The Vicuña The Theory and Practice of Community-Based Wildlife Management

About this book

The vicuña is one of the few success stories of wildlife conservation. The focus is now shifting from protection to sustainable use. Internationally, policy development has followed the community-based conservation paradigm, which holds that economic benefits from wildlife management practices bring greater commitment on the part of local communities to protect both the species and its habitat.

The Vicuña: The Theory and Practice of Community-Based Wildlife Management takes the position that sustainability is not guaranteed by sustainable use, and that both education and regulation are required to prevent the proliferation of unsustainable practices. The research from the countries presented in The Vicuña: The Theory and Practice of Community-Based Wildlife Management demonstrate the animal welfare, ecological, economic, social, and conservation trade-offs, which exist between different management systems. This links economics, social and conservation research to provide a unique insight into the viability of community-based wildlife management of a species which until recently was viewed simply as a conservation priority.

Contents

- The philosophy of sustainable wildlife use
- A natural history of the vicuña
- The vicuña: A historical analysis of populations and exploitation
- The vicuña: distribution and genetics
- International policies and national legislation concerning vicuña conservation and exploitation
- Management systems; rationale and implications
- Local participation in vicuña management
- Environmental education
- Lessons for the future of sustainable wildlife use
- Appendices

Customer Reviews

Biography

Iain Gordon leads the Healthy Terrestrial Ecosystems Theme in CSIRO's Sustainable Ecosystems Division; he is based in Townsville and is heads up CSIRO's Davies Laboratory (over 85 staff and students) that focuses on a whole-of-systems approach to natural resource management in the tropics of northern Australia. Iain holds professorships at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, James Cook University, University of Queensland and the University of Aberdeen. Iain has a BSc Hons in Zoology from the University of Aberdeen, a PhD from Cambridge and has spent over 25 years working on the impact of agriculture on ecosystems and biodiversity in Europe and Australia. He has also led a number of multidisciplinary projects on community-based wildlife management in Asia, Africa and South America. Currently Iain sits on the editorial boards for 6 international scientific journals and is on the scientific advisory committees for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Wet Tropics Management Authority. His published works include over 150 refereed publications and book chapters. His work has been cited over 2500 times at an average of over 105 times per year. Springer has recently published a book he edited on the ecology of large mammalian herbivores and how this will be affected by climate change.