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Abstract:There is mounting concern about declines in wildlife populations in many protected areas in Africa. Migratory ungulates are especially vulnerable to impacts of changing land use outside protected areas on their abundance. Range compression may compromise the capacity of migrants to cope with climatic variation, and accentuate both competitive interactions and predation. We analyzed the population dynamics of 11 ungulate species within Kenya's Nairobi National Park, and compared them to those in the adjoining Athi-Kaputiei Plains, where human settlements and other developments had expanded. The migratory wildebeest decreased from almost 30,000 animals in 1978 to around 5,000 currently but the migratory zebra changed little regionally. Hartebeest, impala, eland, Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, waterbuck, warthog and giraffe numbers declined regionally, whereas buffalo numbers expanded. Bimonthly counts indicated temporary movements of several species beyond the unfenced park boundaries, especially during very wet years and that few wildebeest entered the park during the dry season following exceptionally wet conditions in 1998. Wildebeest were especially vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts in their wet season dispersal range on the plains. Deterioration in grassland conditions in the park following high rainfall plus lack of burning may have discouraged these animals from using the park as a dry season refuge. Our findings emphasise the interdependency between the park and the plains for seasonal wildlife movements, especially in exceptionally dry or wet years. To effectively conserve these ungulates, we recommend implementation of the new land-use plan for the Athi-Kaputiei Plains by the county government; expansion of the land leasing program for biodiversity payments; collecting poacher's snares; negotiation and enforcement of easements, allowing both wildlife and livestock to move through the Athi-Kaputiei Plains, providing incentives for conservation to landowners; and improving grassland conditions within the park through controlled burning so that more wildlife can gain protection there.

The coarse resolution of biogeographic models does not lend itself to the urgent and specific problems confronting national parks. An alternative approach is to identify a suite of problems common to various types of parks and ecosystems. Such a scale-relevant approach can be applied directly to management solutions in a particular park and, more generally, to policies for managing parks in a similar ecological and regional setting.Segregation efects, a common suite of threats arising from the creation of a protected area itself, offer examples with more immediate and specific consequences than insularization effects. The approach underscores the need to identify the minimum viable processes necessary for maintaining ecosystem diversity. We suggest an ecosystem viability analysis as a suitable technique for doing so. RCsumCLa resolution ordinaire des modeles biogtographiques ne convient pas pour les problemes urgents et spkcifiques qui touchent les parcs nationaux. Une approche alternative consisterait a identifier un ensemble de problemes communs a differents types de parcs et d'ecosystemes. Une telle approche 'a l'echelle' peut s'appliquer directement pour des solutions de gestion dans un parc en particulier et, plus generalement, a une politique de gestion des parcs situtts dans des conditions regionales ou kcologiques similaires.Les efets de sigrggation, ensemble de menaces ordinaires nCes de la crkation m&me d'une aire protegee, offrent des exemples de consequences plus immediates et specifiques que celles de I'insularisation. Cette approche souligne le besoin d'identifier les processus minimum viables, nkcessaires au maintien de la diversite biologique. Nous sommes d'avis qu'une analyse de la viabilite d'un ecosysteme serait une technique souhaitable dans ce but. Control of a desert-grassland transition by a keystone rodent guild. University Press, Cambridge. . 23,2 15-22 I . Biol. Conserv. 29,63-80. Science 250, 1705-1707. J . EcoI Specious-area relationship?

A d a m H e n s o n , D a v i d W i l l i a m s , J e f D u p a i n , H e l e n G i c h o h i and P h i l i p M u r u t h i Abstract The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has developed and applied a landscape-scale conservation planning methodology in eight priority conservation landscapes in Africa, areas we call African Heartlands. The foundation of the African Heartland Program is a landscape-scale planning process that has been developed and applied as part of the overall Heartland Conservation Process. This process helps AWF and its partners develop intervention strategies that address critical threats to the ecological viability of these landscapes, and to specific biodiversity conservation targets, whilst also working to improve the livelihoods of local people. In applying this participatory planning process to eight conservation landscapes in Africa we have begun to document and learn about the benefits and limitations of planning and implementation at the landscapescale with stakeholders. We draw out lessons on the challenges and successes from our experience. Central to this are the merits of balancing a systematic science-based and pragmatic approach to landscape-scale conservation planning while addressing the needs and aspirations of local people. This approach could be particularly useful for other large-scale conservation planning efforts in developing countries where conservation objectives and human livelihoods are inextricably linked.

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