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. 2024 Jan 26;10(3):e25126.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25126. eCollection 2024 Feb 15.

Vulture poisoning in Sub-Saharan Africa and its implications for conservation planning: A systematic review

Vincent Raphael Nyirenda  1 , Bimo Abraham Nkhata  2 , Darius Phiri  3 , Wilfred Nyirenda  4 , Daniel Nyamphande Phiri  5 , Mary Malasa  5 , Matthew Smith Becker  6 , Enala Mwase Tembo  7 , Moses Amos Nyirenda  8 , Twakundine Simpamba  9 , Jacob Mwitwa  10 , Chansa Chomba  11
Affiliations

Vulture poisoning in Sub-Saharan Africa and its implications for conservation planning: A systematic review

Vincent Raphael Nyirenda et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

The Old World Vultures (OWV), constituting 16 species primarily in Africa, Europe and Asia, are currently being driven to extinction mostly by anthropogenic activities, especially poisoning. The vulture losses from poisoning caused by human-related activities are en masse at a single mortality event-level and occur in complex social-ecological systems. There has been a growing body of knowledge on wildlife poisoning over the years. However, no review has been done to consolidate vulture poisoning studies in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with a social lens of conservation planning. Here we present a review of the vulture poisoning research by re-contextualizing the problem of vulture poisoning across SSA. We employed stepwise Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method to search for literature on vulture poisoning. The search yielded 211 studies which were trimmed to 55 after applying sets of eligibility criteria. Literature shows that efforts aimed at successful vulture conservation planning will require an understanding of the relational aspects of stakeholder social capital (assets) that are critical to the implementation of species recovery strategies. Strengthening relational social capital through multi-scale stakeholder evidence-based awareness creation and participation is necessary for addressing the African Vulture Crisis (AVC). Applying stakeholder social capital approaches to different vulture conservation scenarios at local, regional and international scales can enhance successful implementation of conservation strategies for the persistence of vultures in complex socio-ecological systems in African landscapes. Existing literature also showed the importance of stakeholder social capital as a countermeasure against vulture losses.

Keywords: African vulture crisis; Obligate carnivorous scavengers; Social change; Toxicity; Vulture conservation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Literature search schematic flowchart on the social capital regarding African vulture crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Spatial distribution of vulture poisoning studies covering social capital aspects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The map shows regional distribution in green, while country specific studies are represented by graduated symbols.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Proportional distribution of poisoning studies by region in Sub-Saharan Africa. The letters above the error bars are indicative of the level of statistical significance of proportions of vulture poison studies between regions.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Trends in collaborative research indicative of growth in social capital among researchers and research institutions in SSA between 1987 and 2022.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Conceptualized effects, stakeholder social capital growth factors and outcomes associated with vulture conservation in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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