Executive Summary - Occasional Paper No. 21 - African Antelope Database 1998

The purpose of this report is to provide those interested in antelope conservation with the information currently held by the IUCN/SSC Antelope Specialist Group on the conservation status of each antelope species (and selected subspecies) in sub-Saharan Africa. This species-wide view complements the country-based reports in other recent Antelope Specialist Group publications.

Threats to the survival of antelopes arise fundamentally from the rapid growth of human and livestock populations, and consequent degradation and destruction of natural habitats and excessive offtake by meat hunters. In addition, some parts of Africa are now almost completely devoid of large wild animals because of uncontrolled slaughter during recent civil wars. The wildlife of substantial areas of the sahelo-Saharan zone has been senselessly annihilated by motorised hunting parties.

Key areas have been identified for the conservation of representative antelope communities. These show a high degree of overlap with the conservation requirements of other groups of larger mammals. Most of these areas have been included by African governments in their gazetted protected-area systems, and opportunities for the establishment of major new protected areas are very limited or non-existent in many countries. Hence Africa's key wildlife areas are now generally well defined and there is little point in further debating the adequacy for larger mammals of the existing protected-area network. The key challenge facing antelope conservation in Africa is improvement of the conservation status of identified key areas and populations. At present, levels of protection and management of many of these areas are low or non-existent and their wildlife populations are depleted, in some cases severely. This reflects factors such as lack of political commitment to conservation and declining budgets of government wildlife agencies.

By far the greatest international contribution to the conservation of antelopes and other African wildlife is through external donor support to major wildlife areas, including development of the capacity of the wildlife agencies responsible for these areas and community-based conservation projects. This support is at an historically high level, but the long-term success of wildlife conservation will also depend on greater political commitment to conservation at the national and local level in many African countries. Greater recognition of wildlife conservation in national and regional development plans is often a critically important requirement.

Most antelope species still exist in large numbers in sub-Saharan Africa. Half of the species considered in this report are estimated to number at least in the hundreds of thousands and 85% in the tens of thousands or more. Despite this superficially favourable situation, up to three-quarters of the species are in decline. Most antelopes are subjected to increasing rates of fragmentation of their distributions and reduction or extermination of local populations. If current trends continue, Africa will lose a substantial proportion of its remaining antelope populations during the 21st century. The proportion of antelope species in sub-Saharan Africa which is threatened (or extinct) is projected to double from its present level of about one-quarter to about half by 2025. Reversal of this trend will depend on greater realisation of the economic potential of wildlife, e.g., through game-viewing tourism and international trophy hunting. The private sector may play an increasingly important role in the successful conservation of many antelope species, as in Southern Africa at present.