A PLACE LIKE NO OTHER

A keystone ecosystem provides lessons in how we can save the world from ourselves.

Sinclair, a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of British Columbia, has made a lifetime study of the Serengeti, the vast East African ecosystem that contains an unrestrained river, expansive grasslands, and low-growing forests. Inside of this ecosystem, one of the few in the world that is nearly unchanged from Pleistocene times, there is an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life as well as massive migrations of herbivore species such as wildebeest, to say nothing of elephants, buffalos, zebras, and other creatures. As Sinclair notes, the Serengeti has more large-mammal species than any other place on the planet and nearly as many bird species as can be found in all of Europe. From his studies of the interaction of species and their environment, the author discerns seven principles of regulation that help explain how the place works: “the rules that produced the unique features of the great Serengeti ecosystem and allowed it to persist.” One of the most vexing of these principles to figure out was how animal populations grew to optimal size and, for the most part, remained at that size over generations, disproving Malthusian demographics. The mechanisms that regulate population size are bottom-up, dependent on food supply, and top-down, dependent on predators; in healthy operation, they work out so that each birth is accompanied by a death, assuring stability. Ironically, writes Sinclair, just as this nearly untrammeled ecosystem has lasted for so long without significant damage, the government of Kenya, for one, has big plans, including damming the major river and building roads on the Serengeti plains. Both are guaranteed, by Sinclair’s lights, to introduce untoward levels of disturbance and disrupt this natural regulation. The principles he outlines, including the maintenance of large areas of natural habitat and a diverse population, are essential to “rewilding” natural ecosystems throughout the world.

An important book for conservationists, land-use planners, and environmental activists.