PARENT SESSION
Symposium 7: Multi-scale integration for ecological sustainability: Approaches and applications
Organized by: R Wang and Jianguo(Jack) Liu
Tuesday, August 9, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 517 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Integrating different levels of scale in science, management and policy to sustain pastoral – wildlife ecosystems of East Africa.

Reid, Robin^*,, Said, Mohammed, Nkedianye, David,

ABSTRACT- The sustainability challenge in East African savannas can be immense: 4-6% human population growth, land fragmentation caused by land privatization, significant bushmeat trade, 20-50% poverty levels. We describe here our work to promote better policy and management to sustain these lands through integration across spheres of influence (science, policy, and management), levels of scale, and scientific disciplines. Most challenging at the start of this integration is asking questions that are interesting and innovative from a scientific perspective and truly relevant to the policy or management problem at hand. Our goal is not only to provide our management and policy partners with credible science, but to promote a change in their behavior that will improve sustainability of the ecosystem. We found that it is critical that the data collection matches very closely with the scale and scope of the policy or management issue. Integration of information from different sources and scales can provide a valuable triangulation tool and can establish strong links between ecological pattern and process. But surprises can occur with scale mismatches. We create confusion for our management partners when we find conflicting results at different scales. For example, our local-scale data suggest that there can be positive interactions between people, livestock and wildlife, but broad-scale data suggest strong downward trends in wildlife. However, we find significant benefits occur when those with a stake in better management interpret the information in the same forum, integrating scientific with other knowledge sources into both a credible and legitimate interpretation. This can then lead to concrete action for sustainability, but also improved legitimacy of the science – policy process.

Key words: savannas, wildlife, sustainability, policy