Antelope conservation in the 21st century: from diagnosis to action

Symposium in London, 17 and 18 November 2011

The Zoological Society of London is hosting the Symposium Antelope Conservation in the 21st century: from diagnosis to action.

The drastic decline in wildlife populations since 1970 has hit antelopes particularly severely with more than a quarter of species now threatened by extinction. However, antelopes have received far less conservation attention than many of their mammalian relatives in spite of providing some of the most fascinating wildlife spectacles on earth. Thus in the absence of immediate action, several species are in imminent danger of joining the scimitar-horned oryx as recent extinctions in the wild.

This meeting aims to clarify current trends in global antelope biodiversity, understand what drives the major threat processes and, on this basis, highlight conservation priorities, taking into account both biological and socioeconomic aspects because antelopes demonstrate striking variation in morphology, ecology and behaviour, they are exposed to a wide range of the threats facing biodiversity today. In this way, the focus on antelopes provides a prism through which general insights into the principles governing conservation threats and their mitigation can be achieved.

The topics addressed by world leading experts in antelope conservation include:

• how to turn friendly land use in a world of environmental change, how antelope-livestock interactions affect resource competition and disease transmission,
• how to render bushmeat hunting sustainable, and the usefulness of sport hunting, game ranching and reintroductions as tools in conservation.

The symposium is organised by Jakob Bro-Jørgensen Group) and David Mallon (Manchester Metropolitan University/IUCN Antelope Specialist Group, co-chair).

Symposium in London, 17 and 18 November 2011