Servicescape of the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem: Visualizing the linkages between land use, biodiversity and the delivery of wildlife-related ecosystem services

Abstract

Understanding how anthropogenic activities and management actions influence the delivery of ecosystem services is complicated by the interrelated nature of diverse factors. We present a Bayesian Belief Network to highlight the likely consequences of a set of interventions on four wildlife-related ecosystem (dis)services and for supporting biodiversity and human welfare in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem. According to the model, core protected areas are important for biodiversity and safari tourism provision. In adjacent game reserves safari tourism opportunities may be hampered by trophy and bushmeat hunting causing fear in wildlife. Most multiple-use areas strike a good balance between the costs and benefits derived from wildlife. Loliondo, however, requires drastic changes in management to either maximize green value creation or sustainable welfare. Although further globalization is expected to render highest levels of welfare, this will be at the expense of biodiversity and related ecosystem services. An online version of the model is available (https://africanbioservices.shinyapps.io/servicescape) to interactively explore five future scenarios with alternative management strategies, and visualization of the resultant consequences thereof. Identifying areas of conflicts and potential trade-offs between ecosystem (dis)services are crucial to find pathways to nature-based tourism strategies that simultaneously maintain biodiversity and promote the socioeconomic viability of local communities.