Strategic Opportunism: What Works in Africa: Twelve Fundamentals for Conservation Success

This open-access book showcases six long-term projects across ten countries that demonstrate successful outcomes despite different governance systems, wealth, and culture. The case studies feature personal narratives of vision, failure, frustration, and persistence, highlighting the key personalities behind these projects. They range from restoring endangered species to combating land degradation and include initiatives in botanical collection, documentation, and herbarium management. These projects required leadership skills, vision, generosity, timing, and the exploitation of unexpected opportunities, showcasing the resilience and adaptability of conservation efforts in Africa.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 142 pages
Publication date: 01 March 2023
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This open-access book offers a comprehensive synthesis of six long-term projects spanning ten countries, each of which has been sustained for two or more decades. These projects serve as examples of successful outcomes regardless of governance systems, national wealth, or cultural differences. Detailed narratives are presented on the key personalities who conceived, conducted, and concluded these long-term endeavors, showcasing their personal journeys of vision, failure, frustration, and persistence. The case studies showcased in this book exhibit a wide range of geography and goals. For instance, the single-handed commitment to re-discover the last surviving populations of Giant Sable in the miombo woodlands of central Angola involves the capture, translocation, and establishment of robust breeding herds of this magnificent antelope. In contrast, the massively funded, three-decade program with over one hundred participants aims to reverse the annual loss to predation by feral cats of 455,000 seabirds from a sub-Antarctic island. Similarly, the foresight of Zimbabwean and Namibian ecologists to place rural communities at the center of conservation programs by valuing wildlife populations and providing benefits to local people has transformed a land degradation problem into a socio-ecological solution.

Across ten countries, the initiative to build capacity in botanical collection, documentation, and herbarium management expanded into a global project aimed at placing the knowledge base of Africa's flora onto an electronic data system accessible to researchers and conservation planners in even the most remote corners of the continent. It is important to note that none of these projects achieved immediate results. Each required a unique combination of leadership skills that included vision, a generous spirit, fortunate timing, and the ability to seize unexpected opportunities.

These case studies demonstrate the resilience and adaptability of human endeavors in the face of challenges. They showcase the power of collaboration, innovation, and a deep understanding of the natural world to achieve long-term conservation goals. By highlighting the successes and lessons learned from these projects, this book provides valuable insights for policymakers, conservationists, and individuals seeking to make a positive impact on the environment and society.

Weight: 256g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031248825
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023