Threats to protected areas in Tunisia
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Loading... - Clint Pickford
- 10 Oct 2022
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Protected areas were created at a time when it was believed that the limitation of human access was sufficient to guarantee the conservation of the species that we seek to maintain there. This is what partly explains the policy adopted by the managers of these areas, namely non-intervention, in order to give free rein to natural factors to establish a supposed "balance" in these environments. The managers, however, omitted at least two fundamental factors, namely:
· Protected areas were created in sites that have always been maintained by man, and targeted interventions are necessary to at least stem certain phenomena, such as water erosion, floods, etc.
· Regular monitoring of biological communities makes it possible to determine whether the protected environments are undergoing a progressive or, on the contrary, regressive evolution.
· The reinforcement of localized populations (plants) is sometimes necessary to ensure their maintenance...
The second point is of paramount importance because it makes it possible to identify the causes of regression of native animal or plant species, by noting any unfavorable natural conditions, and in particular competition with other species favored by the new conditions...
The monitoring of protected areas around the world has made it possible to identify the impact of climate change on these spaces, with the regression or even the disappearance of species with restricted ecological niches or, on the contrary, the progression of species tolerant of higher temperatures and whose maintenance does not require a lot of water.
Invasive species, for example, can only be detected by a regular inventory of local vegetation or fauna. The introduction of an African toad in Italy, for example, prevented the local amphibians from developing, and certain species even tended to regress. When invasive species are detected in a protected area, a monitoring and eradication program is then put in place. In Tunisia, to our knowledge, only a black rat eradication program has been set up at La Galite. What about other protected areas?
Another fact requires field observations, namely the presence of diseases that can affect particular groups of animals. We all have in mind the avian flu which affects birds and for which advisories are issued to alert the population, because of the risk of contamination of domestic birds (especially poultry in the backyard). Due to the economic importance of this type of disease, sanitary measures are sometimes adopted and rigorously respected, to prevent the virus from spreading to livestock. Read More...
