A Review of Major Threats and Challenges to Conservation Management of Mammals in East Africa Incase of Nech Sar National Park, Southern Ethiopia

Nech Sar National Park is one of protected areas (PAs) found in the southern Ethiopian rift valley. The park was established in 1974 with the objective to protect forests and wildlife, and the large mammals, in particular, to ensure that the overall biodiversity is conserved and ecosystem provisioning services are sustained. The aim of this paper is to review a number of previous scientific and grey literatures reported pertaining the threats and challenges facing the mammalian population over the last few decades. Thorough examinations of these documents reveal that Nech Sar National Park is believed to harbour more than 103 species, 28 families and 10 orders of mammals. Equus quagga and Hippopotamus amphibious are flagship species in the terrestrial and aquatic habitats, respectively. Sadly, however, currently six endemic mammals are designated a critically threatened IUCN conservation status. Furthermore, five mammals such as Cercopithecus aethiops, Alcelaphusbuselaphus swaynii, Syncerrus caffer, Litocranius walleri and Ourebia ourebi are currently believed locally extinct. Major conservation threats are habitat destruction and fragmentation caused by wood collection, charcoal production, illegal overgrazing, fishing, settlement, and farming, poaching, and invasion and encroachment by exotic and native plant species. Overcoming these problems has been further constrained by underlining challenges such as poverty, changes in land use management plan, and lack of political commitments