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Understanding habitat quality and its dynamics is imperative for maintaining healthy
wildlife populations and ecosystems. We mapped and evaluated changes in habitat quality
(1975–2015) in the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem of northern Tanzania using the Integrated Valuation
of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. This is the first habitat quality assessment
of its kind for this ecosystem. We characterized changes in habitat quality in the ecosystem and
in a 30 kilometer buffer area. Four habitat quality classes (poor, low, medium and high) were
identified and their coverage quantified. Overall (1975–2015), habitat quality declined over time
but at rates that were higher for habitats with lower protection level or lower initial quality. As a
result, habitat quality deteriorated the most in the unprotected and human-dominated buffer area
surrounding the ecosystem, at intermediate rates in the less heavily protected Wildlife Management
Areas, Game Controlled Areas, Game Reserves and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the least
in the most heavily protected Serengeti National Park. The deterioration in habitat quality over time
was attributed primarily to anthropogenic activities and major land use policy changes. Effective
implementation of land use plans, robust and far-sighted institutional arrangements, adaptive legal
and policy instruments are essential to sustaining high habitat quality in contexts of rapid human
population growth. |
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