A recent study led by the Purdue University demonstrates that attention paid to the local communities in African parks can help a great deal preserving endangered species like gorillas and elephants.
By not taking into consideration the local beliefs, the hunting calendar and migrations, one can develop a highly inaccurate idea on protecting wildlife.
The complete study led Melissa Reims, professor of anthropology who is studying gorillas in their natural habitat and Rebecca Hardin, associate teacher of anthropology at the University of Michigan, to be focused on how the hard work of conservation and the protected areas’ administration can prove to be inefficient when it fails to include aspects of human dimension.
The main aspects of the study refer to problems of the animal species, forest destruction, local culture and ecotourism, and the space it took place in, was the Central African Dzanga-Sangha Forest Reserve (renown for the western gorillas it hosts and the elephants that come here in very large numbers, usually of 100 or more).
The main problems in the area are that, on the one hand, the elephants, for example, might devastate the crops or that sometimes the food of the locals is running so low that they might hunt endangered species for their own survival.
What the authors of the study suggest is that more understanding of the ecological field might improve both the preservation of the species and the degree of understanding of the communities’ lifestyle, including those who fail to understand the advantages of protecting wildlife.
