SEGREGATION EFFECTS AND THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF SAVANNA PARKS - THE CASE FOR ECOSYSTEM VIABILITY ANALYSIS

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 effects, 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.