AFROBIODRIVERS | African biodiversity dynamics: interactions between ecological processes and conservation actions

While Africa has been home to exceptional biodiversity so far, the proven decline of its large, iconic mammals represents a significant ecological and economic threat to most countries of the continent. When in 2010, the world’s governments committed to increasing the coverage of protected areas to 17% of the world’s land surface, several Central African countries had already established the protection of 25% of their savannas for conservation purposes.

To assess the effectiveness of these tools, researchers from the AFROBIODRIVERS project :

• combined data on African large mammal populations and on the causes of changes (natural, anthropogenic), in order to improve the availability and use of multidisciplinary data,
• improved methods for analyzing spatial and temporal trends of populations and identified the main drivers of change, both ecological and anthropogenic, by analyzing and modeling long-term trends, 
• analyzed results from the seven main savanna national parks in Central Africa, as well as information on potential pressures impacting the large herbivore population (rainfall, number of rangers) and on the number and income of tourists.

This document summarizes in a few pages the group’s context and objectives, the methods and approaches used, the main findings, as well as the impact for science, society, and both public and private decision-making.