Issues in African Biodiversity, No. 3. Identification, Utilization, and Conservation of Medicinal Plants in Southeastern Nigeria

A Framework for Integrating Biodiversity
Conservation and Sustainable Development

Biodiversity Support Program

A USAID-funded Consortium of World Wildlife Fund,
The Nature Conservancy, and World Resources Institute

TABLE OF CONTENTS

African Biodiversity: Foundation for the Future
A Framework for Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development.
© 1993 by Biodiversity Support Program. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the permission of Biodiversity Support Program.

This publication was made possible through support provided to BSP by the Global Bureau of USAID, under the terms of Cooperative Agreement Number DHR-A-00-88-00044-00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

African Biodiversity Advisory Group*

The Biodiversity Support Program (BSP) extends its deep appreciation to the entire Advisory Group for its active and thoughtful participation in the development of this report.

Emmanuel Chidumayo, University of Zambia
Mohamed Khalil, African Centre for Technology Studies, Kenya
Patricia McFadden, African Centre for Family Studies, Kenya
Steven Njuguna, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Kenya
Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, University of Ghana
Ademola Salau, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria
William Weber, Wildlife Conservation International, U.S.A.

Project Coordination

Kate Newman, BSP Program Manager for Africa, Senior Editor
James Webster, BSP Program Officer, Editor

Project Guidance

Kathryn Saterson, BSP Director
Timothy Resch, USAID/Africa Bureau

Principal Writers*

BSP wishes to thank the principal writers for their excellent and provocative contributions to the report.

Alden Almquist
Ian Deshmukh
Paula Donnelly-Roark
George Frame
Barbara Pitkin, BSP Program Officer
Fred Swartzendruber

Writing, Editing, Research

Mohamed Bakarr, BSP Research Fellow
Norm Bourg, BSP Intern
Barbara Pitkin, BSP Program Officer
Brad Rymph, Independent Editor
David Wilkie, Independent Consultant

Logistics, Contracting, Financial Management

Peter DeBrine, BSP Program Coordinator
Satta Nallo, BSP Secretary
Clarine Simpson, BSP Project Support

Reviewers

The staff of BSP would like to extend a special thanks to those who patiently reviewed the many iterations of this document and provided invaluable guidance and advice.

*See Biographical Summaries

LIST OF BOXES Box 1. A New Approach Box 2. The Human Use of Forest Biodiversity in Central Africa Box 3. Cultivation Systems of the Miombo Woodlands in Southern Africa Box 4. The Neglect of Women's Role in Biodiversity Conservation in Africa Box 5. Population Growth and Conservation of Biodiversity: An African Perspective Box 6. Northern and African Historical Conceptions of Nature Box 7. Priority Recommendations for Conserving African Biodiversity Box 8. Value Conflicts: The Ban On Ivory Trade Box 9. Biodiversity Values in Ghana Box 10. Cultivating Biodiversity in West Africa Box 11. Matching Population Distribution to Resource Distribution Box 12. Indigenous Protected Area Systems in Ghana Box 13. Nazinga Game Ranch Box 14. Three Traditional Farming Systems in Miombo Woodland Box 15. An Example of Conservation, Management and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity: The Tana River Delta, Kenya Box 16. Structural Adjustment Programs: The Kenyan Example Box 17. Government Agencies Involved in Biodiversity Policy Box 18. Community Consevation in Tsavo West National Park, Kenya Box 19. Environmental Education Project in Ethiopia

PREFACE

African Biodiversity: Foundation for the Future. A Framework for Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development is the principal product of the first phase of the Biodiversity Analysis for Africa (BAA) Project, implemented by the Biodiversity Support Program (BSP)¹ and funded by the Africa Bureau of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The goal of the BAA Project is to help improve efforts in Africa to conserve biological diversity while promoting human prosperity through an analysis of biodiversity conservation approaches currently in use or being tested in Africa.

The analysis is intended to help USAID's Africa Bureau and missions in Africa, African governments, and both international and African nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) shape organizational strategies and programs that are more effective in conserving biological diversity while promoting sustainable development. This will be achieved by providing implementors with current information on the lessons learned from on-going efforts in the field.

The first stage of the project was to develop the strategic framework of critical issues in African biodiversity conservation described in this report. This framework is intended to help guide ongoing USAID and other efforts in the field as well as shape the BAA analysis. In order to develop an analytical framework that would be most successful in meeting these objectives, it was evident that the definition and prioritization of the critical issues for the conservation of biodiversity in Africa should emanate directly from the point of view of Africans themselves.

To learn of the African perspective on biodiversity conservation, BSP established the African Biodiversity Advisory Group. The women and men of the Advisory Group were selected to represent diverse regions (east, southern, central, and west Africa), disciplines (both the natural and social sciences), institutions (governments, NGOs, academia), gender, and biomes (forest, marine, savanna, arid). We sought the most balanced and realistic view of conservation possible in a small group. While most of the members are African, one is American, providing the perspective of a Western conservationist with many years of experience in implementing NGO and donor-funded conservation activities in Africa.

The Advisory Group identified, discussed, and prioritized the critical biodiversity conservation issues included in this report. Based on their guidance, a team of BSP staff and consultants wrote the majority of the report. The Advisory Group reviewed drafts and wrote individual analytical reports that are included, in part, in this document. (These individual reports will be published in a separate volume.) The hard work, patience and wise counsel of the members of the Advisory Group were invaluable in the development of this report.

The success of the Advisory Group has generated a great deal of interest from USAID and other donors, in part because past biodiversity conservation strategies in Africa have often been developed with limited African input. The Advisory Group was in a unique position to articulate new ideas, some of which challenge conventional wisdom, and to identify issues that are priorities for Africans. This process of collaborative action between US and African individuals and organizations was an educational and rewarding experience for everyone involved.

¹ The Biodiversity Support Program is a consortium of World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute and The Nature Conservancy, funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As the worldwide loss of biodiversity has accelerated in recent decades, awareness has grown of the potentially disastrous consequences of this trend for the earth's ecological functions and the fulfillment of basic human development needs. This trend is especially important in sub-Saharan Africa where people depend on biological resources to a far greater extent than most other parts of the world. Throughout the continent, biological resources are fundamental to human well-being: agriculture, livestock, logging, and fisheries, for example, account for most subsistence survival, employment, export earnings, and economic output in much of sub-Saharan Africa.

Africa's enormous dependence on biological resources brings with it a particular vulnerability. In the event of declining productivity due to environmental degradation, few alternative development paths are readily available and financial resources for carrying out environmental restoration are limited. The ecosystems that provide critical biological resources are diverse at many levels including genetic variability, species richness, and overall ecosystem characteristics. Important ecological functions may depend to differing degrees on this biodiversity. Environmental degradation that leads to the destruction of these ecosystems must therefore be viewed as a serious threat to Africa's future.

Africa's ecosystems are coming under increasing pressure, and it is evident that ways must be found to raise production and incomes and, at the same time, learn how to better manage the biological resource base. Africa is, and will continue to be, dependent on its biological resources for food, shelter, and income. The maintenance of healthy, productive, and diverse ecosystems will allow Africa to meet the challenges of the next decades.

In Africa, about two-thirds of the land that could support habitats for wild plants and animals is now used for other purposes (MacKinnon and MacKinnon 1986). Nevertheless, Africa still contains a wealth of biodiversity. Whereas in certain parts of the world it may be too late to stem the loss of much of the biodiversity that formerly existed, in most of Africa the opportunity still exists for proactive intervention. To the extent that biodiversity represents an important international as well as national and local resource, Africa's competitive advantage is enhanced not only by the fact that its environment is among the world's richest biologically but also by the fact that it has not yet sacrificed its endowment of these resources.

Efforts to Conserve Biodiversity in Africa

In the past, conservation efforts in Africa have tended to emphasize the international, scientific values of biological diversity and focus on areas of high species richness and endemism (places where there are species and varieties that are found nowhere else). These values have largely dictated what, where, and how conservation efforts have taken place in Africa. However, given sub-Saharan Africa's overwhelming dependence on biological resources, new, aggressive strategies for biodiversity conservation that incorporate local and national values are urgently needed.

Defining Biodiversity, Biological Resources, and Conservation

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is a concept that is used to describe the variety of life forms. Biodiversity can be measured in terms of: biomes (e.g. tropical moist forest or coastal wetland); ecosystems (a portion of the biome in which the living organisms seem to be self-sustaining); species; and genetic varieties (McNeely et al. 1990; Salwasser 1990; USAID 1988).

Another widely used definition of biodiversity is "the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur" (OTA 1987). The ecological complexes are the intricate and interdependent relationships that often occur among coexisting organisms, including the ecosystem processes that are more than just the collection of its parts.

Biological Resources include genetic resources, organisms or parts thereof, populations, or any other biotic component of ecosystems with actual or potential use or value for humanity. (United Nations Convention on Biodiversity 1992) These biological resources represent an indispensable resource endowment: the food that is eaten, the fuel with which the food is cooked, and the products that sustain livelihoods and generate wealth.

Conservation is defined as the management of human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainable benefit present generations while maintaining its potential to meet needs and aspirations of future generations. Thus, conservation embraces preservation, maintenance, sustainable utilization and restoration, and enhancement of the natural environment (IUCN, UNEP, WWF 1980).

Both biological diversity and biological resources need to be conserved. The conservation of biological resources depends on the continued health and productivity of local ecosystems. The African ecosystems that provide biological products are diverse systems in terms of genetic variability, species richness, and ecosystem characteristics. The diversity of these systems is an important factor in their stability and productivity. In general, more complex and diversified systems exhibit greater resilience and less vulnerability to environmental stresses than do less complex systems. In the words of biologist E.O. Wilson, "An ecosystem kept productive by multiple species is an ecosystem less likely to fail" (Wilson 1992). Thus it is not enough to simply protect selected, highly valued biological resources. In order to maintain these desirable products, the genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity of Africa's biological systems must be conserved.

Conservation of biological resources in specially selected sites in Africa began many years ago, and arose from several motivations: the desire of colonial authorities to preserve game populations for (white) hunters, misunderstanding of traditional African patterns of hunting and resource use, and concerns about deforestation and other environmental problems such as drought, tsetse fly, and rinderpest. The alienation of land for national parks, forest reserves, and hunting reserves was part of a larger pattern of colonial restructuring of African land-use traditions. Over time, as the conservation ethic grew in the North, concerns to set aside land for protection of endangered species and habitats were also transferred to Africa.

There are multiple studies that have been influential in the establishment of priorities for biodiversity conservation projects; however in almost all of them, African knowledge and value systems have been consistently marginalized by "Northern" values (see glossary for definition). The priorities are based only on scientific information that often has little or no relation to the indigenous knowledge base, which has led to an emphasis on national parks and other protected areas. As a result, local people remain marginalized in conservation efforts across the continent. For Africans, the creation of national parks has often meant that rural people are excluded from traditional grazing and farm lands, in the interest of protecting wildlife and natural habitats. Thus, efforts to protect the natural environment in Africa have often sacrificed the interests of Africans for foreign interests.

New strategies for conserving biodiversity in Africa are urgently needed that:

1) respect and incorporate African values, knowledge systems and priorities;

2) involve local people in the management and use of biological resources;

3) can control or reverse the loss of biodiversity in every country in the region; and

4) treat biodiversity conservation and economic development as integral aspects of the same process of sustainable development.

Incorporating African Values, Priorities, and Knowledge Systems

Many past biodiversity conservation strategies and approaches have failed to effectively address African values, priorities, and practices. International values, as opposed to national and local values, have tended to dominate biodiversity conservation efforts. Africa's dependence on biological resources for economic and cultural purposes has not been given appropriate recognition. In many traditional African societies, natural resource use tended to cause little damage to biodiversity, in part because of low population density. In addition, these societies fostered belief systems as well as social norms that encouraged or even enforced limits to exploitation. Such production methods, and the values that underlie and reinforce them, were well adapted to local conditions in the past, but in some cases at least, they are now becoming obsolete and perhaps counterproductive. How to best retain the best attributes of traditional societies under conditions of rapid modernization and urbanization must considered one of the most pressing issues for African nations.

Involving Local People

Human activity is often associated with environmental degradation, and with the loss of biodiversity. Rural African people throughout most cultures and societies have traditionally been practitioners of complex environmental processes designed to conserve, and in some instances nurture their environment. Northern conservation efforts were introduced during the colonial period, when specially-selected sites were set aside and most human exploitation within them was prohibited. Rather than being an integral component of the existing social system, these national parks and reserves were imposed from outside. Given the historical antecedents of today's protected area system in sub-Saharan Africa, it is perhaps not surprising that the attitudes of local people living near national parks and reserves often reflect suspicion and mistrust of conservation policies. This legacy is one of the reasons that new approaches toward people-oriented conservation have been introduced in recent years, and must be fostered in the future.

Conserving Biodiversity in Each African Nation

Many current biodiversity conservation strategies focus on countries that have large numbers of endemic species. Understanding that the loss of biodiversity ultimately affects all people - Africans and non-Africans alike - leads to the conclusion that it is important to conserve biodiversity in all African countries, not just in those with the greatest number or uniqueness of species. Most African nations now are aware of the value of biodiversity conservation, and want to pursue programs that will ensure the long-term conservation of natural resources as a means of ensuring sustainable development. An important element of the approach articulated in this report is that every nation should strive to better manage its biological resources for the long-term welfare of its own citizens as much as for global benefit.

Linking Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development

Economic development in sub-Saharan Africa is unsustainable largely because biological resources are being mismanaged and cannot be sustained at their present rates of use. The transition to sustainable economic growth requires a broad-based change in thinking about Africa's natural resource base and in the ways that decisions about investment and exploitation are made.

There is a new awareness among international donors and African governments that sustainable development and biodiversity conservation are intricately linked (IUCN 1991). Human use of biological resources is fundamental to development in Africa. Biodiversity conservation must therefore be relevant to the needs of Africans, and people must be part of the decision-making process.

The loss of biodiversity in Africa may have less to do with the amount of land under protection than with the forms of land use taking place on the rest of the landscape. Through the introduction of better land-use planning and more appropriate matching of production technologies to local ecological constraints, it might be possible to stabilize and perhaps even reverse the trend toward environmental degradation. Strategic natural resource and land-use planning at the national level as well as the provincial and local levels is needed to ensure that Africa's unique biological heritage is not needlessly sacrificed to the inadvertent effects of poorly managed economic development policies.

Poverty is one of the prime forces eroding biodiversity in Africa. Development can be a potent force in conservation, provided that economic growth improves the well-being of all members of society. As agriculture and land use management practices change, the availability and uses of wild resources change, having profound implications for the food and economic security of marginal populations, as well as for biodiversity. An important part of the enabling environment for the conservation of biodiversity, therefore, is meaningful progress toward the reduction of poverty in Africa. Thus, combining conservation efforts with initiatives for sustainable development is one of the key recommendations of this report.

An Action Program

This report outlines an "Action Program" to assist decision-makers in their efforts to conserve Africa's biodiversity while promoting sustainable development. Details would vary between and within countries, depending on ecological and human conditions, but the guiding principles and recommendations outlined here are intended to provide a starting point for implementation of a strategic framework for conserving biodiversity and sustaining development in sub-Saharan Africa.

This report identifies numerous recommendations for action to slow the loss of biodiversity in Africa and to make development more sustainable. These recommendations, and a sample of specific action items illustrating in more detail how these measures can be put into effect, are discussed in Chapter 2.

Six recommendations merit particular emphasis because of their fundamental role in laying the groundwork for other measures to conserve biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa. While these six actions are not necessarily prerequisites to the other recommendations in terms of timing or phasing of activities, these actions would considerably enhance their implementation. In this sense, they should be considered priorities for implementing this report's framework for conservation.

1. In each African country, establish a strategic natural resource and land-use planning system that incorporates biodiversity issues.

2. Decentralize power to manage biological resources thereby enabling local communities to use resources sustainably, supported by local government.

3. Create a policy environment conducive to land-use systems that conserve biodiversity.

4. Develop participatory management systems for formal protected areas as well as for production systems on non-protected lands.

5. Combine the best of indigenous and modem knowledge systems to develop a deeper understanding of the full range of biodiversity conservation concerns.

6. Incorporate into biodiversity-related projects effective research, monitoring, and evaluation components which measure progress in terms of conservation and community well-being.

Critical Issues

The African Biodiversity Advisory Group identified seven major issues that need to be addressed in order to conserve biodiversity in Africa. These issues briefly summarized below, are discussed in detail in Chapters 3 through 9 of this report.

1. Values in Biodiversity Conservation

People value biological resources in different ways: spiritually, economically, aesthetically, culturally, and scientifically. Biodiversity values also differ at the international, national, and local levels. Conservation of biodiversity is directly relevant to local residents, for whom biological resources often represent their primary source of livelihood, medicine, and spiritual values. Nation-states may also express values related to biological resources, often in relation to economic benefits brought about through biological resource use, both consumptive (timber harvesting, hunting) and nonconsumptive (tourism). Biodiversity conservation has become an international issue as well, based on a global concern for maintaining the existing species richness on earth, expressed in terms of the common heritage of humans. (Johnson, in prep.)

These different values can be difficult to reconcile. It is important to be able to clarify different values that underlie positions taken on various sides of a given issue relevant to biodiversity and to understand how values can affect willingness to adopt different patterns of resource use or to reach compromises.

Many traditional societies fostered belief systems as well as social norms which encouraged or even enforced limits to exploitation of biological resources. Economic change, population growth, and other factors, however, have brought far-reaching shifts in traditional patterns.

There is a need to assess the ways in which cultural practices and value systems have fostered conservation in specific settings and to investigate how such cases can be encouraged, strengthened, and replicated. Value systems compatible with sustainable development cannot be prescribed, but must emerge through local participation, and with respect for traditional beliefs and practices that have effectively conserved biodiversity for centuries. African perspectives on the need to utilize as well as conserve existing resources need to be incorporated in any new biodiversity conservation initiatives.

2. Indigenous Knowledge

Lack of recognition, understanding, and use of Africa's indigenous knowledge, technology and practices have contributed to environmental degradation and to biodiversity loss. The knowledge and skills developed by Africans in many millennia of adaptation to, and manipulation of, their land, flora and fauna constitute an invaluable and largely untapped resource. The use of the African knowledge base together with input from Northern biological science is required in order to realize the goal of sustainability in biodiversity and development programs.

Many aspects of biodiversity and its conservation may be found embedded in Africa's indigenous taxonomies, food production practices, and religions. Attention to species diversity is reflected in highly detailed classification of plant and animal species. Concern for maintaining and developing cultivar and herdstock diversity is well documented for numerous populations. Finally, concepts affirming an ecological balance or interdependency between human, plant, and animal life can be identified in may indigenous religions. Indigenous knowledge has been available for some time, but until recently, much of this information has been largely ignored in conservation work.

3. Biodiversity Conservation Systems

Valuable ecosystems are found in all African countries. Each country should therefore formulate and adopt a national strategy for conserving its natural resources. National parks and many other kinds of protected areas serve a vital function in conserving biodiversity. With the vast majority of biodiversity on land and water outside protected areas, however, it is necessary for biodiversity conservation efforts to extend beyond national parks and protected areas. Improved land-use planning at all levels, the national, provincial, and local, is recommended as an important action for more effectively conserving biodiversity.

People need to use natural resources, so innovative ways of conserving biodiversity through sustainable use and other alternatives must be explored for areas that lie outside of strict nature preserves. Biodiversity conservation in Africa should involve longer-term, more comprehensive, proactive measures, rather than fragmented responses to the loss of species and habitats. In addition, there should be a change in focus from conserving primarily conspicuous animals and plants to a recognition of the need to conserve all kinds and sizes of living organisms, as well as the ecosystems within which they have evolved.

To control the rate of biodiversity loss and to increase production, foreign conservation technologies must be adapted to the African context to complement traditional technologies. Neither traditional production methods nor modern production methods alone can do the job (see Glossary for definition of "modern"). New combinations of traditional and modern methods can be sensitive to biodiversity conservation while providing adequate levels of sustainable production. This approach, however, can succeed only with local participation. Local people must have a voice in, and be part of, the process of developing and implementing such innovative systems. Local people, too, must be the principal beneficiaries.

4. Policies

An array of policies in many different sectors affects biodiversity in various ways, ranging from indirectly creating incentives to exploit natural resources in unsustainable ways to directly requiring improved management of biological resources. At present, few countries have adopted comprehensive policies on biodiversity. Although many countries have strong laws related to conservation within protected areas, these laws often are not enforced.

Land tenure and other legal issues related to land ownership and land use are important areas in which the national policy environment can contribute to destructive patterns of landscape change. The lack of appropriate land tenure and land-use planning in general, and land-use planning sensitive to biodiversity specifically, represents one of the most significant omissions within the policy environment in most African countries. Better land-use planning is needed, which can appropriately match various forms and levels of intensity of production with specific agro-ecological zones.

Land pressure, the need for foreign exchange, and high levels of poverty also pose major barriers to improving sustainability of resource use and conservation of biodiversity. Decision-makers may feel they have little choice but to acquiesce to activities that may prove to be detrimental to biodiversity. One challenge, therefore, will be to find ways of minimizing the adverse biodiversity impacts of such enterprises, without imposing an unrealistic burden on governments unable to provide alternative jobs or other means of gaining livelihoods.

Successes, failures, and lessons learned from recent policy reform efforts targeting biodiversity conservation are important research topics. The way in which new policies are implemented, not just formulated, however, will be a key factor in the success of policy reform programs.

5. Participation

Throughout the last two decades, the development community has moved away from "top-down" approaches towards more participatory, "bottom-up" approaches. In general, there has been a growing recognition that local cooperation, participation, and management are crucial to achieving both short-term and long-term objectives. Similarly, the conservation community is beginning to appreciate the necessity of incorporating local participation in biodiversity conservation efforts. Conservationists are now looking to the development experience for useful lessons in how to bring local people into the conservation process in Africa.

It appears that the future viability of protected areas in Africa hinges on the cooperation and support of local people. One of the main problems in engendering participation in conservation efforts is that local people often view conservation as antithetical to development (Gartlan 1992). Efforts to involve local people in the conservation of biodiversity in Africa will not succeed in the long-term unless local people perceive those efforts as serving their economic and cultural interests (Brown and Wyckoff-Baird 1992). It follows, therefore, that in order for communities to be effectively involved, they also must have a degree of control over the resources to be conserved.

Involving local people in the conservation of biodiversity is a complex, time-consuming task. Many donor organizations and project managers are under pressure to spend money quickly and do not commit the time necessary to assess community variables, initiate community dialogue, and encourage community involvement in every phase of a project. The need for patience may also conflict with feelings of urgency about the need to change or stop destructive patterns of degradation (Wells and Brandon 1992). In order to facilitate community participation at all these stages, existing community institutions must be strengthened or new ones established where necessary.

Experimentation with new, more participatory, models for conserving biodiversity is especially important in light of the need to conserve biodiversity throughout the African landscape. With Africa's new wave of democratic reforms on local and national levels, now more than ever, it may be possible to build institutions and devise policies that will enable the participation of people at all levels to engage in sustainable natural resource management and biodiversity conservation.

6. Education, Training, and Networking

Awareness and understanding of biodiversity conservation issues need to be improved throughout the populace, including national government officials and lender/donor agencies. Awareness-raising, training, and human-resource development are necessary steps to the implementation of strategies for conserving biodiversity.

It is not enough to educate future generations through the formal education system. Many Africans will receive no such education, yet deal with biological resources on a day-to-day basis. Widespread degradation of these resources is a pattern which many observe but are unable to halt without assistance. Non-formal education is one form of help required. Basic literacy is a means of empowerment, enabling people without formal education to better deal with bureaucracies that affect their lives. Environmental issues, including biodiversity conservation, could usefully be included in the material used in literacy campaigns. Properly trained and oriented extension services can include biodiversity conservation among their concerns.

National governments must address training needs and staff development. Technical staff in a wide variety of line ministries and departments should be made aware of how their work impinges upon biodiversity conservation and other environmental matters. Greater cross-sectoral understanding and coordination is vital to the broad strategies advocated in this report. In-service workshops, seminars and study tours are important conventional means of updating information. Field training should also be an integral component of staff development.

Within conventional conservation organizations (e.g., wildlife departments, national parks systems) substantial reorientation and retraining is needed in two respects. First, attention should be paid to all taxa and all elements of the landscape rather than concentrating upon megafauna and protected areas. Second, community participation in protected area management and biodiversity conservation activities outside protected areas needs to become an integral concern of these organizations.

7. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, there is a serious lack of natural resource inventories and other baseline data that are of fundamental importance for monitoring biodiversity trends. Consequently, biodiversity conservation projects and development projects often are designed and implemented using inadequate information. The projects usually lack built-in provisions for monitoring changes in biodiversity and ecological relationships, as well as the economic and social well-being of local residents. Consequently, it is impossible to accurately assess the success of most projects and to provide adequate feedback for making corrections and refinements.

The purpose of monitoring is to recognize changes (direction, size, rate) when they occur, to assess the reasons for the changes, and to predict their consequences. Inventories provide information on existing levels and patterns of biodiversity. This basic information provides the foundation for project monitoring and evaluation, and a framework for management decisions. Baseline inventories of biological and ecological characteristics, human conditions, and other factors allow later comparisons. Such trend information can be used to make refinements and course corrections in conservation projects. If carefully selected, indicators can help identify both positive and negative trends in conservation.

For project monitoring, precisely defined questions must be formulated, which will provide reliable answers in a timely manner. Monitoring of a project is a never-ending task; monitoring must be done as cost-effectively and simply as possible, so that it can continue indefinitely beyond the initial few years of a project. There is a role for modern "high-tech" approaches to monitoring, especially when huge areas are involved, but the most important and fundamental monitoring for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development is done by simply getting into the field, walking, looking, measuring, recording, talking, and collaborating with the local residents.

Local participation is a prerequisite for research, monitoring and evaluation, and must be encouraged and enhanced at the onset of a project. A long history and tradition of using biological resources has developed an inherent tendency among local people to monitor biological resources. Because of the closeness of most rural communities to nature, local people may be quick to detect changes anticipated in projects. Where necessary, local participation could be fostered through specialized training. It is likely that local residents can recognize: changes in effort required to harvest a product; changes in habitat boundaries; disappearance of a formerly common plant, animal, or fungal species; and arrival of alien invading species.

Guiding Principles

From the discussion of the seven critical issues in Part II of this report, eight important principles emerge that can be helpful in setting priorities and implementing biodiversity conservation initiatives in Africa.

• Valuable ecosystems are found in all African countries. These ecosystems are valuable not only in local or national terms but also, in many cases, in global terms. A framework for the conservation of biodiversity must take into account the multiplicity of ecosystems that exist in sub-Saharan Africa. Different approaches are necessary in different situations.

• Local traditions, knowledge systems, institutions, and environmental conditions are important factors in biodiversity conservation. The task of modifying or limiting activities destructive of biodiversity is simplified if efforts are made to reinforce, encourage, and further develop local practices or traditions that are already consistent with biodiversity conservation.

• All biological resource users should be treated equitably. Subgroups within a community, or different communities, often have different perspectives on the use and conservation of the same set of biological resources. Women and the poor, in particular, have often been ignored or disadvantaged by development activities, to the detriment of biodiversity conservation.

• Broadly based participation is essential. Local people must be involved at every step from planning to implementation to evaluation and redesign. Initially, governments and other funding agencies may need to suggest new integrated projects. In time, local communities and the private sector are likely to want to initiate similar projects but will need technical and financial assistance to do so. Projects should be carried out with local communities, rather than for them.

• Biodiversity conservation must be understood in terms of the whole system. Even small decisions should be made with regard to the broader (national or ecosystem) perspective. utilitarian focus on preserving endemism and genetic resources needs to be modified, with increasing emphasis placed on conserving ecological systems as a whole.

• It is important to accept that people will continue using resources. It is the kind and intensity of resource uses that are important. Many conventional conservation efforts have advocated protection without human use; conversely, modern agricultural systems have emphasized production without conservation. The move now must be toward programs and projects that meet human needs in ways less destructive to the environment. Production systems that are sensitive to biodiversity are more likely to be sustainable in the long term.

• A range of biodiversity conservation systems should be supported and replicated wherever possible. Every African country has its own set of biodiversity resources. The full range of biomes in a country must be considered, and within each biome there may be several major types of ecosystems. Innovative new complexes of production activities should aim at protecting representatives of each ecosystem type. Replication is necessary, because of the unpredictable resource losses from natural disaster, wars and civil strife.

• Appropriate incentives are needed to encourage all participants to become involved with conservation. Direct economic incentives include provision of tax breaks for communities or businesses involved in biodiversity conservation. Secure land and resource tenure can stimulate investment (of both human energy and financial resources) in conservation of natural resources. Government officials should have incentives for effective work in rural areas. A local community voice in biological resources governance can, of itself, be an incentive to sustainable management. Also, disincentives should be applied to actions destructive of biodiversity.

CHAPTER ONE

BIODIVERSITY, NATURAL RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT, AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Perspectives on Biodiversity

For Africans, biodiversity is a matter of survival. Their livelihoods depend on free and open access to a great variety of biological resources for food, fuel, medicines, housing materials and economic security. Because the protection of biodiversity is necessary for the maintenance of the biological resource base, biodiversity is not an abstract or theoretical issue for Africans; it is critical to life at the grassroots level. Furthermore, the presence of diversity provides the ecosystem resilience necessary to cope with periodic stresses on the environment such as drought, climatic change and war-events which have been occurring in Africa with disturbing frequency in recent years. Biodiversity is declining at rapid rates throughout the world, but nowhere is it going to be felt more dramatically than in rural Africa, where most people are dependent on biological resources for their basic subsistence and are counting on them for their future prosperity.

In developing a framework for the conservation of biodiversity, therefore, it is imperative that we recognize biodiversity's fundamental role in the development of all of sub-Saharan Africa. International conservation efforts by donors and NGOs have traditionally been focussed only in those nations with the greatest number or uniqueness of species, an approach which is based on non-African perspectives of the importance of biodiversity. A key element of the framework articulated in this report is that every African nation should strive to better manage its biological resources for the long-term welfare of its own citizens as much as for global benefit.

Critical species and habitats exist throughout the landscape: from parks to pasture lands and from forest reserves to fallow fields. In fact, much of Africa's biodiversity exists outside of the protected area system. Conservation should not, therefore, be limited to conventional protected areas such as national parks. It should begin with parks and work outward to the vast expanses of land and water that are still ecologically productive, but are currently used by humans. Improvements in biological resource management need to be applied across the full spectrum of ecosystems and habitats within each country.

Whereas in certain parts of the world it may be too late to stem the loss of much of the biodiversity that formerly existed, in most of Africa the opportunity still exists for proactive intervention. Africa's environments are among the world's richest biologically and Africans have not yet sacrificed their endowment of these resources to economic development. Traditional African societies maintained production systems that effectively conserved - and even enhanced - biodiversity. This knowledge needs to be creatively blended with the best of modern approaches to make development more sustainable across the continent. This blending will require greater recognition of the positive historic role of African women as conservators and users of biodiversity, and will demand the participation of all user groups in the planning and execution of these approaches.

For most African communities, reliable access to a diversity of biological resources - animal and plant, marine and terrestrial - is a fundamental requirement of life. Unfortunately, this access is presently being threatened by a variety of unsustainable production practices. The resulting environmental degradation is causing a dangerous decline in productivity. Yet, with their limited economic and technical resources, Africans will not be able to afford alternatives to these resources or to pay the cost of restoring the environment to its former levels of productivity. This report uses a framework based on the concept that sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in sub-Saharan Africa are inseparable and that efforts to promote one must also make appropriate provision for the other.

In the long term, the benefits from implementing the conservation measures identified here depend to a considerable extent on the development of a suitable enabling environment. Government policies, public attitudes, and institutional capability collectively represent an intangible but crucial environmental factor for good or for ill. The complex, long-term initiatives that are needed can be easily undermined by a wide variety of unanticipated pressures and conflicting priorities.

For this reason, an important linkage between sustainable development and biodiversity conservation lies in the need for progress in the political, social, and economic spheres. By combining skillful leadership that is accountable to the public, a democratic "social contract" of shared rights and responsibilities, genuine participation at all levels of society, and significant reductions in today's severe levels of poverty, both sustainable development and the conservation of biodiversity can be the result.

This report suggests a series of practical (but by no means simple) steps that African governments and NGOs can take to link sustainable development and biodiversity conservation, thereby increasing the likelihood that both will be successful over the long term.

Structure of the Report

The report is divided into two parts. Part I, "Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development in Africa," presents an overview of the challenges facing Africans in terms of conserving their biological heritage and proposes a framework of recommendations and actions that address those challenges.

Part II, "Critical Issues in Biodiversity Conservation in Africa," develops the framework described in Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) by providing a more in-depth discussion of its specific components, recommendations, and action statements. Part II contains Chapters 3 through 9, each chapter discussing a critical aspect of biodiversity conservation in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Chapter 3, "Values in Biodiversity Conservation," examines issues related to questions of social, economic, and other values, and discusses ways in which biodiversity conservation in Africa can be improved by acknowledging and incorporating African value systems.
• Chapter 4, "Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity," is concerned with an often-overlooked aspect of development and conservation in Africa: the importance of traditional knowledge of the environment and, in particular, the role women play in deriving sustenance from nature in sustainable ways.
• Chapter 5, "Biodiversity Conservation Systems," presents new approaches to biodiversity conservation, combining the best aspects of various traditional and modern systems. One approach highlighted is the use of landscape planning techniques.
• Chapter 6, "The Policy Environment," reviews some of the ways that biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa is affected by the national and international policy environment. Policies concerning land tenure systems, export promotion, and intellectual property rights can have major impacts on how much, and where, biodiversity is conserved.
• Chapter 7, "Participation in Biodiversity Conservation," stresses the importance of genuinely involving local people in planning and decision making in natural resource management. This chapter discusses different approaches that can be used to strengthen biodiversity conservation by bringing local resource users fully into the process.
• Chapter 8, "Education, Training, and Networking," highlights numerous opportunities to advance biodiversity conservation through better sharing of information and through strengthened human resource development in African countries.
• Chapter 9, "Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research" reviews some of the methods and techniques available for better project management and accountability and identifies specific constraints and opportunities in this sphere.

Africa's Dependence on Biological Resources

To a far greater extent than most other parts of the world, Africa is dependent on biological resources. Subsistence and commercial agriculture, livestock production, logging, and fisheries account for the bulk of employment, economic output, and export earnings in much of sub-Saharan Africa. This dependence transcends what is captured in economic statistics. For example, subsistence production, which in many African countries represents a substantial proportion of total output, relies entirely on the continued productivity of biological resources for the daily survival of rural households. The abundance and diversity of species found in the natural system are often critical to the survival of the poorer, more marginal populations in rural Africa. Non-staple food crops are a vital component of their subsistence diet. Throughout the region, biological resources are of fundamental importance to human well-being, and present trends strongly suggest that this importance is likely to continue into the future (see Box 2). Among the developing regions of the world, only South Asia shares Africa's dependence on biological resources from agriculture relative to industry. And even in South Asia, where agriculture also employs two-thirds of the labor force, the manufacturing sector is much more significant than in Africa, accounting for over 16 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the former, compared with only 8 percent in the latter (see Table 1).

Exports of agricultural products represent a very high proportion of foreign exchange earnings in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In some cases, only one or two crops account for well over half of all export revenues (see Table 2). Even in countries with somewhat more diversified exports, the bulk of foreign exchange earnings may be accounted for by a small list of biological products. Examples include cotton, livestock, gum arabic, and groundnuts in Chad; coffee, cotton, tea, and sisal in Tanzania; shrimp, cashew nuts, cotton, sugar, copra, and citrus in Mozambique; and cocoa, coffee, timber, bananas, and cotton in Côte d'Ivoire (Fraser 1991).

In relatively diversified Kenya, tourism, a key foreign exchange earner, is largely based on the presence of such biological systems as open savanna and coral reefs. Adding the foreign exchange from tourism to revenues from coffee and tea production brings Kenya's total dependence on biological systems for foreign exchange to more than 90 percent.

Another indication of the region's heavy dependence on the biological resource base is the fact that biomass energy accounts for a much higher proportion of total energy consumption in Africa than in other developing areas. Fuelwood is by far the largest energy source in rural areas, while urban consumers in many cases depend on charcoal produced from forest clearing. These biologically produced sources of energy not only meet the needs of African households but also fuel schools, hospitals, restaurants, bakeries, brick kilns, and many other commercial and small industrial activities. In some countries, biomass in such forms as sugarcane and sawmill residues is also an important source of energy for large agroindustrial operations.

The absence of a diversified manufacturing or industrial base in most African countries suggests that this dependence on biological resources brings with it a particular vulnerability. In the event of declining productivity due to environmental degradation, few alternative sources of income are likely to be readily available, while financial and technical resources for carrying out environmental restoration would be severely limited. Stagnant economic performance and the world's highest regional level of foreign debt (see Table 3) suggest that sub-Saharan Africa would find it difficult to offset shortfalls in domestic output through resource imports or technology transfers from other regions.

Declining levels of per capita food production in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole suggest that the biological resource base is already under pressure and has not been able to meet the demands of a growing population. Between 1979 and 1989, per capita food production in sub-Saharan Africa declined by 5 percent. During the same period in East and South Asia, it rose 23 and 12 percent respectively, and in Latin America and the Caribbean it increased by 5 percent (World Bank 1991).

Yet, in comparison with other developing regions, Africa's land area is not, on the whole, under unusually severe population pressure at present. Indeed, only in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is the average density of population relative to available agricultural land lower than in sub-Saharan Africa (see Table 4). In the Middle East and North Africa, the same area of agricultural land must support four times as many persons, while in East Asia and the Pacific this figure is six times higher than in Africa.

It is important to recognize, of course, that significant regional variation occurs in the density of human settlement in Africa and there is considerable variation in the quality of soils on agricultural land. For example, the Great Lakes area of the East African Rift Valley and certain highland areas have much higher population densities than do most other parts of the continent. The population per square kilometer of agricultural land in 1980 stood at nearly 360 in Rwanda, and 276 in Kenya (World Bank 1983). (Nevertheless, even these two figures are considerably below those for many countries in other parts of the world). Significant differences in patterns of human settlement and intensity of resource use also exist. In Tanzania, for example, which borders both Kenya and Rwanda, the population per square kilometer of agricultural land was 46 persons, less than half the average for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.

The above facts on African productivity, energy use and income lead to the conclusion that Africa's prospects for future development depend heavily on maintenance of the biological resources that are the foundation of most sub-Saharan economies. In sub-Saharan Africa, biological resources represent an indispensable resource endowment: the food that is eaten, the fuel with which food is cooked, and the export products that generate foreign exchange. These all depend to a degree that may be unique in the world on the continued health and productivity of local ecosystems.

These ecosystems are coming under serious pressure, however, and it is evident that ways must be found to raise productivity without damaging the underlying resource base upon which Africa depends so heavily. In sub-Saharan Africa, the challenge of sustainable development revolves around solving the problem of increasing output and incomes from biological resources while learning how to better manage the biological resource base.

Biological Resources and Biodiversity: Maintaining Healthy, Productive Ecological Systems

Africa is, and will continue to be, dependent on its biological resources for food, shelter, and income. Africa needs, therefore, to maintain its healthy productive ecosystems to meet the challenges of the coming decades. How do concerns over biodiversity relate to the goal of maintaining healthy, productive biological systems?What specific attributes of biodiversity are linked to sustaining healthy and productive biological systems?

The ecosystems that provide the biological products so important to Africans are also diverse systems in terms of genetic variability, species richness, and, at the macro level, ecosystem characteristics. The diversity within and among these ecosystems is an important factor in their stability and productivity; in general, more complex and diversified systems exhibit greater resilience and less vulnerability to environmental stresses than do less complex systems. In the words of biologist E. O. Wilson, "An ecosystem kept productive by multiple species is an ecosystem less likely to fail" (Wilson 1992).

In other words, important ecological functions may depend on the continued presence of biodiversity. Trends that affect water catchments, soil erosion, nutrient and energy cycles, and even climate may depend to a significant extent on the presence of biodiversity. In much of the Sahel, and in the highlands of Ethiopia and Lesotho, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity have had negative impacts in such areas as agricultural productivity and access to fuelwood (Stuart, Adams and Jenkins 1990). Biodiversity is also what makes African ecosystems especially valuable to humans. Highly diversified tropical flora and fauna, for example, offer many more natural products for human use than are found in temperate zones. Biodiversity is one of the most important natural assets of sub-Saharan Africa.

Biodiversity has been defined as "the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur" (OTA 1987). (See Executive Summary and Glossary for more detailed definitions.) Because Africa encompasses a wide range of topographic and climatic zones spread across tropical and subtropical latitudes, as well as temperate regions with a Mediterranean climate, high levels of biodiversity are found across the continent. Countries with vast tracts of lowland tropical moist forest, such as Zaire and Gabon, contain unusually high numbers of species of plants and animals ("species richness"), while the island of Madagascar is home to many globally unique ("endemic") species such as lemurs. The mountain regions of Cameroon, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Rwanda also contain major concentrations of endemism (Stuart, Adams and Jenkins 1990).

Even areas with fewer species than are found in the tropical moist forest zones are home to a wide range of unique habitats and ecosystems. Dry tropical forests are more prevalent across sub-Saharan Africa than moist forests and may be more complex ecologically than moist forests, even though they support fewer species (Janzen 1988). In other words, significant biodiversity at the genetic and ecosystem levels may be present even where species richness is not especially high. Many animals and food crops used by humans originated in these habitats, and no one is sure of the long-term implications of the loss of the habitats within which these biological resources evolved.

Human activity is often associated with environmental degradation, and with the loss of biodiversity. Many traditional African practices, however, have helped to conserve and even increase biodiversity. For example, forest farming has been practiced in Africa for at least 1,000 years, and the distinction between "natural" forests and those altered by human activity is often difficult to discern. In the central African rainforests, traditional shifting agriculture may have increased ecological diversity and provided more food for forest animals (Wilkie 1988). Similarly, traditional cultivation methods in miombo woodlands of southern Africa sometimes result in higher species diversity than in old-growth miombo areas (Chidumayo in prep.; see Box 3). In other words, the definition of biodiversity cited above should be understood to often include human-managed ecosystems a point that is usually overlooked.

Genetic Diversity and Ecological Adaptation

Historically, African people (and, more recently, their governments) have recognized how closely the genetic diversity of crops and animal populations is linked with the ability of agricultural production systems to survive the vagaries of disease and climate. The advantages of a diversified seed stock have long been recognized by African cultivators, who reduce the risk of crop failure by planting a wide range of seeds with different traits (Cherfas 1992; Juma 1989) (see Box 4).

For example, the Lese people of northeastern Zaire plant as many as 15 varieties of plantain. Some are known to grow well during heavy rains, while others resist drought, and yet others are resistant to pests. In this way, the Lese are able to protect their crop investment against unpredictable events, and distribute crop yields and products over time. Different varieties are also planted according to such criteria as local soil conditions, slope and drainage, and shade tree cover (Wilkie, pers. comm. 1992).

A single field planted by the Ngbaka people of the Central African Republic may contain 19 varieties of plantains, 5 yam cultivars, and 3 varieties of taro. Similarly, the Mvae people of southern Cameroon cultivate some 30 varieties of cassava, and, while the neighboring Yassa people grow only three cassava cultivars, they diversify food production through numerous supplementary crops, including fruit trees, bananas, plantains, and taros.

The people of the Nuba hills in Sudan have traditionally cultivated dozens of varieties of sorghum, each of which is known and valued for particular characteristics. The replacement of these "inferior" traditional seeds with modern varieties promoted by government extension services has had serious consequences. The modern cultivars have proved to be far less resistant to drought and pests and to be dependent on inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides, which are often unavailable (Bedigian 1991).

Genetic variability or diversity within crops or animal populations increases resistance to disease and other environmental threats, an attribute of great importance from a global point of view. In Northern countries, the producers of high-yielding hybrid seeds used in commercial agriculture rely to a significant extent on germ plasm from wild relatives of such grains as corn, wheat, rice, barley, and sorghum.

Much of this germ plasm is collected from developing countries, including many African countries, in a continuous effort to identify and transfer special genetic characteristics such as resistance to drought, disease, or pests. Barley from Ethiopia, for example, has protected the California barley industry, with an annual value of $160 million, from a highly destructive virus (Miller and Tangley 1991).

Species Diversity and Local Values

Biological diversity at the species level has important economic and cultural advantages. As described above, diversity in the range of cultivated species allows farmers to hedge against risks associated with environmental stress such as changes in rainfall patterns (a phenomenon becoming disturbingly more frequent in many parts of Africa). In addition to diversity in cultivated species, rural Africans rely on a wide variety of species found in the natural environment for maintaining an acceptable standard of living (see Box 2). For example, most rural Africans rely on naturally growing trees for housing construction materials. Different species of trees and plants are used for different purposes depending on hardness, resilience, resistance to termites or other attributes sought in producing the walls, structural supports, roofing slats, roofing material, etc. In one village in Ghana, for example, more than 36 plant species were used in house building (Falconer, 1992). Differing attributes such as hardness and resilience are also important when choosing wood for producing tools (hoes, pestles, mortars and baskets), furniture, art (masks and statues), and fuelwood.

Figure 1.

Use of Plant Medicines in Ghana

Africans rely on a significant diversity of wild plants and animals to supplement cultivated produce in order to meet their basic nutritional requirements. In many areas of Africa the only regular animal protein sources are fish, small game and insects such as caterpillars and termites. Wild fruits gathered and eaten mostly by children add important vitamins and minerals during the key growth years. Wild greens eaten as "condiments" with the staple cassava, corn or rice crops are often the only source of vegetable protein and vitamins on a given day. During the "hunger" seasons or droughts, when stored foods have run out, wild foods are often the main source of calories and nutrients.

Africans meet many of their medicinal needs with naturally occurring plant species. Common treatments are known and used by the majority of people before seeking the help of specialist healers or modern medicine. Women have the primary responsibility of ensuring family health and as such, often have inherited from their mothers a complex knowledge of the medicinal uses of leaves, roots, barks, etc. (Falconer 1992; Dianzinga et at. 1992) (see Box 4).

As these construction, food and medicinal items are for local consumption, they never enter the market economy nor the monetary accounting systems set up by national or international economic analysts. The replacement value of these species, however, would be very high if calculated in terms of future international donor food aid or increases in the cash income of rural dwellers sufficient to purchase foods or pharmaceuticals of the same nutritional or medicinal value (Warshall 1989).

In addition, the availability of diverse commodities in the national economy affords some protection against the consequences of fluctuations in world or local markets. In central Africa, for example, the former Eastern European market for reddish hardwoods has fallen sharply following the political realignments of the late 1 980s. Timber exporters must now either seek alternative markets for these species or develop new markets for previously unexploited species (BSP 1993). In retrospect, central African exporters are fortunate to have a highly diversified forest inventory to work with: more than 500 species of trees grow to commercial timber size, although fewer than 10 species are regularly exploited at present (lIED 1988). In Swaziland, in comparison, planted stands now dominate the timber industry, which accounts for nearly one-fifth of total exports (Fraser 1991).

Ecosystem Diversity and National Economic Benefits

High levels of ecosystem diversity are found across sub-Saharan Africa. This ecosystem diversity is an important characteristic of the continent's biological resource endowment. Sub-Saharan Africa encompasses highly contrasting vegetation zones, including rainforest, bushland, and deserts, as well as montane forests, mangrove forests, inland lakes, coral reefs, and wetlands. These different biomes support vastly different plant and animal communities, which are used in quite different ways by humans. Wise use of such ecosystem diversity can have profound economic implications for African populations and for their governments.

One country in which the economic advantages of ecosystem diversity are readily apparent is Kenya. Economic activities are concentrated within particular zones according to elevation, rainfall, and other climatic and soil characteristics. Tea and coffee production dominate highland areas, zones that also support many subsistence farming communities. Indian Ocean beaches and coral reefs draw large numbers of visitors with foreign currency, while commercial ranching for cattle and wildlife, and maize production are found in lowland areas of the interior. National parks, another major source of tourism revenues, are mostly located in dry, grassy savanna areas. Fisheries are important on the coast and along the shores of Lake Victoria, while a significant dairy industry is found at higher elevations.

Economic downturns in one sector, or natural disasters in one region, are less likely to prove catastrophic where the productive base is more diversified. For example, Kenya has faced economic problems in recent years due to declining prices for coffee, a major export (see Table 2 above). Even so, the impact has been less severe than in neighboring Uganda or in Burundi. Both are economies that are less diversified and almost totally dependent on coffee for foreign revenue 95 and 80 percent, respectively (Fraser 1991). More than most other African countries, Kenya has taken full advantage of its ecosystem diversity to build a relatively diversified and resilient economy.

The Human Use of Biological Resources in Africa: Cultural Diversity and Indigenous Knowledge

Biological resources are highly valued by African people, and an extensive base of traditional knowledge has been developed concerning the characteristics and uses of these materials. Africa's ethnic diversity is also a significant aspect of the pattern of biological resource utilization, as groups have made distinct adaptations to special aspects of their environment. Trade in natural products among ethnic groups is widespread.

Among pastoralist groups, seasonal transhumance and frequent daily moving of herds between pasturages help prevent overuse of a single area's biomass and help avoid disease in their livestock. Herd diversification (cattle, camels, sheep, goats, and donkeys) ensures that both browsers and grazers are present and that a single disease is less likely to wipe out an entire herd. In the Sahel, symbiotic relationships between herders and agriculturalists (meat, milk, and manure exchanged for cereals and for grazing and stock-watering rights) are effective techniques for exploiting the rainfall-dependent environmental resource base in a sustainable way. (See Chapter 4 for more detail.)

Cultivators exhibit a detailed knowledge of locally available plants of all kinds and employ specialized production techniques based on this knowledge and their understanding of the environment. The Bukusu people of western Kenya, for example, use more than 100 different vegetable and fruit species and have developed a highly differentiated botanical classification system for the flora of the region (Juma 1991). In West Africa, the Dogon create elaborate compost piles and carefully tend and modify the structure and quality of their soils. They also plant and tend groves of a variety of the soil-enriching Acacia, whose leaves they use for fodder and whose shade shelters their crops, with the result that the Dogon have lived continuously in certain areas of Northern Mali for hundreds of years.

Threats to African Biodiversity

While the links between genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity and ecological functioning are seldom obvious and are not well documented, it is known that species/community losses at one level can induce serious consequences elsewhere in the ecological system. Habitats that are not especially rich in large numbers of species but in which a few species are occupying important ecological niches can be especially vulnerable. For example, the loss of a predator species in a savanna region could result in a population explosion of rodents or monkeys, with devastating effects on local crop production. Another example is the role of the acacia kirkii in the Sahel which not only supplies browse to livestock, branches for fish traps, and bird nestlings for supplemental food, it also provides the main nesting 14 material for cattle egrets. These birds feed in fields and can dampen the severity of locust attacks on cultivated plants and pasture. The presence of many nesting waterbirds fertilizes the waters beneath the acacia kirkii with guano which, in turn, increases fish production (Warshall 1989).

The point has already been made that African people depend heavily on the productivity of the local biological resource base and that this in turn requires the continued presence of diversity within that system. Ensuring that this base remains healthy and productive calls for a deeper understanding of its diverse components as well as their improved management.Yet, in many cases, biological systems are coming under threat from a number of sources. A report by IUCN-the World Conservation Union identified eight major threats to Africa's biodiversity (Stuart, Adams, and Jenkins 1990):

• inappropriate agricultural methods;
• foreign debt servicing;
• over-harvesting of natural resources;
• population and migration pressure;
• commercial land-use practices;
• fragmented populations of species;
• climatic changes; and
• introduction of alien species.

To a significant extent, these threats to African biodiversity can be understood as different manifestations of a widespread and accelerating pattern of uncontrolled landscape change in Africa and dramatic worldwide economic and social changes. The expansion of urban areas and permanent cropland, the construction of infrastructure such as roads, and many other human activities are resulting in an often-unintentional loss of biodiversity. The conversion of forests and woodlands and the development of areas previously thinly settled or not readily accessible to outsiders have resulted in the fragmentation of many African habitats, threatening the loss of many of the species they contain. (See Box 5 for an African perspective on population growth.)

According to one study, roughly 65 percent of the original wildlife habitat of sub-Saharan Africa has been lost to various human interventions (MacKinnon and MacKinnon 1986). While some habitat loss may be inevitable, given human population growth and the need for economic development, much of the present pattern of biodiversity loss and ecological degradation results from unnecessary or unintentional sources or from the inappropriate transfer of Northern production systems without an understanding of their long-term ecological consequences in an African context. (See Box 6)

The large-scale cultivation of cotton in the Sahel, coffee in the East African highlands, cocoa in West Africa, and cattle in southern Africa has resulted in massive clearing and transformation of natural habitats, with a serious loss of biodiversity. Large-scale monocultures have significantly displaced traditional production systems, which in many cases were highly diversified and better adapted to local ecological conditions. Some attempts such as wildlife ranching and agroforestry systems are underway to recreate these diversified land use patterns.

Many of these threats to biodiversity have resulted from numerous structural factors that collectively undervalue biodiversity and stimulate the forces that reduce it. One report identified six trends that account for a significant share of the loss of biodiversity worldwide (McNeely, et al. 1990; see also Chapters 3 and 6 of this report):

1. Biodiversity is in economic terms a public good, and its use is not subject to normal market signals.
2. The benefits of conserving biodiversity tend to be seriously underestimated in comparison with the anticipated benefits from development projects that erode biodiversity.
3. The full costs of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss are seldom included in financial and economic analysis. These costs are usually borne by society as a whole (and by future generations), rather than by the resource users or others directly responsible for the loss of biodiversity.
4. Weak land tenure and resource management systems are often found in areas of overexploited natural resources.
5. Economic planners typically apply discount rates that undervalue the future and overvalue present consumption.
6. Current methods of national income accounting (calculation of GNP or GDP) do not identify the long-term costs of natural resource depletion such as deforestation, and treat unsustainable exploitation on the same basis as sustainable production.

Gender roles also play a part in patterns of biodiversity conservation and loss in sub-Saharan Africa. In many traditional societies, women are the cultivators, and it is women who have been responsible for nurturing diverse landraces of important food plants (see Box 4). Where commercialized agriculture has made inroads against subsistence agriculture, however, this has often resulted in the displacement of female cultivators by males. As a consequence, men often become farmers of monocropping systems, with women's hereditary knowledge of and custodial responsibility for plant diversity being marginalized and perhaps eventually dying out. Another factor is the erosion of traditional local values in the face of economic pressure and the influence of external forces.

The prospect of climate change represents another potential threat to the productivity of African ecosystems. One recent study has concluded that atmospheric warming could lead to a significant decline in crop yields in tropical areas, hitting Africa particularly hard. In one simulation, the study found that some African countries could see agricultural output decline by 30 to 50 percent by the year 2060, even if modest technological and management adaptations to try to cope with climate change were introduced. While such studies admittedly represent very preliminary efforts at understanding complex environmental trends, they indicate that Africa is becoming increasingly vulnerable to changes beyond its control (Monastersky 1992).

The specific threats to biodiversity and the remedial actions they require vary from country to country and from site to site. Yet the general patterns of inappropriate production methods and uncontrolled landscape transformation are widely found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and the structural factors listed above significantly influence the persistence of these patterns. The conservation of biodiversity in Africa depends to a considerable degree on implementing more sustainable modes of economic development.

Sustainable Development and Biodiversity Conservation in Africa

Economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, which is and will continue to be based largely on the exploitation of biological resources, is presently unsustainable precisely because many of those biological resources are being mismanaged and cannot long sustain their present rates of use. Movement in the direction of sustainability is essential. Logically, this movement should begin with the factors identified above as contributors to the loss of biodiversity in Africa.

Numerous policy reforms are needed to address the ways in which economic decision making affects Africa's biological resources. These policy reforms are examined in greater detail in Chapter 6. In general, however, the transition to sustainable economic growth requires a broad-based change in thinking about Africa's natural resource base and in the ways that decisions about investment and exploitation are made. The following section discusses some of the ways in which the conservation of biodiversity has been addressed, and suggests ways by which these might be improved upon and made more relevant to the range of landscapes within which African biodiversity is presently being degraded.

Approaches to Conservation of Biodiversity

Government efforts to preserve certain biological resources in sub-Saharan Africa were introduced during the colonial period, when specially-selected sites were set aside and most human exploitation within them was prohibited. Historically, similar restrictions had been practiced in some traditional African societies - for example, the sacred forest groves of Ghana and former royal hunting areas in Zambia (see Chapter 4).

However, modern conservation initiatives differed from traditional African approaches in several respects. Typically, the areas set aside by colonial authorities were much larger than traditional restricted-use areas and were often instituted and managed in ways that caused local resentment. Rather than being an integral component of the existing social system, modern national parks and reserves were imposed from outside.

While modern protection initiatives sometimes reflected a genuine concern for the preservation of Africa's flora and fauna in the face of overexploitation, it is also evident that less altruistic motives were often at work. For example, hunting reserves primarily served the interests of European sport hunters, with little regard for the subsistence needs of local people. Colonial forestry and agriculture officers forced local people to grow exotic species for export to Europe and the United States using cultivation methods inappropriate to local ecosystems. These foreign officers frequently exhibited 20 ignorance about the ecological basis of African horticultural practices, and thus encouraged destructive cultivation and forest management practices in their stead (Anderson and Grove 1987).

The alienation of customary African lands for conservation purposes formed part of a larger pattern of colonial restructuring of African land-use systems. Policies of banning cattle raiding, of making trees and wild animals the property of the State, and of allocating arable land to European commercial farmers while resettling Africans on marginal lands, were widely resented aspects of colonial administration (Anderson and Grove 1987). Given the historical antecedents of today's protected area system in sub-Saharan Africa, it is perhaps not surprising that the attitudes of local people living near national parks and reserves often reflect suspicion and mistrust of conservation policies.

This legacy is one of the reasons that new approaches toward conservation have been introduced in recent years. While many different techniques and systems can be identified, in general these new approaches tend to share an emphasis on the involvement of local people in decision making. Local participation is sought when deciding where protected areas will be located, how they will be managed, and for whose benefit. In some cases, local people are being offered an economic stake in successful conservation measures. Some local communities are receiving a share of tourism or logging revenues. In other cases, nondestructive ways of harvesting natural resources (such as nontimber forest products) are being introduced to ensure that the use of biological resources is sustainable in the long term. Chapter 5 of this report expands on recent conservation approaches, by stressing the importance of conserving biodiversity within all African landscapes using the most participatory and sustainable methods feasible in each case.

Planning and Management of Landscapes

In sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, approximately 4.5 percent of the land surface is presently included in some form of official conservation management program, such as national parks, or forest and game reserves. On a country-by-country basis, the percent protected varies widely: in Botswana, the area of land under some form of protection exceeds 17 percent, and in Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo, this figure is between 11 and 14 percent. In contrast, there are no protected areas at present in Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, or Mozambique (Groombridge 1992).

Yet the fundamental problem of the loss of biodiversity in Africa (as elsewhere) may have less to do with the amount of land under protection than with the forms of land use taking place on the remaining portions of the landscape, which in almost every case represent far larger areas than those classified as protected. Forest clearing for commercial agriculture and charcoal production, destructive dry-season savanna burning, monoculture cropping and forestry, overfishing and introduction of alien species, misuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and many other human activities across the African landscape are collectively causing environmental changes that seriously undermine the future of Africa's biodiversity.

Different forms of land use often have quite different impacts on the environment and on the conservation of biodiversity. Table 7 in Chapter 5 roughly illustrates the comparative degree of biodiversity destruction typically associated with certain common land uses, ranging from highly destructive open-pit mining or urban expansion, to relatively benign activities such as those of hunter-gatherer groups.

Many production activities, such as commercial agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, span a wide range on this scale, and their biodiversity impact can vary significantly depending on local circumstances and management regimes. For a number of reasons, which are analyzed in greater detail in the chapters of Part II of this report, many of these land uses are currently more damaging to biodiversity than they need to be if they were properly managed and better matched to the specific conditions of particular sites. As a result, many contemporary development activities in sub-Saharan Africa are unsustainable, as they directly or indirectly damage the biological resource base whose long-term health and productivity is so essential to Africans.

Through the introduction of better land-use planning and