Sub-Saharan Africa
Olindo, P.; Mbaelele, M.M.
Protecting nature regional reviews of protected areas: 43-71
1994
DOI: 10.1080/04597227108459810Document Number: 439945
This paper examines the role of protected areas in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The primary concern for the management of these areas is to attain a balance between the conservation of biological diversity and supporting the local development needs of an expanding population base. The environmental implications of economic developments such as food production, tourism and hunting are discussed and the growth of the protected areas system as a regulator of these activities is acknowledged. A comparison is made of policies in Francophone and Anglophone Africa. The paper makes some recommendations for new protected areas which incorporate many of the habitat types that are currently underrepresented in protected areas coverage. This would involve the setting up of partnerships between non-governmental organizations and local populations, and individual and private initiatives to enable the cooperative management of protected areas in Africa, and to fulfil the roles of conservation, and increasingly, sustainable development. In this way the needs of the local population could be balanced with the need for conservation.