PARENT SESSION
Symposium #17: Science in national parks: Basic research and application.
Sponsored by ESA Sustainable Biosphere Initiative
Organized by: S.T.A. Pickett and W. Robertson.
Wednesday, August 8, 2001. 1:00 PM to 4:25 PM. Madison Ballroom A

Application of research in South African parks.

Rogers, Kevin¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Conservation science and management in African parks has tended to operate from a narrow "balance of nature", single scale, species focus. The implicit expectation has been that monitoring and controlling large mammal numbers, fire and water will achieve the fuzzy mandate of conserving for posterity. Managers complain that scientists are too theoretical. Scientists want more research before supporting decisions and complain that managers do not use their findings anyway. Adaptive management often means that one can change one's approach to a problem if the first solution does not work. Both science and management are chronically under resourced. The challenge has been to develop science/management partnerships explicitly based on three premises: "heterogeneity", "effective knowledge management" and "decisions on an available data basis". In the Kruger National Park good, multi-scaled, research is now strategically directed at establishing and predicting the main patterns and agents of change in biodiversity (structural, compositional, functional). Management is increasingly directed at assessing the state of system flux and achieving stated targets of ecosystem heterogeneity in a learning-by-doing manner. Implementation in Kruger Park has shown that the biggest challenge of all is institutionalizing and opperationalizing the partnership to ensure effective knowledge management in the interface between science and conservation management.

KEY WORDS: Partnership, Knowledge management, Institutionalizing, Operationalizing