Taxonomy and Translocations of African Mammals: A Plea for a Cautionary Approach

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F21%3A43904132" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/21:43904132 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7159/1/2/11/htm" target="_blank" >https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7159/1/2/11/htm</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/conservation1020011" target="_blank" >10.3390/conservation1020011</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Taxonomy and Translocations of African Mammals: A Plea for a Cautionary Approach

Original language description

Ecotourism can fuel an important source of financial income for African countries and can therefore help biodiversity policies in the continent. Translocations can be a powerful tool to spread economic benefits among countries and communities; yet, to be positive for biodiversity conservation, they require a basic knowledge of conservation units through appropriate taxonomic research. This is not always the case, as taxonomy was considered an outdated discipline for almost a century, and some plurality in taxonomic approaches is incorrectly considered as a disadvantage for conservation work. As an example, diversity of the genus Giraffa and its recent taxonomic history illustrate the importance of such knowledge for a sound conservation policy that includes translocations. We argue that a fine-grained conservation perspective that prioritizes all remaining populations along the Nile Basin is needed. Translocations are important tools for giraffe diversity conservation, but more discussion is needed, especially for moving new giraffes to regions where the autochthonous taxa/populations are no longer existent. As the current discussion about the giraffe taxonomy is too focused on the number of giraffe species, we argue that the plurality of taxonomic and conservation approaches might be beneficial, i.e., for defining the number of units requiring separate management using a (majority) consensus across different concepts (e.g., MU—management unit, ESU—evolutionary significant unit, and ECU—elemental conservation unit). The taxonomically sensitive translocation policy/strategy would be important for the preservation of current diversity, while also supporting the ecological restoration of some regions within rewilding. A summary table of the main translocation operations of African mammals that have underlying problems is included. Therefore, we call for increased attention toward the taxonomy of African mammals not only as the basis for sound conservation but also as a further opportunity to enlarge the geographic scope of ecotourism in Africa

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10613 - Zoology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Conservation

ISSN

2673-7159

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

1

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

CH - SWITZERLAND

Number of pages

16

Pages from-to

121-136

UT code for WoS article

—

EID of the result in the Scopus database

—