Reserve managers often agonise over whether a particular park has too many or too few elephants. Instead, they should look at whether natural ecosystems are functioning properly to support biodiversity.
sustainable land use
There is a worrying lack of consensus among different rangeland practitioners about what constitutes an optimally grazed system versus an overgrazed system.
Looked at one way it’s a game reserve. In another, it’s a vast cattle ranch. Or prime rangeland. Whichever way one looks at it, Shangani Holistic, in the Zimbabwe midlands, lives up to its name, fusing all the elements of its ecosystem so that each flourishes to the benefit of the others.
Carbon credits trade in carbon emissions or savings and have been proposed as a way of balancing profit with combating climate change. This sounds like a win-win situation. But is it a one-size-fits all solution to global warming? The third in our Tipping Points webinar series tackled the question: “Green gold or green gremlin: Can carbon credits really work for Africa?” Speakers Professor Sally Archibald, Barney Kgope and Dorothy Naitore gave their perspectives on the matter.
Says Clements, “A continuous decline in species along with a loss of habitat negatively affects the potential for biodiversity to sustain itself and human well-being. So the question is, how does Africa support socio-economic growth yet still conserve the natural resources on which it depends?”