Human intervention can either be beneficial or detrimental to the African Savanna biome. Primarily, humans have damaged and disturbed the Savanna grasslands by removing vegetation to build roads for safari trucks resulting in soil erosion. Soil erosion has damaged the natural environment and has caused the land to become infertile. In addition, the land of the Kenyan Masai tribe was converted into government land for the purpose of constructing the Serengeti National Park located in Tanzania. During the construction many species were lost because the biodiversity of the environment was lost. Lastly, the poaching of animals in the African Savanna has affected the diversity of wildlife. Elephants are being poached for their ivory, while zebras and cheetahs are being poached for their beautiful furs. “Elephants enrich their environment by knocking over trees and eating stuff” (Kim Meehan), however these tasks are not able to be completed as the population of elephants continues to decrease.
The African elephant population is decreasing because they are being poached for the ivory in their tusks.
On the other hand, humans have positively influenced the establishment of reserves, conservation zones and national parks which help to preserve biodiversity. These types of conservation projects are very helpful to the Savanna biome because the government has ownership over these national parks and reserves which assures that the habitat is under good care, maintenance and protection. For example, “some of the conservation projects of Kenya are working with Kenyan tribes in order to have ownership of the land and the animals on the land. These conservation projects are managed more as a population and they are doing very well because they are owned by the government.” (Kim Meehan)
The Savanna Science Scene 