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African Ecology

Author: Clive Alfred Spinage

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-01-28

Total Pages: 1582

ISBN-13: 3642228720

In view of the rapidly changing ecology of Africa ,this work provides benchmarks for some of the major, and more neglected, aspects, with an accent on historical data to enable habitats to be seen in relation to their previous state, forming a background reference work to understanding how the ecology of Africa has been shaped by its past. Reviewing historical data wherever possible it adopts an holistic view treating man as well as animals, with accent on diseases both human and animal which have been a potent force in shaping Africa’s ecology, a role neglected in ecological studies.

Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author: Richard Primack

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2019-09-10

Total Pages: 712

ISBN-13: 1783747536

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Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa comprehensively explores the challenges and potential solutions to key conservation issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Easy to read, this lucid and accessible textbook includes fifteen chapters that cover a full range of conservation topics, including threats to biodiversity, environmental laws, and protected areas management, as well as related topics such as sustainability, poverty, and human-wildlife conflict. This rich resource also includes a background discussion of what conservation biology is, a wide range of theoretical approaches to the subject, and concrete examples of conservation practice in specific African contexts. Strategies are outlined to protect biodiversity whilst promoting economic development in the region. Boxes covering specific themes written by scientists who live and work throughout the region are included in each chapter, together with recommended readings and suggested discussion topics. Each chapter also includes an extensive bibliography. Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa provides the most up-to-date study in the field. It is an essential resource, available on-line without charge, for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a handy guide for professionals working to stop the rapid loss of biodiversity in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere.

Ecology and Behaviour of the African Buffalo

Author: H.H.T Prins

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9400915276

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Over the past 30 years or so, research effort in behaviour and ecology has progressed from simple documentation of the habits or habitats of differ ent species to asking more searching questions about the adaptiveness of the patterns of behaviour observed; moved from documenting simply what occurs, to trying to understand why. Increasingly, studies of behav iour or ecology explore the function of particular responses or patterns of behaviour in individuals or populations - looking for the adaptiveness that has led to the adoption of such patterns either at a proximate level (what environmental circumstances have favoured the adoption of some particular strategy or response from within the animal's repertoire at that specific time) or at an evolutionary level (speculating upon what pres sures have led to the inclusion of a particular pattern of behaviour within the repertoire in the first place). Many common principles have been established - common to a wide diversity of animal groups, yet showing some precise relationship between a given aspect of behaviour or population dynamics and some particular ecological factor. In particular, tremendous advances have been made in understanding the foraging behaviour of animals - and the 'decision rules' by which they seek and select from the various resources on offer - and patterns of social organization and behaviour: the adap tiveness of different social structures, group sizes or reproductive tactics.

Different Shades of Green

Author: Byron Caminero-Santangelo

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2014-07-16

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 0813936071

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Engaging important discussions about social conflict, environmental change, and imperialism in Africa, Different Shades of Green points to legacies of African environmental writing, often neglected as a result of critical perspectives shaped by dominant Western conceptions of nature and environmentalism. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework employing postcolonial studies, political ecology, environmental history, and writing by African environmental activists, Byron Caminero-Santangelo emphasizes connections within African environmental literature, highlighting how African writers have challenged unjust, ecologically destructive forms of imperial development and resource extraction. Different Shades of Green also brings into dialogue a wide range of African creative writing—including works by Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Zakes Mda, Nuruddin Farah, Wangari Maathai, and Ken Saro-Wiwa—in order to explore vexing questions for those involved in the struggle for environmental justice, in the study of political ecology, and in the environmental humanities, urging continued imaginative thinking in effecting a more equitable, sustain¬able future in Africa.

African Ecology and Human Evolution

Author: Francois Bourliere

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 678

ISBN-13: 1351533614

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The record of man's early evolution, though still fragmentary, is more complete on the African continent than anywhere else in the world. The ecological context of this evolution, however, has been studied intensively only in recent years. This pioneering volume draws together eminent specialists from many fields--physical anthropologists, zoologists, geologists, paleontologists, and prehistorians--who summarize here the results of their diverse research on Pleistocene environments and the cultural and biological evolution of man in Africa. This volume was sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Inc., which met at Burg Wartenstein, Austria. The editors have field experience in Africa, especially eastern and equatorial Africa. This experience is coupled with their awareness of the need to integrate results of numerous field studies bearing on the biological-behavioral evolution of higher primates with other field studies on the paleoecology and the mammalian ecology of sub-Saharan Africa. The book includes contributions on Pleistocene stratigraphy and climatic changes throughout the African continent; on the origin and evolution of the earliest man-like creatures in Africa; on the dating, distribution, and adaptation of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer peoples; and on the ecology, biology, and social behavior of African primate and human populations. The chapters reflect vividly the state of current knowledge at the time and indicate paths for future research. Over 100 maps and figures, detailed bibliographies, and a comprehensive index contribute to the importance of the volume for basic reference use.

African Ecology and Human Evolution

Author: Francis Clark Howell

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 678

ISBN-13: 0202361365

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The record of man's early evolution, though still fragmentary, is more complete on the African continent than anywhere else in the world. The ecological context of this evolution, however, has been studied intensively only in recent years. This pioneering volume draws together eminent specialists from many fields--physical anthropologists, zoologists, geologists, paleontologists, and prehistorians--who summarize here the results of their diverse research on Pleistocene environments and the cultural and biological evolution of man in Africa. This volume was sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Inc., which met at Burg Wartenstein, Austria. The editors have field experience in Africa, especially eastern and equatorial Africa. This experience is coupled with their awareness of the need to integrate results of numerous field studies bearing on the biological-behavioral evolution of higher primates with other field studies on the paleoecology and the mammalian ecology of sub-Saharan Africa. The book includes contributions on Pleistocene stratigraphy and climatic changes throughout the African continent; on the origin and evolution of the earliest man-like creatures in Africa; on the dating, distribution, and adaptation of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer peoples; and on the ecology, biology, and social behavior of African primate and human populations. The chapters reflect vividly the state of current knowledge at the time and indicate paths for future research. Over 100 maps and figures, detailed bibliographies, and a comprehensive index contribute to the importance of the volume for basic reference use. F. Clark Howell is professor emeritus of paleoanthropology at the University of California, Berkeley where he is co-director of the Laboratory of Human Studies. He is also curator at The University of California Museum of Paleontology. Franois Bourlire (1913-1993) was professor of physiology at the University of Paris. He is also credited with founding the Gerontology Research Unit of Institute of Health and Medical Research and was a member of Paris hospitals.

African Philosophy and Environmental Conservation

Author: Jonathan O. Chimakonam

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-04

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1351583263

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African Philosophy and Environmental Conservation is about the unconcern for, and marginalisation of, the environment in African philosophy. The issue of the environment is still very much neglected by governments, corporate bodies, academics and specifically, philosophers in the sub-Saharan Africa. The entrenched traditional world-views which give a place of privilege to one thing over the other, as for example men over women, is the same attitude that privileges humans over the environment. This culturally embedded orientation makes it difficult for stake holders in Africa to identify and confront the modern day challenges posed by the neglect of the environment. In a continent where deep-rooted cultural and religious practices, as well as widespread ignorance, determine human conduct towards the environment, it becomes difficult to curtail much less overcome the threats to our environment. It shows that to a large extent, the African cultural privileging of men over women and of humans over the environment somewhat exacerbates and makes the environmental crisis on the continent intractable. For example, it raises the challenging puzzle as to why women in Africa are the ones to plant the trees and men are the ones to fell them. Contributors address these salient issues from both theoretical and practical perspectives, demonstrating what African philosophy could do to ameliorate the marginalisation which the theme of environment suffers on the continent. Philosophy is supposed to teach us how to lead the good life in all its forms; why is it failing in this duty in Africa specifically where the issue of environment is concerned? This book which trail-blazes the field of African Philosophy and Environmental Ethics will be of great interest to students and scholars of Philosophy, African philosophy, Environmental Ethics and Gender Studies.