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Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa comprehensively explores the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Easy to read, this lucid and accessible textbook includes fifteen chapters that cover a full range of conservation topics, including threats to biodiversity, environmental laws, and protected areas management, as well as related topics such as sustainability, poverty, and human-wildlife conflict. This rich resource also includes a background discussion of what conservation biology is, a wide range of theoretical approaches to the subject, and concrete examples of conservation practice in specific African contexts. Strategies are outlined to protect biodiversity whilst promoting economic development in the region.
Boxes covering specific themes written by scientists who live and work throughout the region are included in each chapter, together with recommended readings and suggested discussion topics. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography.
Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most up-to-date study in the field. It is an essential resource, available on-line without charge, for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a handy guide for professionals working to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Glossary
Chapter 1: What is Conservation Biology?
Chapter 2: Introduction to Sub-Saharan Africa
Chapter 3: What is Biodiversity?
Chapter 4: Why Should We Protect Biodiversity?
Chapter 5: The Scramble for Space
Chapter 6: Our Warming World
Chapter 7: Pollution, Overharvesting, Invasive Species, and Disease
Chapter 8: Extinction is Forever
Chapter 9: Applied Population Biology
Chapter 10: Conserving Ecosystems
Chapter 11: Preventing Extinctions
Chapter 12: Biodiversity and the Law
Chapter 13: The Importance of Protected Areas
Chapter 14: Conservation on Unprotected Lands
Chapter 15: An Agenda for the Future
Appendix A: Selected Sources of Information
Appendix B: Selected Environmental Organisations
Appendix C: Obtaining Conservation Funding
Appendix D: Environmental Calendar
Index
John W. Wilson is a conservation biologist interested in solving the dynamic challenges of a changing world. He received his BSc and MSc from Pretoria University, and his PhD from North Carolina State University. He has over 15 years of experience with conservation across Africa. As a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow, he studied interactions between habitat loss and climate change in West Africa. He also spent 13 months on uninhabited Gough Island, a World Heritage Site in the South Atlantic, where he combatted invasive species. Beyond that, he has studied individual organisms, populations, and natural communities across Southern, East, Central, and West Africa. His work has covered pertinent topics such as conservation planning, population monitoring, protected areas management, translocations, ecological restoration, and movement ecology in savannahs, grasslands, forests, wetlands, and agricultural systems. His love for nature also dominates his free time; he has contributed over 50,000 observation records to the citizen science platforms eBird and iNaturalist, which he also helps curate.
Richard B. Primack is a Professor of Biology, specializing in plant ecology, conservation biology, and tropical ecology. He is the author of three widely used conservation biology textbooks; local co-authors have helped to produce 36 translations of these books with local examples. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biological Conservation, and served as President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. His research documents the effects of climate change on plants and animals in the Eastern U.S.A., and is often featured in the popular press.
"[...] Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa is an extremely well-written and beautifully illustrated magnum opus on almost all things biological that pertain to the difficult subject of conservation in sub-Saharan Africa. It can be viewed as a primer on ecology, a call to arms and, almost, a cry of despair as much as a reference on conservation. [...] The whole set-up of the book, which includes numerous boxed-out contributions from specialists within each chapter, makes it easy to access information on everything from the impact of global climate change and the expanding human population to biodiversity and the law. All are covered in enough detail, and with relevant references."
– Derek Charlwood, The Biologist 67(1), Feb/Mar 2020
"This textbook – the first conservation biology textbook for Africa – is unique in its optimal use of examples of conservation efforts in the continent, and brilliant description of the interdisciplinary nature of conservation biology. I commend the authors for making this textbook open access and for their dedication to building human capital in Africa for effective biodiversity conservation. I recommend this textbook for African students, conservation personnel, policymakers and everyone interested in nature conservation."
– Temitope Borokini, President, Africa section of the Society for Conservation Biology (2019-20-22)
"We finally have a textbook to teach our students conservation biology in an African context. Its comprehensive chapters are supplemented with real-world case-studies, written by researchers and practitioners across the region. What better way to equip and inspire our students for conservation action?"
– Dr Bruktawit Abdu Mahamued, Biology Department, Kotebe Metropolitan University
"Conservation Biology is a comprehensive study of the Sub-Saharan environment, covering both the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues; it is extremely easy to read, and is pitched at an appropriate level for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The fact that this book is being published open access means that it will be extensively used and thus help a wide range of students and conservation personnel that would not have access to this information otherwise. I commend the authors on this."
– Prof Adrian M Shrader, Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria
