CONSERVATION OF ARABIAN GAZELLES - Nwrc.gov.sa

• National (central) government political action is required to stimulate field action. The
National Conservation Strategy processes provide a framework for the implementation of
Action Plans;
• Regional co-operation in antelope conservation is recommended, but probably limited to
conservation areas in border zones and cross-border antelope species;
• Field action requires surveys of antelope status, and management of conservation areas;
• Captive breeding, which can provide insurance against extinction.
The strategies for antelope conservation include:
• Strict protection
• Tourism (including sport hunting)
• Sustained-yield utilization (e.g. farming, cropping, subsistence hunting)
• Multiple resource use
• Local participation in conservation planning
• Conservation education
• Sociological research
• Enlisting public support.
This is not the place in which to investigate and describe the actions proposed above. They
are little different to those proposed by many other SSC Specialist Groups and conservation bodies
around the world. There is an enormous literature on the various topics, not least on captive breeding
as a means of ensuring both the continuity of a species, and the availability of a viable population for
reintroduction. It is worth noting however, pertinent to the present workshop, the enormous costs
involved in captive breeding and the maintenance of populations of larger animals such as antelope
for prolonged periods in captivity (Conway, 1986), and also that captive breeding is no substitute for
the maintenance of adequate areas of natural ecosystem with wild populations. Captive breeding can
be a complement to integrated protected area conservation but must not be mistaken as the final
solution. In situ conservation offers the most economically efficient and ecologically meaningful way
of conserving antelope species and their ecosystems for the long-term future.
Actions
The primary aim of the SSC Specialist Group Action Plans is to recommend actions that preserve
existing wild populations as the most ecologically efficient means of long-term self-sustaining
conservation. Captive breeding and reintroductions are seen merely as stop-gap measures, providing
an insurance policy against total extinction in the wild, towards the time when the re-establishment of
a wild population is possible in the natural ecosystem.
There are severe constraints to the implementation of antelope conservation action plans,
including limited financial resources and shortage of land for protected area conservation - as
envisaged in the earlier conservation ethos of totally protected areas, which were thus isolated from
reality.
There is now new acceptance that this was a limited vision of conservation based mainly
upon the powerful commercial driving forces of Western tourism and recreation. It is almost
impossible to achieve total "preservation" of significant land areas and their ecosystems, except in the
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