One of the crucial questions at Mkomazi is what have people done to the environment? There are two main schools of thought. The most powerful lobby holds that people, and particularly livestock were ruining the environment and had to be removed. The revisionist view is that the evidence for degradation is weak (after all cattle populations were healthy and they had to be sustained by something). This position, which I advocate, does not justify such draconian policies. Nor does it prove that wildlife interests and human needs are compatible in this region.
The key papers are:
An examination of the levels of biodiversity in Mkomazi and their uniqueness. PDF
A study of the different sources of knowledge underlying environmental change and what conclusions they support. PDF
A comparative paper exploring the history of Mkomazi’s environment with those of nearby places. PDF
Please note that Fortress Conservation and other earlier papers uses some satellite data whose interpretation has since had to be radically revised following Susan Canney’s PhD. As soon as possible we published a correction, which came out in Kathy Homewood’s edited collection Rural Resources and Local Livelihoods in Africa and is available here: PDF
Environmentalism and Conservation 