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values, ecological services provided (e.g. watershed 

 protection), the potential for discovery of medically or 

 commercially important species, the carbon source-sink role of 

 many natural systems in global warming, and the uncertainty 

 associated with the unprecedented loss of species and 

 ecosystems with which human life has evolved. Natural systems 

 also serve as our "canary in the mineshaft", warning us of 

 imminent human ill-health when over-exploitation leads to 

 degradation and extinction. 



T he Practice of Biological Conservation in Africa 



Despite increasing international and national recognition of the 

 importance of the principles described above, African nations are 

 currently able to attend to little more than short-term human 

 needs. Inadequate human and financial resources and institutional 

 capabilities, combined with the intensity of basic human needs, 

 overwhelm nations' capacities to deal with issues of longer term 

 development and conservation. Technical and financial assistance 

 from other sources is required -- and welcomed -- in Africa more 

 than in any other part of the world today. What form should this 

 assistance take 



Approaches to be undertaken must be multi-faceted to address the 

 complexity of conservation in Africa 



Conservation must be addressed at multiple levels . High level 

 reform of conservation policy, legal and regulatory statutes, 

 and institutional structures must be enacted, providing a 

 requisite framework for conservation action. Existing 

 regulations in many African countries are leftover from 

 colonial rule, and are now irrelevant or actually discouraging 

 of sound conservation practice. At the same time, on-the- 

 ground implementation of site-specific projects should take 

 place, demonstrating approaches which yield success. 



Land-use and conservation planning should allow for a mosaic 

 of land and resource use options . Sufficiently large, 

 naturally-occurring systems are able to maintain biodiversity 

 on their own, if human impacts are minimized as in many 

 traditional use systems. However, impacts of moderate 

 intensity use of natural resources are little understood. 

 Faced with this situation, a mul t i - faceted strategy is 

 required for biodiversity conservation. The primary emphasis 

 of this approach should be on the protection of core areas 

 with high biodiversity values. Where local populations 

 already exist in or around such reserves, traditional use 

 j. o n e s also need to be identified. This, however, raises ever 



