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Elephant Conservation: Megaparks for Metapopulations
Modern conservation incentives call for the development or restoration of structural and functional connectivity to overcome the effects of fragmentation and isolation on dispersal, genetic integrity, population viability, meta-dynamics and the persistence of species. The theoretical underpinnings for this approach is good, but the evidence is limited and depended on grain and scale of empirical observations. Our research is directed at locating effective structural and functional linkages that will be socio-politically acceptable and that will optimize the persistence of savannah elephant populations across southern Africa. For this we will assess the consequences of isolation and of connectivity on the population, demography, patterns of spatial use and population genetics.
Coastal dune forest restoration
Less than 0.1% of South Africa is covered by forests. Development, exploitation, rural activities and mining erode what is left of coastal dune forests thus enforcing the post-mining restoration of dune forests. For the past 28 years these areas served as an outdoor laboratory to study the regeneration of these forests to test the hypotheses on the structural and functional development of plant, millipede and bird communities. Our research information provides the backbone to evaluate the effectiveness of forest restoration as a conservation action.
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