Date of Award

Spring 2017

Thesis Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Department

Environmental Science

Sponsor

Gay Biery-Hamilton

Committee Member

Lee Lines

Committee Member

Emily Nodine

Abstract

This study synthesizes information on the ecology of the Serengeti Plains biome, its landscape and human history, the ethnoscience of its indigenous populations, and the current management objectives of the Serengeti’s protected areas in order to evidence the suitability of indigenous habitat management technologies in the preservation of this ecosystem. Effects of indigenous removal include the encroachment of tsetse fly bush, reduction in grassland diversity and primary productivity, and decline in the Serengeti’s keystone species, the blue wildebeest. The models of conventional national parks and community-based conservation alternatives will be evaluated in order to demonstrate the shortcomings of an environmentally dualistic approach to conservation in the Serengeti and determine an appropriate schema for environmental protection on the Serengeti’s regional scale.

Rights Holder

Kristyn Gorton

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