Conservation and Development Interventions at the Wildlife/livestock Interface

Book excerpt: During a forum held at the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress in South Africa in 2003, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the IUCN SSC Veterinary and Southern Africa Sustainable Use Specialist Groups (VSG and SASUSG) brought together nearly 80 experts from Africa and beyond to develop ways to tackle the immense health-related conservation and development challenges at the wildlife/domestic animal/human interface facing East and Southern Africa today, and tomorrow. This volume focuses on several themes of critical importance to the future of animal agriculture, wildlife, and, of course, people: competition over grazing and water resources, disease mitigation, local and global food security and other potential sources of conflict related to the overall challenges of land-use planning and the pervasive reality of resource constraints. This publication seeks to draw attention to the need to move towards a "one health" perspective - an approach that was the foundation of the discussions in Durban, and a theme pervading these thought-provoking, insightful, and practical Proceedings.