Abstract
IN a short address at the general meeting of the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire, the chairman, Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, made a strong appeal for the consolidation of the position in regard to animal reserves within the Empire. At present the continued existence of faunal reserves depends upon the goodwill of individual governments or individual parliaments. The discovery of mineral deposits, the demand for timber, and other possible eventualities, may lead to particular reserves being thrown open to traffic or trade, with disastrous effects to the animal population, which cannot be herded into new areas at the will of man. What is needed for the permanent protection of those faunas, which are rapidly becoming relict faunas, is the raising of the status of their native territory in certain cases from temporary reserves to permanent national parks. The Society, which since its foundation has worked so strenuously on behalf of the Empire's threatened animals, has often appealed, with reasoned arguments founded upon the reports of its own observers, to the Colonial Office, but so far without success. The alteration would involve no extra expenditure; ultimately, indeed, the national parks by proper administration would bring in a certain amount of revenue; the surplus earned by the Game Department of Kenya, under strictly regulated conditions, was £15,022 in 1930. At present their creation would cost nothing, and would mean permanent security for the animals and plants in the reserved regions.
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Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire. Nature 129, 340 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129340b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129340b0