Lion (Panthera leo) populations are in decline throughout most of Africa. The problem is particularly acute in southern Kenya, where Maasai pastoralists have been spearing and poisoning lions at a rate that will ensure near term local extinction. We investigated 2 approaches for improving local tolerance of lions: compensation payments for livestock lost to predators and Lion Guardians, which draws on local cultural values and knowledge to mitigate livestock-carnivore conflict and monitor carnivores. To gauge the overall influence of conservation intervention, we combined both programs into a single conservation treatment variable. Using 8 years of lion killing data, we applied Manski's partial identification approach with bounded assumptions to investigate the effect of conservation treatment on lion killing in 4 contiguous areas. In 3 of the areas, conservation treatment was positively associated with a reduction in lion killing. We then applied a generalized linear model to assess the relative efficacy of the 2 interventions. The model estimated that compensation resulted in an 87-91% drop in the number of lions killed, whereas Lion Guardians (operating in combination with compensation and alone) resulted in a 99% drop in lion killing.
Australia's vast continent is dominated by semi-arid and arid landscapes that have been modified to support the development of an extensive livestock grazing industry. Historically, this development has come at great environmental cost, with wide-scale landscape degradation and loss of biodiversity, including small macropods. With the growing appreciation of environmental values and ecological services provided by grazing landscapes, the engagement of pastoral landholders is now central to contemporary conservation efforts. In this paper we explore the spluttering recovery of Australia's critically endangered bridled nailtail wallaby Onychogalea fraenata, once presumed extinct but now subject to a limited rehabilitation program in Queensland. We explore the 'fit' between management units and the scale of conservation challenges for the bridled nailtail wallaby, and then use this to frame the role of the private grazing industry in the governance of conservation actions. A centralised state conservation program has largely failed to stop the decline of the species, which remains critically endangered. We argue that non-state (privately) managed grazing properties working within a multi-level governance system that includes the state have a greater chance of conservation success because their actions can more appropriately match the scale of the problem at the implementation level. If the species recovers, the balance of management focus will need to shift towards broader scale actions such that localised disconnected sub-populations can successfully interbreed. By analysing the institutional failures that surround the bridled nailtail wallaby, we provide recommendations on how public institutions or policies can successfully catalyse private sector action at regional scales. These include avoiding economic incentives that may crowd out local stewardship, avoiding overly-authoritative state control (i.e. mono-centricity), and developing a multilevel governance structure that can strategically adapt its focus to the scale of various and shifting targets.
Caring for Our Country), the communities collaborated with the South Australian Arid Lands NRM group, weed scientists, contractors and volunteers, to deliver an ambitious program of on-ground works, biocontrol research advocacy and awareness-raising activities.Areas of high conservation value, including swamps, springs, watercourses and gorges were prioritized for treatment. Isolated plants and outlier populations were also mapped and treated as part of a strategic containment program. A 4-year cyclical follow-up program was implemented to capture newly recruited plants. Chemical efficacy trials were conducted, using a range of herbicides, application rates and techniques. The two most effective methodologies were adopted for on-ground works. (Grazon DS, active constituents picloram and triclopyr, is used as a foliar spray to treat accessible plants, with stem ⁄ pad injection of neat glyphosate, the preferred treatment for plants in inaccessible locations such as mountain ridges and cliff faces).The project has also contributed to the development of a state Opuntia Species Management Plan, a state Opuntia Task Force, a taxonomic revision of Opuntia species found in South Australia, nomination of Wheel Cactus (Opuntia robusta) as a target weed for biological control, identification and testing of strains of cactoblastis and cochineal present in the landscape and investigations into the genetic variability of Wheel Cactus in South Australia.
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