Wildlife management has been defined as the attempt to create a balance between the needs of wildlife and that of humans (people) by adopting and using the best strategies proven by science (Fred, 2008). Wildlife management according to Potter (1973) is a unified discipline with an attempt to achieve best results. Wildlife management includes practices such as game keeping, pest control and wildlife conservation. Soule (1986) argued that wildlife conservation purposes to avert the loss of biodiversity based on ecological principles such as carrying capacity, disturbance and succession. It also takes into account the physical geography, formation and hydrology of the environment. Two main types of …show more content…
The strategy may include the varying of food supply, habitation, influencing the density of predators or occurrence of disease (biological control) (Fred, 2008). Manipulative strategies are used usually when a population is to be harvested or when it is observed that the numbers of a certain species has exceeded the carrying capacity of the area (over population) or when its densities become too low. Such manipulative decisions according to Fred (2008) are subjective and therefore could be debated by other interest groups in the wildlife domain (Fred, 2008).
2.8.2 Custodial wildlife management
Custodial wildlife management according to Fred (2008) involves preventive or protection approach to wildlife management. The main aim of using custodial management approach is to limit external interference on wildlife population and their environments. Custodial wildlife management approaches are mainly used in national parks where one of the stated objectives is to protect ecological processes without human interferences. The approach is ideal for the management of threatened species particularly where the threat is known to be external and not an intrinsic (internal or natural) phenomenon (Fred, 2008).
2.9 Wildlife Crime in …show more content…
Rowcliffe et al. (2004) reported that the use of legislative instrument to regulate wildlife use is a global mechanism. However the lack of resources particularly in the less developed countries serves as the main obstacle for compliance hence the reliance on voluntary compliance which has resulted in conflicting interpretations. Rowcliffe et al. (2004) in a study conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) argued that there was no link between efforts to protect certain large species and the prey choice of commercial hunters. The general assumption made especially when wildlife laws are introduced without the appropriate strategies to make them effective is that the will be a voluntary compliance. Another school of thought is that, without strict enforcement of the laws, there will be no compliance. There is still no valid conclusion from any study to establish which of these assumptions holds in practice (Rowcliffe et al.,