Protected
areas in East Africa are not doing enough to conserve the iconic Acacia trees
in the savannah, a new study have found.
The
study found that majority of Acacia biodiversity in protected areas like
national parks, nature and forest reserves receive little protection, a
situation which may be exacerbated by climate change.
The
researchers found that two thirds of Acacia diversity hotspots had less
than 10 per cent coverage by protected areas. They also conclude that due to
climate change, high-elevation, moisture-dependent species of Acacia may
contract their ranges towards mountain peaks, where protected areas are
dominated by forest reserves.
“The Acacia
is one of Africa’s most iconic groups of trees, but our data suggest protected
areas such as national parks do not really conserve them. This is most likely
because most protected areas were originally established to protect big game
rather than to protect biodiversity and plants.” Dr Andy Marshall on of the
researchers from US said.
Acacia
includes a number of species that dominate extensive areas of East African
woodland, wooded grassland and bushland. It occurs across a wide range of
ecosystems, from arid deserts to mountain forests, and ranges from small shrubs
to large trees.
The
study ‘The genus Acacia (Fabaceae) in East Africa: distribution,
diversity and the protected area network’ is published at Plant Ecology and
Evolution and included research in 771 protected areas in 65 world-renowned
national parks and game reserves in five East African countries of Burundi,
Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
“Data
suggest that if we were to take the existing protected areas and place them
completely at random across the area, we would get a better coverage of Acacia
diversity than the current distribution,” says the study.
The
study says governments should seek how best to deal with the potential mismatch
between biodiversity and the current protected area network by effective means
of biodiversity conservation by closely involving local people to protect both
animals and plants.
“Acacia
like other plants have been ignored in conservation in protected areas even
though they harness Sun’s energy and providing nutrients for the entire food
chain. Information on plant distributions and the ways in which ecosystems will
respond to future climatic and economic developments is crucial,” Dr Marshall
says.
The
study which has been carried out by University of York, Flamingo Land Theme
Park and Zoo among others will be fully published next year.
© Manuel Odeny, 2012
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