Wild animals revealed as hidden victims of African wars

War in Africa has taken a consistent toll on elephants‚ hippos‚ giraffes and other large mammals from 1946 to 2010‚ a new study shows.

Ecologist Joshua Daskin found that 70% of protected areas had been harmed by civil conflict — a quarter of them for more than nine years — during the 20th century.

Daskin‚ from Princeton University‚ examined the abundance and decline of 36 species in 126 protected areas in 19 countries.

Wildlife were practically exterminated in parks such as Gorongosa in Mozambique‚ which was hit first by the anti-colonial war then by a 15-year civil conflict.

By 1999 the park had fallen silent and nothing moved‚ not a bird‚ snake or animal‚ this writer observed on a trip there. The elephant population had collapsed by more than 75% by the early 2000s.

Daskin’s research was triggered by an exploratory visit in 2012 to Gorongosa‚ by which time wildlife had rebounded to 80% of pre-war numbers.

Conflict can have positive and negative impacts on biodiversity but this study is the first time that scientists measured the net effect.

Animal populations rarely crashed to the point where they could not recover‚ said Daskin. “We’re presenting evidence that although mammal populations decline in war zones‚ they don’t often go extinct.

“With the right policies and resources‚ it should often be possible to reverse the declines and restore function ecosystems.”

Habitat protection and anti-poaching measures are not enough to protect megafauna without investing in the “people side of conservation”‚ including job creation‚ promoting health‚ education‚ law and order and stopping corruption‚ he said.

Chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy‚ Hugh Possingham‚ said the research showed that the fate of animals rested on stable social structures.

“Bottom line — to stop threats such as bushmeat hunting‚ governance really has to be strong‚” he said.