Keywords

Fundamental changes have emerged in conservation thinking and wildlife management approaches in Africa over recent decades. The recognition that ecosystems are seldom in equilibrium, are usually heterogeneous, and are constantly responding to fluxes in external pressures, suggests that the utopian ‘balance of nature’ concept is a myth. Uncertainty and change in interactive social and ecological systems have stimulated the development of adaptive management approaches in conservation. Adaptive management requires pragmatism, flexibility and an experimental, learning by doing, philosophy.

Strategic opportunism is adaptive management writ large. It seeks to transform problems into solutions. It recognises serendipity and embraces unexpected opportunities and the political moment. The development and application of the concept is based on experience drawn from multiple projects, across ten countries, within biomes ranging from hyper-arid desert, to tropical savanna, and to sub-Antarctic tundra, and within dynamic socio-political landscapes. The concept and practice of strategic opportunism is not encountered in university curricula. It is found in practical applications in the real world. The selected projects demonstrate success that has been sustained for two or more decades, and which illustrate how goals can be met regardless of a nation’s wealth, or of its cultural traditions.

The thesis of this book is that success depends on a clear and shared vision, within a flexible approach to project design and implementation, free of the straight-jacket of development agency project formats and short-term funding horizons. These case studies provide guidance not only for the execution of conservation and research projects, but also for the development of the human and financial resources needed to achieve realistic goals. At the heart of success is the role of passionate and inspiring leaders committed to the long view of conservation and research.

In contrast to many ‘northern’ countries, the advantages of predictability and stability are not shared by the ‘global south’. The demand for flexibility is particularly critical for much of Africa, where more than half of the continent comprises deserts and arid savannas, with widely fluctuating spatial and temporal patterns of rainfall, of vegetation productivity, and of ecosystem resilience. Realistic research and conservation goals must be based on a long-term vision, thinking big but starting small.

Even more than in politics, conservation is the art of the possible. It is a slow and iterative process. All the projects described have histories of slow but incremental progress, never linear but always opportunistic, seizing the moment while imagining the future.