No Passports Required: Exploring the Significance of Transnational Boundary Conservation Areas and Implications for Multinational Conservation Initiatives for Giraffe (Giraffa spp.)

Résumé fourni par la source

The conservation of large, highly mobile species often requires consideration of spatiotemporally dynamic resources at the landscape scale, many of which transect international political borders. Transboundary conservation initiatives offer strategic frameworks to better conserve habitat at the landscape scale through coordinated management across political boundaries. To understand the significance of transboundary conservation initiatives for giraffe, we quantified the geographical intersection of current giraffe range maps with transboundary conservation areas. These areas highlight the extent of existing protected area coverage, potential protected area establishment, and the functional connectivity of suitable environments across national boundaries. Our results emphasize the importance of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), recognized transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) for giraffe conservation, and identify other potentially significant transboundary areas in eastern and central Africa. We also used a GPS telemetry dataset of over 470 unique giraffe from across 17 countries to characterize giraffe movement responses to transnational political boundaries. While many national borders in giraffe ranges are associated with hard boundaries (e.g. fences or impermeable rivers and lakes), we identified multiple confirmed cases of at least three giraffe species crossing international borders. Identifying priority transnational boundary conservation areas for giraffe can enable countries to harmonize cross-border governance and management and increase the effectiveness of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation networks across political boundaries. Understanding the role of transnational boundary movements for highly mobile species is critical to ensuring appropriate management regimes for their conservation.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.