Abstract
Conservationists have historically advocated measures that limit human disturbance. Nevertheless, natural disturbances are important components of many ecosystems and their associated species are often adapted to such regimes. In consequence, conservation managers frequently simulate natural disturbance, particularly in temperate forest systems. This practice is less widespread and seldom studied in tropical regions, where biodiversity conservation and human activities are often thought to conflict. However, many tropical systems have been subject to natural and anthropogenic disturbance over evolutionary timescales, and disturbance may therefore benefit the species they host. Determining whether this is true is especially important in tropical wetlands, where human activities are essential for sustaining local livelihoods. Here we investigate the impacts of disturbance from human resource use on habitat–specialist bird species endemic to papyrus swamps in East and Central Africa. Bird densities were estimated using point counts and related to levels of human activity using physical characteristics of wetland vegetation as a proxy for disturbance. All species were tolerant to some degree of disturbance, with particular species occurring at highest density in intensely disturbed habitat. Species were generally more tolerant to disturbance in larger swamps. Our results suggest that low-intensity use of papyrus wetlands by people is compatible with the conservation of specialist bird species, and highlight the potential benefits of traditional human activities to conserve biodiversity in the tropics.
Highlights
Habitat degradation is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity (WWF, 2014) and restoring habitat is frequently the focus of conservation management (Hodgson et al, 2011)
The classic “fences and fines” approach dominated much of the 20th century but has been criticized for its failure to account for the interests of communities by impeding the use of natural resources (Hutton et al, 2005)
This is problematic in developing countries (Barrett et al, 2001), where people's livelihoods are closely linked to natural resource use (Khadka and Nepal, 2010)
Summary
Habitat degradation is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity (WWF, 2014) and restoring habitat is frequently the focus of conservation management (Hodgson et al, 2011) To this end, conservationists have advocated measures that limit disturbances caused by human activity, adopting the view that the needs and actions of people often conflict with the objectives of biological conservation (Brown, 2002). The classic “fences and fines” approach dominated much of the 20th century but has been criticized for its failure to account for the interests of communities by impeding the use of natural resources (Hutton et al, 2005). Community-based conservation schemes often restrict resource use (Lele et al, 2010), commonly with financial incentives (Barrett et al, 2001) and as such, maintain the premise that human activities are detrimental to biodiversity
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