Latest Articles from Nature Conservation Latest 2 Articles from Nature Conservation https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/ Fri, 29 Mar 2024 15:13:43 +0200 Pensoft FeedCreator https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/i/logo.jpg Latest Articles from Nature Conservation https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/ Transformative learning and grassroots climate adaptation: case studies in Vietnam’s Mekong delta https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/29551/ Nature Conservation 39: 19-43

DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.39.29551

Authors: Nguyen Minh Quang, Joop de Wit

Abstract: This paper aims to understand how T-learning helps communities achieve better sustainability outcomes. On the basis of an intensive literature review and field research conducted in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, the paper proposes a substantial linkage between T-learning and sustainability. It first outlines the environmental changes in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, which appear to serve as “disorienting dilemmas” that force local people to learn and gradually shift their farming practices to align with a climate-resilient development. The paper relies on the outcomes of household surveys, field observations and focus group discussions to explore the impacts of T-learning on building adaptive capacity and sustainability transition in two community-based projects in Can Tho City and Ca Mau province in the Mekong Delta. Our findings reveal that T-learning enables experts and practitioners to introduce new ideas and accordingly mobilize local people to make changes without inciting doubt, dismay or concern. In an ideal T-learning approach, small-scale farmers learn from being under the supervision of experts in “field-based schools” that offer real-life experience and encourage learners to shift their livelihoods to eco-friendly agricultural practices. The paper sheds new light on how a critical approach to education for sustainable development through T-learning can be, under specific conditions, one strategy. It concludes that T-learning should be acknowledged as a potentially important part of the broader approach to climate-resilient development in vulnerable grassroots communities.

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Research Article Mon, 4 May 2020 15:26:22 +0300
Searching for snakes: ball python hunting in southern Togo, West Africa https://natureconservation.pensoft.net/article/47864/ Nature Conservation 38: 13-36

DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.38.47864

Authors: Neil D’Cruze, Lauren A. Harrington, Délagnon Assou, Delphine Ronfot, David W. Macdonald, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Mark Auliya

Abstract: The ball python (Python regius) is the single most exported live CITES-listed species from Africa, with a large proportion of snakes being sourced from Togo, West Africa, officially via a system reported nationally as “ranching”. This study represents the first in-depth review of ball python hunting being carried out by rural communities in Togo for nearly 15 years. Our approach, focused at the bottom of the trade chain, permitted extensive detailed data to be collected from hunters, and provides a unique insight into the practices, drivers and impacts associated with this type of large-scale commercial wildlife trade activity. We show that ball python hunting remains an economically valuable endeavour for these rural hunters. However, it also highlights a number of potential legal, conservation and animal welfare issues associated with the current hunting practices being carried out in Togo (and neighbouring range States) to supply the snake farms and ultimately the international exotic pet trade. Our findings suggest that the methods applied on the ground do not accurately reflect those being reported to national authorities and international regulatory mechanisms such as CITES. This irregular, if not illegal, trade may also be unsustainable, as suggested by hunters reporting that there are fewer ball pythons in the wild than there were five years previously. We recommend that additional scientific investigation (focusing on the size and status of the wild population), better management, and enforcement of regulations, are required to ensure that ball python populations are managed in a sustainable, legal and traceable way.

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Review Article Fri, 13 Mar 2020 10:26:50 +0200