Gamma Theory

"The wildlife resource has been seen as a means to generate food and income in fragile marginal areas which are unable to sustain productive agriculture or livestock husbandry" (Kiss 1990:iii). Such a concept probably assures failure for wildlife resource management over the long run. Other projects are preservation efforts and probably can rarely sustain tourist or other wildlife related income for these protected species or their areas.

Kiss (1990) said that the decline in Africa's wildlife heritage and persistent poverty of its rural people are linked by human population growth and resulting misuse of the land. Expanding land use displaces wildlife. Perhaps, she said, a solution can be found in "developing alternative land use based on wildlife resources generating food and income for rural communities."

Kiss (1990) observed that the most important of the problems of incorporating wildlife resources as an economic asset in rural development relates to ownership and practical problems in controlling access to wildlife. "The success of any community-based wildlife utilization plan will depend on ensuring that individuals derive benefits from conservation and sustainable management of the resource."

Wildlife Resource:

A Systems Approach:

Issues

In a very important and excellent analysis of the problem Kiss (1990:iv) listed the classes of issues in community--based wildlife management as

• economic
• policy
• technical
• sociological
• institutional
• human resource development

Notable positive functions of wildlife:

1. Pollination
2. Seed dispersal and planting (spatial)
3. Seed and pollen (genetic diversification)
4. Soil compaction reduction (bulk density reduction with all associates of low bulk density
5. Esthetic resource potentials
6. Photographic resource potentials
7. Genetic engineering options (poultry, medicine, draft, and milk)
8. Vegetation management (goats)
9. Concentrated fertility
10. Germination (passage through an animal essential for some species)
11. Cultural and religious icons and prototypes
12. Bushmeat
13. Commercial meat
14. Aquaculture
15. Domestication
16. Hides, hair, bone
17. Craft material
18. Body parts (gall bladder, etc.) for medicinal and other uses
19. Pet birds
20. Pet mammals
21. Tropical fish
22. Wildlife viewing
23. Nature tourism
24. New sport
25. Hunting
26. Nitrogen relations

• Management to rescue monetary losses
• Management to improve soils
• Management as pest control agent

1. Latex
2. Gums
3. Seeds - seasoning, etc.
4. Nuts
5. Fiber
6. Craft materials
7. Medicinals
8. Perfumes and dyes
9. Fibers
10. Building materials other than structural

The key economic issues (challenges or a mixed set of types of objectives) found by Kiss (1990) were:

1. properly evaluating the costs and long-term returns from wildlife resource management (compared to alternative land uses
2. distributing costs and benefits between national and local levels and among members of the local communities
3. sustaining community support for a project by concrete, high, short-term benefits or incentives even if the real environmental and economic benefits are likely to emerge over the long-term
4. reducing the (liikely) need for substantilal funding, often long-term, to achieve financial self sufficiency
5. providing opportunitities for multiple use
6. creating appropriate marketing structures
7. competing with often-heavily-subsidized agriculture and related resource use.

1. assessing exisisting wildlife populations and the factors that threaten or limit them
2. determining the population dynamics of managed species
3. monitoring populations and their spaces
4. determining (or shaping) market demand for wildlife products or uses
5. improving harvesting procedures
6. improving processing methods
7. improving marketing methods
8. promoting, managing, and regulating sport hunting

The challenges are:

1. How to integrate rural development with management of the resource given the traditional conditions of it being a communal or common property resource
2. How to overcome attitudes and relations (including authority structures, patterns of use, religious, "a gift of nature", traditional, and economic) that prevent full long-term development of the resource
3. How to avoid the "tragedy of the commons", the tendency of individuals in the short-term to over exploit a resource relative to the good for many people over the long-term.
4. How to reverse the trend of people bearing all of the costs of living with wildlife but being excluded from any benefits from them.

1. Where and when does it make sense to initiate a community-based wildlife project?
2. What are reasonable and attainable objectives?
3. What information is needed to design such projects?
4. What are the key steps to take and components to include?
5. What levels and types of investments are needed?
6. What are the essential economic and policy elements for an enabling environment?
7. What is the meaning of local participation and how can it be achieved?
8. Can projects become self-sustaining over the long-term?
9. Can community-based wildlife management be implemented on a scale sufficient to achieve conservation or development objectives?

An Alternative Paradigm for Agroforestry

1. General Systems Theory
2. Enterprise based
3. GIS based
4. Stable
5. Diverse
6. Citizens' objectives
7. Shared profits with personal and group incentives
8. Unique computer-produced prescriptions with TV aid

1. Education for managers of key areas
2. Legal action for people at the edges of key areas
3. Nature or ecotourism
4. Integrated pest damage management
5. Alternative food - bushmeat
6. Alternative hides - processed
7. Craft products
8. Hunting
9. Avi: International game of birdwatching
10. Research
11. Photography based groups
12. Pet trade (birds, primates, fish, reptiles)
13. Fish- aquaculture
14. Select endangered species project

References
Fauna in Agroforestry (Careful, reasonable, deductive work is encouraged in total systems work among the following):

Alderson, L. 1990. Genetic conservation of domestick livestock (2 volumes). CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 242 pp. and 280 pp.

Altieri, M. A., F. J. Trujillo, and J. Farrell. 1987. Plant insect interactions and soil fertility relations in agroforestry systems: implications for the design of sustainable agroecosystems, in H. K. Golz ed. Agroforestry: realities, possibilities, and potentials. Dordrecht, Netherlands, Nijhoff, and ICRAF, p. 89- 108.

Anonymous. 1977. Raising livestock on small farms. U. S. Supt. Doc., USGPO, Washington, D.C. 22 pp.

Appleby, M. C., B. O. Hughes, and H. R. Elson. 1992. Poultry production systems: behavior, management and welfare. CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 256 pp.

Atta-Krah, A. N. and J. E. Sumbert. 1988. Studies in Gliricidia sepium for crop/livestock production systems in West Africa. Agroforestry Systems 6:97-118.

Cappock D. L., D. M. Swift, and J. E. Ellis. 1986. Seasonal nutritional characteristics of livestock diets in a nomadic pastoral ecosystem. J. Appl. Ecol. 23:585-595.

French, M. H. 1970. Observations on the goat. FAO, Rome, Italy. 204 pp.

Gholz, H. L. 1987. Agroforestry: realities, possibilities and potentials. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Boston, MA. 227 pp.

Guss, S. B. 1977. Management and diseases of dairy goats. Dairy Goat Journal Publ. Corp., Scottsdale, AZ. 222pp.

Hoekstra, D. A. 1990. Economics of agroforestry. in K G. MacDicken and N. T. Vergara (eds). Agroforestry: classification and management. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY. 382 pp.

Joffre, R., J. Vacher, C. de los Llanos, and G. Long. 1988. The Dehesa: an agrosilvopastoral system of the Mediteranean region with special reference to the Sierra Morena area of Spain. Agroforestry Systems 6:71-96.

Kiss, A. (ed.). 1990 Living with wildlife: wildlife resource management with local participation in Africa. World Bank Tech. Paper No. 130. The World Bank Washington, D. C. 217 pp.

Knipe, O. D. 1983. Effects of angora goat browsing in burned over Arizona chaparrel. Rangelands 5(6):252-255.

Leeson, A. 1992. Manual of sheep production in the hurnid tropics of Africa. CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 208 pp.

MacDicken, K. G. and N. T. Vergora (eds). 1990. Agroforestry: classification and management. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 382 pp.

Mason, I. L. 1988. A world directory of livestock breeds. 3rd ed. CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 348 pp.

National Research Council. 1981. Nutrient requirements of goats. Natl. Acad. Press, Washington, D. C. 91 pp.

Pinners, E. and V. Balasubramanian. 1991. Use of the iterative diagnosis and design approach in the development of suitable agroforestry systems for a target area. Agroforestry Systems 15:183-201.

Savory, A. 1988. Holistic resource management. Island Press, Washington D.C. 558pp.

Say, R. R. 1987. Manual of poultry production in the tropics. CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 119 pp.

Serres, H. 1992. Manual of pig production in the tropics. CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 288 pp.

Speedy, A. Editor. 1992. Progress in sheep and goat research. CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 288 pp.

Talbot, L. M. 1966. Wild animals as a source of food. USDI Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, Sp. Sci. Rpt. 98, Washington, D.C. 16pp.

Young, A. 1989. Agroforestry for soil conservation. CAB International, University of Arizona Press, Tuscon, AZ. 276 pp.

Young, A. and P. Muraya. 1990. SCUAF - soil changes under agroforestry: A predictive model, Version 2, computer program with user's handbook. ICRAF, Nairobi, Kenya. 124 pp.

This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision January 17, 2000.