Antelopes - Global Survey and Regional Action Plans, Part 4: North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

260 Seiten. Verbreitungskarten.

IUCN, Gland. ISBN 2-8317-0594-0.

Vorwort:

The IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group was created in 1978 and currently has more than 100 members based in over 40 countries .A key objective of the group is to monitor the conservation status of all antelope species  .The publication of Part 4 of Antelopes: Global Survey and Regional
Action Plans is an important and eagerly awaited milestone in achieving this objective .Following on from Parts 1 to 3, which dealt with the antelopes of sub-Saharan Africa, Part 4 completes the Antelope Specialist Group’s efforts to summarise  current  knowledge  of  the  status  of  each  antelope
species in all of its range states, and to develop Regional Action Plans for antelope conservation.

The  completion  of  Part  4  is  a  tribute  to  the  unstinting efforts and persistence of the compilers. They have produced a comprehensive work, which is a major addition to our knowledge of antelopes and will be of lasting value to antelope conservation   .As the compiler of Parts 1 to 3 of
Antelopes: Global Survey and Regional Action Plans, I am uniquely placed to understand the magnitude of the compilers’  task. This  is  exacerbated  by  the  relatively  large number of species and range states that are covered by the Antelope Specialist Group. I warmly congratulate David Mallon and Steven Kingswood on their successful completion of this mammoth undertaking.

With almost 100 species globally, antelopes achieve an exceptionally high diversity compared to most other groups of  medium  to  large-sized  mammals . The  living  antelope species represent the continuation of a major and relatively recent evolutionary heritage and are among the most successful groups of large herbivores that have ever existed on Earth  .They  are  also  important  flagship  species  for  the conservation of natural environments .Flourishing antelope populations   are   key   indicators   of   healthy   grasslands, woodlands, forests, and deserts in many parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Hence, the conservation of antelopes  is  a  vital  component  of  biodiversity  conservation throughout these regions  .In addition, the beauty and grace of antelopes give them high aesthetic value. They are also an important natural resource in economic terms, through consumptive uses such as hunting for trophies, meat, and skins,  and  non-consumptive  uses  such  as  game-viewing tourism.

Threats to the survival of antelopes arise fundamentally from the growth of human and domestic livestock populations, which result in increasing degradation and destruction of natural habitats and excessive offtake by hunting for meat and  skins. Unfortunately,  these  processes  are  even  more advanced  in  much  of  the  region  covered  by  Part  4  of Antelopes: Global Survey and Regional Action Plans than in sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, antelope populations have  been  severely  depleted  or  exterminated  over  large parts of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia .Nevertheless, viable and sometimes substantial remnants of most of the region’s antelope species survive.

Emphasis  must  now  shift  to  the  implementation  of  the conservation  priorities  identified  in  the  Regional  Action Plan, within the context of sustainable development and the conservation of biological diversity .Co-ordinated efforts by government  and  non-government  agencies  and  conservation organisations will be essential to implement the protection  and  management  regimes  which  are  required  to assure the long-term survival of representative examples of this   spectacular   group   of   mammals   and   their   natural habitats.

Rod East
Co-Chair, Antelope Specialist Group

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