A landscape ecological approach to address scaling problems in conservation management and monitoring

Management of many African game reserves is today often still an art based on experience and intuition, rather than a science, Decision-making is base d on an informal integration of accumulated individual knowledge and keen f ield observations. Data are generally poorly captured and cu-rated. Until f airly recently, denominators of biological parameters (such as the unit of land or unit of plant production used as measurement) have generally been t reated as being homogenous. The patchiness of landscapes and the issue of e cological scaling were ignored, often because of a lack of appropriate tech nical tools. The ecological data available on the 49,000-ha Songimvelo Game Reserve (SGR) result from a number of discrete survey and monitoring proje cts undertaken by different researchers, with different objectives, at diff erent spatial and temporal scales. A landscape ecological approach towards research and monitoring is appropriate for an area of the size and diversit y of the SGR. A combination of a database approach and spatial representati on was used to consolidate and integrate data across temporal and spatial s cales. Herbivore spatial and temporal distribution patterns were explored a cross three spatial scales. An understanding was achieved of the importance of landscape patchiness in controlling resource availability for herbivore s. This insight is important in guiding management and monitoring of the SG R by placing perceived patch overutilization in its proper landscape contex t. The landscape ecological approach bridges the traditional scale-independ ent view to a more contemporary scale-related understanding of ecosystem di versity and functioning.