregion?

• What new ecological model, methodology, or mapping technique will prevent large scale destruction?

I Don’t KnowDo you?

New Conceptual Approaches

Resilience Approach• Maintain Diversity and Redundancy• Manage Connectivity• Manage slow variables and

feedbacks• Complex Adaptive Systems thinking• Encourage learning• Broaden participation• Promote poly-centric governance• Caveats - context is important

New Conceptual Approaches

Sustainability Science• Multi, Inter and Trans - Disciplinary

approaches• Focus on interactions between ecology,

society• Problem driven research agenda• Context, Context, Context - there are

few universal solutions - unfortunately• Bridge the gap between theory, practice

and policy

Governance and Interactions

How does biological research fit in?

Scale and Governance

Zambezi TeakForests

Past / Current Logging

Control Fire opens forest to fire

ConservationNGO’s

enhance

Honey Harvest

cause of fires

CulturalPracticeTraditional

Governance

regulatesaccess

demands

Elected LocalGovernment conflict

rival claimsto authority

regulates

Timber companyHunting safaris

enhance

increases

Corruptioncauses

New ecological research contributesvery little to these interactions

Biology/Ecology is important for

conservation, but…• Only if biologists/ecologists take on the challenge of new conceptual frameworks

• You’re not alone - Anthropologists, Political Scientists, etc. are having to learn biology too

• Scale, Local Context, and Interactions mediated through Governance must determine the type of biological/ecological studies. Biologists must not drive the agenda.

Future Change• Sometimes we know enough biology for conservation purposes. Stop and consider other factors

• Wider scientific community must value context based studies that do not necessarily have wider significance

• Stop trying to be physicists and discover a theory of everything

• Open up to include humans in an ecological role (esp. in Africa) in structuring past habitats - it will help with their future role

This is how we should be doing conservation in Africa