Sawubona adventurers, in this blog entry I bring a long and detailed topic but I'll try to summarize its characteristics so you know a little more about these places.
First, we will define these two concepts, because although they are very similar and have the same purposes, they are not the same.
Nature Reserve: This is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, geological features or other special interests, which is managed for conservation purposes and to provide special opportunities for study or research. They may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private owners, such as charities and research institutions. Nature reserves are divided into different IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) categories according to the level of protection provided by local laws.
National park: This is a park in use for conservation purposes and is protected. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is one common idea: the conservation of "wild nature" for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. According to the IUCN, 6,555 national parks worldwide met their criteria in 2006. The IUCN is still discussing the parameters for defining a national park.
The two concepts are not the same at the legislative level but they work towards a common goal: the conservation of ecosystems and everything in them.
The nature of natural parks is very varied due to the degree of protection, accessibility and type of environment, etc. Some of them have been cleared of their original human population, others have always been uninhabited and others are home to important centres of population. They can be found in the vast majority of African countries, although they are more numerous in Gabon, Kenya and Tanzania.
These large sites that can be thousands of hectares in size, such as the Kruger National Park in South Africa which is almost 2 million hectares, almost as large as Wales, need human management to maintain and care for them. Here, where nature reigns supreme, it is sometimes attacked by the man and where man himself has to work to keep it on its natural course.
Apart from the economic support that some of these sites can receive from their governments, most of the income comes from tourism, it can be photographic tourism, leisure tourism or a less pleasant one for some of us like hunting tourism.
Photographic tourism is one of the most profitable forms of tourism because it can be done at any time of the year. Botswana is one of the countries that has made the most of this for 5 years, even banning hunting throughout its territory.
But unfortunately, all these places are restricted areas where the animals have to share a limited territory (despite their large extension), and sometimes the overpopulation of certain species involves a part of the management of these parks that can be unpleasant for us since sport hunting comes into play.
Botswana, after a five-year ban on hunting throughout its territory, had to lift its veto, as elephant overpopulation was causing many problems, wiping out villages and crops in its wake (Photo: Elephant wiped out). Sport hunting serves as a means of population management but also brings large incomes to parks and reserves, money that is used to care for electrified fences and to pay salaries to their workers (Vets, Rangers, equipment, vehicles, etc.). This hunting should never be confused with poaching, which is carried out illegally and without regard to which species are killed. The parks and reserves are very strict when hunting for sport since they are the ones who decide which specimens can be shot.
All of us who don't like hunting will have asked ourselves this question. And why don't they sterilize, or give contraceptives to the animals so that they don't breed, the answer is simple, although not all of us like it, we must try to interfere as little as possible, and although it sounds frivolous and soulless, there is also a second reason, there are no contraceptives for all species, besides the fact that the side effects on wild animals are not 100% clear. In any case, hunting for sport is something that reserves and parks are increasingly repudiating, thus trying to manage their overpopulation in other ways, either by moving to other reserves or parks, or despite future consequences by using contraceptives on the species as much as possible.
The veterinary management in these parks, is not what we commonly believe, they are not usually there to cure all the animals as it would be with our domestic animals, they will only interfere in these cases if the animal in question has been injured or has become sick because of man (diseases of domestic animals, poaching, poachers, etc.). They also take care of the management of animals between reserves and/or parks and their consequent movements. (Photo: translocation of a leopard).
Finally, I would like to tell you about the great work of the rangers. The aim of all rangers is to protect the resources of the park for future generations and to protect the visitors to the park.
Their work ranges from guiding tourists to see animals, tracking and censusing species, eradicating invasive flora, guarding fences, guarding camera traps, guarding roads within reserves or parks, managing fire prevention measures, even in some cases rangers patrolling nature reserves may be heavily armed and operate as paramilitary organisations against organised poachers or even guerrillas. (Photo: Armed Rangers in Ol Pejeta).
Abavikeli bemvelo*, I hope to have brought you a little closer to the complexity of nature care so that when you travel to places like these you can understand what is behind them and how to help keep them preserved for future generations.
Impilo enh adventurous!
*Del zúlu, protectores de la naturaleza.
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