Regional assessment and conservation implications of landscape characteristics of African national parks

Abstract

The spatial characteristics of African protected areas classified as national parks (category II) by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) were quantified on a regional basis. Four groups of spatial statistics were used; park size, park abundance, park shape and park spacing. Eastern Africa has the greatest number of small national parks (< 100 km 2 and 100–1000 km 2), western Africa most within 1000–10,000 km 2, and southern and south-central Africa most within 10,000–50,000 km 2. Only two national parks are larger than 50,000 km 2, one each in southern and northern Africa. Furthermore, southern Africa has the greatest, and western Africa the lowest, combined park area. Northern Africa has the greatest average, but lowest proportional, area covered by national parks, whereas western Africa has the lowest average area, and southern Africa the greatest percentage area accounted for by national parks. Parks in eastern Africa have the lowest perimeter: area ratio, whereas southern Africa have the highest. National parks are aggregated in all of the regions, but the mean nearest-neighbour distances and isolation index values reveal that, in reality, the parks are well separated across three spatial scales. Implications of the results for conservation, especially at the landscape level, are discussed. The large edge: interior ratios of national parks in all regions means that factors originating from surrounding land-uses will be expected to have a severe effect on park management. Large-scale movements between African national parks are important for species characteristic of African savannas. However, in general, the large distances between African national parks prevent such interaction between parks. This could only be addressed by regional conservation plans which consider the matrix surrounding the parks and aim to maintain processes.