The Holocene extinction, sometimes called the
Sixth Extinction, is a name proposed to describe the extinction
event of species that has occurred during the present Holocene
epoch (since around 10,000 BCE) mainly due to human activity. The
large number of extinctions span numerous families of plants and
animals including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and
arthropods. Although 875 extinctions occurring between 1500 and
2009 have been documented by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the vast majority are
undocumented. According to the species-area theory and based on
upper-bound estimating, the present rate of extinction may be up to
140,000 species per year.
The Holocene extinction includes the disappearance
of large mammals known as megafauna, starting between 9,000 and
13,000 years ago, the end of the last Ice Age. This may have been
due to the extinction of the mammoth that had maintained grasslands
that became birch forests without the mammoths. The new forest and
the resulting forest fires may have induced climate change. Such
disappearances might be the result of the proliferation of modern
humans which led to climate change. These extinctions, occurring
near the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, are sometimes referred to
as the Quaternary extinction event.
The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st
century. There is no general agreement on whether to
consider this as merely part of the Quaternary extinction event, or
just a result of human caused changes. Only during these most
recent parts of the extinction have plants also suffered large
losses. Overall, the Holocene extinction can be characterized by
humanity's presence. Indigenous peoples in East Africa, like such
people throughout the world, lived in relative harmony with
wildlife for thousands of years. As Western Europeans moved into
East Africa, they viewed the landscape as barren "wilderness." Yet
"wilderness" was largely a creation of Western thought since most
areas they called wild were in fact used by the native inhabitants
as their cultural resource.
Now, wildlife in many protected areas is under
threat from human encroachment, insularisation, poaching for
commercial or subsistence purposes, habitat degradation,
encroachment of incompatible land uses, loss of migration and
dispersal areas, and ever increasing human-wildlife conflicts. In a
scenario where wildlife-induced damages to human property and life
are neither controlled nor compensated, negative local attitudes
towards conservation and wildlife resources become entrenched. This
is made worse when local communities do not benefit from wildlife
resources and are alienated from wildlife-related economic
enterprises such as the lucrative tourism industry. When local
communities feel that both governments and conservation
stakeholders value wildlife more than their lives, livelihoods or
their aspirations, retaliation and opposition to conservation
initiatives can be swift and uncompromising. One solution to this
is to empower communities to manage and benefit from wildlife
resources found in communal group ranch dispersal areas. These
sanctuaries, for most cases in Kenya, have the tourists in mind as
key clients.
Recent studies show that wildlife in some African
nations is declining even in national parks, as poaching increases
and human settlements hem in habitat. With the continent expected
to add more than a billion people by 2050, do these trends portend
the spectre of Africa devoid of wild
mammals. This is why it is important
to bring conservation management to the centre of curricula at all
levels because it is only through involving all people in the
management of wildlife issues that survival of people with their
local wildlife can be assured.
