Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Serengeti Land Ethic: Deconstructing Environmental Dualism In A Critical Ecosystem, Kristyn Gorton

Honors Program Theses

This study synthesizes information on the ecology of the Serengeti Plains biome, its landscape and human history, the ethnoscience of its indigenous populations, and the current management objectives of the Serengeti’s protected areas in order to evidence the suitability of indigenous habitat management technologies in the preservation of this ecosystem. Effects of indigenous removal include the encroachment of tsetse fly bush, reduction in grassland diversity and primary productivity, and decline in the Serengeti’s keystone species, the blue wildebeest. The models of conventional national parks and community-based conservation alternatives will be evaluated in order to demonstrate the shortcomings of an environmentally …