Africa

At the meeting of the International Tropical Timber Organization held in Bali in 1990, ITTO adopted the target of ensuring that all tropical timber marketed internationally should, by the year 2000, come from forests that are managed sustainably. This is an attempt to determine whether ITTO member countries have a legal and administrative basis for managing their production forests in ways which will allow these forests to contribute to biological diversity conservation; and the extent to which such management is already applied on the ground through member country studies.

At the meeting of the International Tropical Timber Organization held in Bali in 1990, ITTO adopted the target of ensuring that all tropical timber marketed internationally should, by the year 2000, come from forests that are managed sustainably. This is an attempt to determine whether ITTO member countries have a legal and administrative basis for managing their production forests in ways which will allow these forests to contribute to biological diversity conservation; and the extent to which such management is already applied on the ground through member country studies.

Part 3 of the Antelopes, Global Survey and Regional Action Plans completes the coverage of the Ethiopian Fauna Region. What distinguishes this portion of the earth from others is the wealth of the megafauna, of which antelopes constitute a dominant component. All major climatic-vegetation zones are included, from the lowland rain forests of the Congo basin and West Africa to the Great Saharan Desert.

During a forum held at the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress in South Africa in 2003, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the IUCN SSC Veterinary and Southern Africa Sustainable Use Specialist Groups (VSG and SASUSG) brought together nearly 80 experts from Africa and beyond to develop ways to tackle the immense health-related conservation and development challenges at the wildlife/domestic animal/human interface facing East and Southern Africa today, and tomorrow.

The African Convention on the conservation of nature and natural resources was adopted in 1968 in Algiers. Considered the most forward looking regional agreement of the time, it influenced significantly the development of environmental law in Africa. Two and a half decades of intense developments in international environmental law made it necessary to revise this treaty, update its provisions and enlarge its scope. This was undertaken under the auspices of the African Union (previously OAU), and the revision was adopted by its Heads of State and Government in July 2003 in Maputo.

African elephants are confronted with habitat loss and degradation and increasing levels of human – elephant conflict. Management authorities in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly turning to translocation as a means to meet such challenges. This trend has to take into account changing political and welfare considerations for elephants, and managers need to understand the justification for translocation as well as the technical challenges.

African elephants are confronted with habitat loss and degradation and increasing levels of human-elephant conflict. Management authorities in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly turning to translocation as a means to meet such challenges. This trend has to take into account changing political and welfare considerations for elephants, and managers need to understand the justification for translocation as well as the technical challenges.