Use of Local Ecological Knowledge to Detect Declines in Mammal Abundance in Kogyae Strict Nature Reserve, Ghana
- PDF / 1,716,471 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 86 Downloads / 159 Views
Use of Local Ecological Knowledge to Detect Declines in Mammal Abundance in Kogyae Strict Nature Reserve, Ghana Jerry Owusu Afriyie1 Michael Opare Asare2 ●
1234567890();,:
1234567890();,:
Received: 16 April 2020 / Accepted: 1 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The scarcity of environmental data means that other sources of information are needed to complement empirical evidence for conservation decisions. We, therefore, aimed to explore Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) on mammal abundance and qualitative population trends through interviews from 331 local people in and around Kogyae Strict Nature Reserve, Ghana. The results show that 62% of the respondents perceived that mammal abundances had decreased, 31% perceived stability, and 8% perceived that mammals had increased between 2006 and 2017. The respondents attributed the decline to habitat degradation and illegal hunting. The knowledge of local people about mammal population trends is consistent with reported mammal encounters by law enforcement rangers. However, the length of residence, location of communities, and cardinal direction of communities influenced local peoples’ knowledge of mammal abundance and population trends. Our results highlight the ability of LEK to provide reliable ecological information on animal abundance and qualitative population trends. Integrating LEK into monitoring and management is appealing because it can be cost-effective, enhance community participation, and provide novel insights into sustainable resource use. Keywords Conservation Kogyae strict nature reserve Law enforcement Local ecological knowledge ●
●
Introduction The decrease in biodiversity is of prime concern to the international community (Dıaz et al. 2006; Cardinale et al. 2012). Research in African Protected Areas has indicated that habitat loss and degradation, illegal hunting, diseases, and drought caused a decline in mammal populations (Topp-Jørgensen et al. 2009; Craigie et al. 2010; Joppa et al. 2010; Okello and Kioko 2010; Scholte 2011). The knowledge of the distribution and abundance of species in protected areas is essential in ecology and conservation. These provide valuable information
Supplementary information The online version of this article (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01372-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jerry Owusu Afriyie [email protected] 1
Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6 – Suchdol CZ, 165 00, Czech Republic
2
Faculty of Environmental Science, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Kamýcká 129, Prague 6 – Suchdol CZ, 165 00, Czech Republic
●
on the status of biodiversity (Collen et al. 2009) and allow management interventions to be developed and evaluated (Wintle et al. 2010; Jones et al. 2013). However, estimating the distribution and abundance of species is exceedingly timeconsuming and requires substantial funding and is sometimes impossible because
Data Loading...
