Link to Article: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/7/worlds-biggest-mammal-migration-under-threat
Analysis: In Kasanka National Park, Zambia- As the red sun sets over a remote part of Zambia’s Central Province, the sky is filled with the sounds of an estimated ten million straw-colored fruit bats.
The enormous colony is made up of Africa’s second largest fruit bats, and is the largest mammal migration in the world, according to experts at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.
This spectacle takes place only once a year, between October and December. But experts say the near-threatened bats, crucial for restoring Africa’s forests, are in danger.
Straw-colored fruit bats, dubbed “the gardeners of Africa”, are important for the regeneration of woodland forest and indigenous fruit trees.
As a migratory species they travel thousands of kilometers, but much is still unknown about their migratory routes or why they congregate in such large numbers in Kasanka.
But as pristine areas and natural parks become threatened, their habitats are disappearing.
Already 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) of pristine forest inside a 5km (3.2 mile) buffer zone around the park, prohibited for development within the game management area, has been cleared for commercial farming.
James Mwanza, community outreach manager at Kasanka Trust, which manages the park says that, “in the game management area, humans and animals co-exist, but we ensure a buffer zone”, where there is supposed to be, “no farms, no settlements, no activity”.
Commercial agriculture is the main threat to natural resources which the bats and communities surrounding the park depend on. Without these bats, who play a vital role in the regeneration of woodland forests and indigenous fruit trees, entire ecosystems and biodiversity are at a major risk. Further degradation of buffer zones between communities of people and animals may also lead to the spread of diseases and loss of life. To prevent further deforestation and risk to both the bats and the people who rely on them, local communities are going to have to get involved. Only then can these bats have a chance at survival. To further remedy this problem Zambia must address its deforestation problem. With the negative effects of deforestation coupled with increases in population and overuse of agricultural land, Zambia is heading toward a heap of trouble. Especially because of its heavy reliance on hydroelectric power, which is greatly affected by all these factors.
If deforestation negatively impacts the generation of indigenous fruit trees and woodland forests, it will effect interdependence and reciprocity of Zambia. Reciprocity will be negatively affected because at its core, reciprocity operates by reciprocal contributions and concessions between equal members. With no fruit trees or lumber, communities that are dependent on such for trade will have nothing to offer. Interdependence is impacted for the same reasons. This could negatively affect Zambia as a whole because, according to liberalist theory, interdependence lowers the possibility of war by increasing the weight of trade over the alternative of aggression; interdependent states would rather trade than invade.