Geographic prospects for large-scale African mammal wildlife conservation

Abstract

This work assesses current geographic prospects for large-scale conservation of Africa’s mammals on the basis of statistics on wildlife habitat, elephant numbers, political stability and potential for environmental tourism and concludes that these prospects depend on events in a small number of eastern and southern African (core) countries, geographically grouped into a ‘safari-belt’ between South-Africa and Kenya. Additional countries with good potential are connected to this belt. African countries need more global scientific support for their conservation efforts, particularly with respect to ongoing trans-boundary conservation efforts.