Drivers/causes of poaching as identified in different studies.
\r\n\tSome studies should be linked to the late-stage tumorigenesis promoting metastasis in cancer. In addition, deregulated cellular processes such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation as related to different tumor types should be investigated in this book. Besides tumorigenesis, spontaneous tumor regression and its potential formation mechanisms should be reviewed or researched. In addition, the role of the deregulated immunity in tumorigenesis should be explored. The drug targets and treatment alternatives in various cancer types should be described or investigated in some studies. The studies relating to the laboratory tests used as diagnostic and prognostic in cancer patients should also be presented. Consequently, this book may include but is not limited to these topics.
",isbn:null,printIsbn:null,pdfIsbn:null,doi:null,price:0,priceEur:null,priceUsd:null,slug:null,numberOfPages:0,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"46d3363b21f482c9a22ba72cca9ec4c0",bookSignature:"Dr. Nevim Aygun",publishedDate:null,coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/6919.jpg",keywords:"Tumorigenesis,clinical significance, biological/genetic features, genomic/chromosomal instability, prognosis, prognostic factors, tumor suppressor genes, promotion of metastasis, spontaneous regression, tumor stages, tumor types/subtypes, signaling pathways, signaling networks, deregulated cellular processes, immunity, diagnosis, laboratory tests, treatment , oncogenes, primary tumor progression",numberOfDownloads:null,numberOfWosCitations:0,numberOfCrossrefCitations:0,numberOfDimensionsCitations:0,numberOfTotalCitations:0,isAvailableForWebshopOrdering:!0,dateEndFirstStepPublish:"March 26th 2018",dateEndSecondStepPublish:"April 16th 2018",dateEndThirdStepPublish:"June 15th 2018",dateEndFourthStepPublish:"September 3rd 2018",dateEndFifthStepPublish:"November 2nd 2018",remainingDaysToSecondStep:"3 years",secondStepPassed:!0,currentStepOfPublishingProcess:5,editedByType:null,kuFlag:!1,biosketch:null,coeditorOneBiosketch:null,coeditorTwoBiosketch:null,coeditorThreeBiosketch:null,coeditorFourBiosketch:null,coeditorFiveBiosketch:null,editors:[{id:"195365",title:"Dr.",name:"Nevim",middleName:null,surname:"Aygun",slug:"nevim-aygun",fullName:"Nevim Aygun",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/195365/images/system/195365.jpeg",biography:"Nevim Aygun received her Medical Biology and Genetics Ph.D. in Health Sciences. She is interested in cancer, molecular biology, human genetics, cytogenetics, molecular cytogenetics, genomics, and bioinformatics. She has participated in many research projects on neuroblastoma, human gross gene deletions, non-B DNA-forming sequences, solid tumors, HCV, and leukemia, resulted in six articles, one book chapter, and numerous reports. She performed many molecular biological methods: PCR, real-time PCR, bacterial transformation, plasmid vector transfection, RNA interference, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), cytogenetic, DNA sequencing, and cell culture. She also performed genomics and biostatistics analyses using some bioinformatics tools and SPSS program. She reviewed several manuscripts for some medical, genetics, and genomics journals. 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This requires extensive analysis of developing trends in scientific research in order to offer our readers relevant content. Creating the book catalogue is also based on keeping track of the most read, downloaded and highly cited chapters and books and relaunching similar topics. I am also responsible for consulting with our Scientific Advisors on which book topics to add to our catalogue and sending possible book proposal topics to them for evaluation. Once the catalogue is complete, I contact leading researchers in their respective fields and ask them to become possible Academic Editors for each book project. Once an editor is appointed, I prepare all necessary information required for them to begin their work, as well as guide them through the editorship process. I also assist editors in inviting suitable authors to contribute to a specific book project and each year, I identify and invite exceptional editors to join IntechOpen as Scientific Advisors. 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Venkateswarlu",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/371.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"58592",title:"Dr.",name:"Arun",surname:"Shanker",slug:"arun-shanker",fullName:"Arun Shanker"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"878",title:"Phytochemicals",subtitle:"A Global Perspective of Their Role in Nutrition and Health",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ec77671f63975ef2d16192897deb6835",slug:"phytochemicals-a-global-perspective-of-their-role-in-nutrition-and-health",bookSignature:"Venketeshwer Rao",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/878.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"82663",title:"Dr.",name:"Venketeshwer",surname:"Rao",slug:"venketeshwer-rao",fullName:"Venketeshwer Rao"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"4816",title:"Face Recognition",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"146063b5359146b7718ea86bad47c8eb",slug:"face_recognition",bookSignature:"Kresimir Delac and Mislav Grgic",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/4816.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"528",title:"Dr.",name:"Kresimir",surname:"Delac",slug:"kresimir-delac",fullName:"Kresimir Delac"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},chapter:{item:{type:"chapter",id:"50359",title:"Microbial Interactions in Biofilms: Impacts on Homeostasis and Pathogenesis",doi:"10.5772/62942",slug:"microbial-interactions-in-biofilms-impacts-on-homeostasis-and-pathogenesis",body:'\nThe human body is host to a wide variety of microbial life, termed as the human microflora or microbiota, or more recently microbiome [1, 2]. The human microbiome contains hundreds of species and trillions of cells that are predominantly associated with surfaces as communities, such as dental plaque and biofilms on many mucosal surfaces of the human body [1–3]. Species diversity, high cell density and close proximity of microbial cells are typical of life in biofilms, where microbes interact with each other and develop complex social interactions that can be either competitive or cooperative among species [4, 5]. Even without physical contact, microorganisms living In the same community may secrete small diffusible signal molecules to interact with each other [6]. The human microbiome, including “core” microbiota shared by all individuals and “personalized” microbiota exclusive to the individuals, plays important roles in human health, such as breakdown of complex molecules in food, protection from exogenous pathogens and stimulation of healthy immune development [3]. One of the most striking aspects of these complex communities is their long-term stability in healthy individuals. The indigenous species in a community often maintain a relatively stable and harmless relationship with the host despite regular exposure to minor environmental perturbations and host-defense factors [7]. Such stability or homeostasis is considered critical for host health and wellbeing. Under some circumstances, however, such homeostasis may break down, leading to population shifts in a community and predisposing a site to diseases [8]. What determines such homeostasis in a community? What factors can change homeostasis and what are the mechanisms behind? How can these changes be detected and prevented? This chapter aims to briefly review the current advances relevant to these questions.
\nMicroorganisms in nature are predominantly associated with surfaces and live in multispecies biofilms, which account for over 99% of microbial life on this planet [9]. Similarly, the host-associated microbes largely reside in biofilm communities on the surfaces of human body, including nonshedding surfaces, such as teeth, and shedding surfaces, such as the mucosa of the mouth, upper respiratory tract, digestive tract and urogenital tracts, although large numbers of microbial cells may be washed or shed off from these surfaces by mechanical and biological movements [9–11]. Biofilm formation is a dynamic process that often results in a developmental biofilm life cycle [9, 10]. During the process of biofilm formation, some organisms are early colonizers that express biochemical components allowing them to effectively adhere to a surface [10]. Others are the later colonizers, which often contain components enabling them to adhere to the early colonizers, bringing metabolic and other competitive advantages into the community [9, 12]. Biofilms are spatially structured communities that often display a high degree of organization and their functions depend on complex webs of symbiotic interactions [11]. If viewing an intact biofilm under a microscope, then one will immediately find that microbes in biofilms do not randomly stick together, but rather form a well-organized community with numerous specialized configurations [10, 13]. One may also find that microbial cells in biofilms physically interact with each other and maintain intimate relationships [12]. Even without physical contact, microbes living in the same community may secrete small diffusible signal molecules to interact with each other [14]. For example, many bacteria are found to regulate diverse physiological processes through a mechanism called quorum sensing, in which bacteria secrete, detect and respond to small signal molecules for coordinated activities in a cell density-dependent manner [15]. During quorum sensing, bacterial cells cooperate to obtain group-specific benefits, such as signal molecules, extracellular polymers, exoenzymes, antibiotics and virulence factors [16–18]. Structural and physiological complexities of biofilms have led to the idea that microbes in biofilms frequently cooperate for social activities as groups, like multicellular organisms [19]. Indeed, microbiologists have discovered an unexpectedly high degree of multicellular behaviours that have led to the perception of biofilms as “cities” of microbes [20]. Through cooperation, microbes can impact their environments in many ways that are simply impossible for individual cells. Clearly, microbes in such “cities” can achieve strength by increasing their cell density and interactions or by collectively producing virulence factors required for the pathogenesis [17–20].
\nMicrobial biofilms are characterized by species diversity, high cell density and close cell-cell proximity [6, 9, 12]. This suggests that microbial cells in biofilms likely display intermicrobial interactions that contribute to the formation of a highly structured community, allowing cells to carry out metabolic activities that may enhance the overall function of the community [21]. The significance of intermicrobial interactions was first realized and thoroughly described for microorganisms residing in the oral cavity [10, 12]. Dental plaque is a well-recognized biofilm community characterized by its vast diversity (>700 species) and high cell density (1011 cells/g wet wt), which allow organisms to develop complex interactions [12]. Cooperative interactions among organisms in dental biofilms have been well studied, including bacterial co-aggregation and co-adhesion that facilitates bacterial colonization on saliva-coated teeth and effectuates temporal and spatial formation of highly organized biofilm architectures [10, 12]. Biofilm matrix also plays important roles in promoting bacterial adhesion, trapping nutrient molecules, forming microenvironments and protecting microbial cells from lethal challenges or antimicrobial agents [22, 23]. Cooperative metabolic interactions are even more common among microbial species, involving nutritional synergy or complementation enabling organisms to breakdown complex salivary components [6, 12]. Cross feeding is another type of cooperation in which microbes obtain available nutrients, allowing formation of food chains in the community [24]. For example, oral streptococci are well known by their ability to generate lactic acid from sugar fermentation, whereas some neighbouring species, for example Veillonella sp., are unable to ferment sugar but use lactic acid as a preferred carbon source to generate energy [25]. Many bacteria in biofilms also use quorum-sensing mechanisms to regulate biofilm development and other coordinated activities, including symbiosis, formation of spore or fruiting bodies, bacteriocin production, genetic competence, virulence and pathogenesis [14–18]. The processes controlled by quorum sensing are diverse and reflect the specific needs of particular communities. In many bacteria, quorum sensing represents a central mechanism to regulate cooperative activities, enabling bacteria to reap benefits that would be unattainable to them as individual cells [6]. Clearly, cooperative interactions among species probably play important roles in biofilm development and metabolic activities.
\nHowever, microbes in most ecosystems often face major challenges of limited space and nutritional resources, which inevitably results in competition among species. To survive and pass their genes to the next generation, microbes have to cope with constant battles of resource competition [26]. The potential pool of microbial competitors is vast, and a wide range of mechanisms can be responsible for the emergency and radiation of dominant microbial populations. Microbial ecologists have long recognized two types of competition: exploitation competition that occurs indirectly through resource consumption and interference competition that causes a direct, antagonistic effect on competitors [5, 27, 28]. There is good evidence that both exploitative and interference competition are prevalent in biofilms, strongly influencing the homeostasis and outcome of natural selection of microbes in biofilms. Microbial competition for common resources is a typical exploitative competition and can be strong in many natural ecosystems [28]. However, microbes cannot be viewed as passive nutritional sinks, but rather have evolved numerous strategies to augment their acquisition of resources. Many microbial activities, such as motility, attachment, antibiotic production and secretion of extracellular polymers, can tip the competition balance, resulting in outcomes that may differ from those predicted in planktonic cultures (27). Particularly, biofilms often form gradients in nutrient concentrations, oxygen tension, pH and waste products due to the thickness [12]. These factors can significantly affect the outcomes of microbial competition and compositions in a biofilm community. Interestingly, despite high levels of competition among species, the majority of the resident organisms in a host-associated community can co-exist and maintain a relative stability in the community [8, 30]. This indicates that some regulatory mechanisms must exist and play critical roles in balancing microbial cooperative and competitive activities in microbial communities.
\nBased on recent community structure and dynamic studies using metagenomics and 16S pyrosequencing, microbial interactions can have three types of outcomes: a positive impact (win), a negative impact (loss) and no impact (neutral) on the microbial species involved [31]. The possible combinations of win (+), loss (−) and neutral (0) outcomes for two interacting partners allow classification of various interaction types. For example, different species of bacteria may cooperate to build a biofilm, which confers protection of the interacting members from antibiotics, a win–win (+/+) relationship known as mutualism. Other examples for cooperation are certain cases of cross feeding, in which two species exchange metabolic products to the benefit of both. In contrast, competition between two species is a classic loss–loss (−/−) relationship, which indicates that two species with similar niches exclude each other or competitive exclusion. In addition to typical cooperation or competition, predator–prey relationships and host–parasite relationships are considered to be win–loss (+/−) interactions, which are also common in natural and host-associated microbial communities [30]. For example, Streptococcus mutans in dental plaque can produce an array of bacteriocins that kill other related species in the community, a typical win–loss interaction (+/−) [32]. In most ecosystems, there are few cases of neutral or no (0) interaction among species in the same community. These microbial interactions are largely based on laboratory studies of pairwise species of microorganisms interested. Relatively few studies have been carried out to investigate microbial interactions and their impacts at community level until recently when genomics and metagenomics techniques are available to study communities [31]. However, detecting these various types of interactions in natural microbial communities is far from straight forward. Novel approaches to the investigation of community- or even ecosystem-wide networks may open a way towards global models of community and ecosystem dynamics. Ultimately, these studies will help to predict the outcome of community alterations and the effects of perturbations in complex microbial communities.
\nIt has been recognized that host-associated microbial communities are usually characterized by a remarkable stability among the component species, despite regular exposure to minor environmental perturbations and numerous host-defence factors [8, 33]. The ability of microbes to maintain the community stability is referred to as homeostasis (Figure 1). The homeostasis is believed to stem not from any indifference among the component species but rather results from a dynamic balance of microbial–microbial interactions and microbial–host interactions [8]. Interestingly, such stability in a microbial community is often associated with a healthy condition. However, despite our rapidly increasing knowledge of the composition of the human microbiome, we know relatively little about what determines the homeostasis in a microbial community and what mechanisms have been involved in maintaining the homeostasis. There are few in vivo studies on the relative significance of microbial interactions in maintaining microbial homeostasis. Most studies have characterized potential interactions in vitro with the assumption that they may operate similarly in vivo. It has been proposed that the tendency of a microbial community to maintain its homeostasis often increases with species diversity or with a greater biological complexity of the community [7, 8, 34]. This suggests that some regulatory mechanisms must operate to favour the development of species diversity and complexity of a microbial community. When the homeostasis is disturbed in a community, the self-regulatory mechanisms may come to work and restore the previous homeostasis status in the community. However, it is not always certain what regulatory mechanisms operate to maintain the homeostasis in a community. Recent studies have revealed that most stable microbial communities contain high levels of species diversity with complementing and seemingly redundant metabolic capabilities [35]. Microbial interactions in these communities can promote high species richness and bolster community stability during environmental perturbations. Clearly, species diversity within a microbial community is an important indicator of the homeostasis [7, 8]. The need for microbial diversity in health may suggest that every species can carry out a specific function that is required to maintain the homeostasis in a community.
\nA schematic diagram describes microbial–microbial interactions and their roles in maintaining the homeostasis in a community. Microbial interactions include negative interactions (− feedbacks) such as competition and antagonism and positive interactions (+ feedbacks) such as cooperation, synergy and mutualism. Positive interactions likely increase the productivity of the community but potentially destabilize the community, while negative interactions often dampen cooperative activities but favour species diversity and community stability. These interactions form complex networks that finely balance the homeostasis of the community. However, a number of ecological factors can tip the balance of these microbial interactions, disturbing the stability of a community. Dashed arrows indicate the potential of these factors to tip the balance of the community.
Recent studies of microbial community dynamics show that although positive microbial interactions or feedbacks, such as cooperation and synergism, play important roles in increasing community productivity, the positive microbial interactions can come at costs to the community, so potentially destabilizing the community [7, 34]. Microbial cooperation is destabilizing the community because it introduces positive feedbacks, which can generate runaway effects. For example, when two species cooperate, an increase in the abundance of one species increases the abundance of the second, which in turn will increase the abundance of the first species and so on. If these increases are not sufficiently checked by other constraints, then this can lead to runaway increases in cooperating species that can cause the collapse of interacting populations and destabilization of the community [7]. In contrast, negative microbial interactions or feedbacks, such as competition and antagonism, are considered as major and essential mechanisms in maintaining the homeostasis in microbial communities. This means that adding species that primarily engage in competitive interactions to the community may counterintuitively help to stabilize the community by dampening positive feedbacks, stopping the community from cooperating its way to collapse [34]. Human and animal hosts may also suppress positive interactions or feedbacks between cooperating species in order to stabilize the community. Hosts could do this possibly by three mechanisms. First, the host immune response could be a stabilizing force. When certain species in a community rapidly increase in abundance, this could provoke a targeted host immune response, stopping positive feedbacks between cooperating species in their tracks. Second, the host could attempt to block cooperative interactions among species by spatially segregating them: when species grow in separate locations, their interactions will be weakened, thereby, preventing positive feedbacks. Third, the host could feed microorganisms to reduce cooperation among species by providing alternative carbon sources, so that these species no longer rely so strongly on their cooperative partners [34]. Analysis of mouse gut microbiome reveals that cooperative interactions are rare in the gut microbiome (only ∼10% of pairwise interactions are mutually beneficial), possibly because of their destabilizing effect [7].
\nAn additional unexplored factor that could drive community stability is natural selection on both microbiomes and hosts. The human microbiome is the product of long adaptive processes of constituent species, their interactions and host factors governing their growth [36]. Given the possibility of selection driving communities towards higher stability, it will be important to ascertain not only how species interactions affect stability on average, but also what characteristics of the most stable communities are, and whether they are achievable by evolution. Work on animal and plant communities has shown that factors that decrease community stability on average can also counterintuitively be over-represented in most stable communities [34]. These approaches will be critical in understanding evolutionary ecology of microbial communities, therefore, helping manipulation of component species in communities to promote stable microbiomes and health in hosts.
\nHuman microbiome research reveals that every human body contains a variety of microbial communities that consist of hundreds of microbial species important to human health [1–3]. The key to human health is an ecological-balanced microbiome that practices commensalism or mutualism within itself and with the host [7]. Microbial–microbial and microbial–host interactions play important roles in maintaining such a homeostasis in these microbial communities (Figure 1). Despite these interactions, however, the homeostasis in a microbial community can breakdown under certain circumstances, leading to population shifts and predisposing a site to diseases [8]. What factors can disrupt the homeostasis in such stable communities? Studies of various host-associated microbiomes, such as those in the oral cavity, gastrointestine and vagina, have provided some clues to the type of factors indicating homeostasis disruption in a community, including (1) a significant change in the relationship between a microbial community and the host; (2) acquisition of a virulence factor or pathogenic trait by a resident species in the community; (3) a sudden increase or decrease in relative abundance of one or more species in the community and (4) more recently, “keystone” species or pathogens that play key roles in the breakdown of host–microbial homeostasis leading to dysbiosis in a community and diseases, based on the keystone-pathogen hypothesis [3, 8, 33, 37].
\nThe relationships between microbiome and its hosts during health are often mutually beneficial because the host is providing its microbial communities with an environment in which they can flourish and, in turn, keep their host healthy [34]. The presence of an immune or physiological disorder can tip the balance of a microbial community. As the immune defense system regulates microbial–host interactions, a compromised immune system often disrupts the balance relationships between microbes and the host, resulting in the homeostasis breakdown and predisposing to disease. For example, immune-deficient or chemotherapy patients have an increased susceptibility to opportunistic infections [11]. Individuals with reduced saliva flow or dry mouth also have an increased susceptibility to dental caries, periodontitis or oral candidosis caused by once-normal resident microbes within the oral cavity [33]. Another example is that increase in female sex hormones can sometime have the capacity to disrupt microbial homeostasis in several ecosystems of the body, predisposing or enhancing opportunistic infections [8].
\nAcquisition of virulence factors or pathogenic traits via horizontal gene transfer between microbes in biofilms is a common mechanism to trigger population shifts by antibiotic-resistant species leading to the homeostasis breakdown in a community. For example, an antibiotic-resistant gene transfer within or between species may lead to dominance by these populations in the community, particularly when the community is exposed to a subinhibitory antibiotic stress condition [38].
\nA sudden increase or decrease in relative abundance of one or more species in a microbial community often indicates the homeostasis breakdown of the community [8, 33]. A common feature is a significant change in nutrient status, for example, introduction of an excess substrate such as sugar or a chemical compound that can disturb the ecosystem [8]. For example, frequent consumption of fermentable dietary carbohydrates in the oral cavity may favor the overgrowth of sugar-fermenting bacteria (Figure 2) such as S. mutans and Lactobacillus sp. in a dental biofilm [33]. Such carbohydrate metabolism from these bacteria generates large amounts of lactic acid that acidifies the local environment, resulting in selection of acid-resistant bacteria but elimination of acid-sensitive bacteria in the community. The dominance by a few acid-resistant species in the community indicates the breakdown of the homeostasis, predisposing the site to tooth decay [33]. In this case, the microbial community is often dominated by fewer species or reduced species diversity [8]. Clearly, frequent consumption of fermentable carbohydrates is a powerful determinant that disturbs the homeostasis in dental biofilms. Similarly, antimicrobial agents that kill bacteria are the best-characterized mechanisms resulting in homeostasis breakdown in many host-associated microbial communities [11]. Antibiotic treatment often causes a rapid reduction in sensitive species followed by an emergence of resistant organisms. This inevitably results in population shifts and the homeostasis breakdown in the communities. It is then not surprising that an infectious disease may occur due to the overgrowth of an antibiotic-resistant organism during an improper antibiotic therapy.
\nA schematic diagram describes an example of an ecological factor, frequent consumption of sugar (fermentable carbohydrates), to tip the balance of the community. In the human oral cavity, frequent consumption of dietary sugar is a powerful ecological factor that can cause population shifts and tip the balance of a dental biofilm community. Sugar favours the overgrowth of sugar-fermentable and acid-resistant bacteria such as Streptococcus mutans (black circles) and Lactobacillus sp. (black ovals) in dental biofilms. This will result in population shifts characterized by dominance of S. mutans and Lactobacillus sp., but reduction or elimination of acid-sensitive bacteria (blank shapes) in the community, leading to the homeostasis breakdown and predisposing the site to dental caries. In this case, fewer species remain in the imbalanced community.
More recently, a novel hypothesis, called the “keystone-pathogen hypothesis”, has been proposed to describe mechanisms underlying the breakdown of host–microbial homeostasis that precipitates dysbiosis (microbiota imbalance) of a community, leading to diseases [37]. The keystone-pathogen hypothesis holds that certain low-abundance microbial pathogens can orchestrate inflammatory disease by remodeling a normally benign or resident microbiota into a dysbiotic one in a community. Importantly, the keystone pathogens have the capacity of instigating inflammation and triggering dysbiosis even when they are present as quantitatively minor components in the community. Recent studies suggest that keystone pathogens play key roles in initiating periodontitis, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer and obesity. For example, periodontitis is a biofilm-induced chronic inflammatory disease, which affects the tooth-supporting tissues or periodontium (Figure 3), and also increases patients’ risk of developing atherosclerosis, diabetes and possibly rheumatoid arthritis [38, 39]. The tooth-associated dental plaque is required but not sufficient to induce periodontitis, because it is the host inflammatory response to this microbial challenge that ultimately can cause destruction of the periodontium. There has been significant progress in the quest to identify specific periodontal pathogens, including the identification of several candidates, mostly Gram-negative anaerobic bacteria that colonize subgingival tooth sites. Foremost among this group are three species that constitute the so-called “red complex”, are frequently isolated together and are strongly associated with diseased sites in the mouth: Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola and Tannerella forsythia which are the keystone pathogens in subgingival dental biofilms [39]. Much research have been directed towards understanding the pathogenic mechanisms and virulence determinants of these three bacterial species. Dysbiotic microbial communities of these keystone pathogens are thought to exhibit synergistic virulence, whereby not only they can endure the host response but can also thrive by exploiting tissue destructive inflammation, which fuels a self-feeding cycle of escalating dysbiosis and inflammatory bone loss, ultimately leading to tooth loss and systemic complications [40].
\nA proposed model describes the roles of pathobionts or keystone pathogens in the initiation and development of periodontitis. In healthy periodontium, a commensal microbe–host relationship is maintained because of a controlled inflammatory state. However, this balanced relationship or homeostasis can breakdown due to defects in the immunoinflammatory state or predisposing conditions or environmental factors, leading to the balance shift towards dysbiosis, a state in which former commensal organisms become proinflammatory pathobionts. In addition, the presence of keystone pathogens can similarly tip the balance toward dysbiosis even in hosts without apparent predisposing factors. The inflammation caused by the dysbiotic microbiota depends in great part on crosstalk signaling between complement and pattern recognition receptors (PRRs). This has two major interrelated effects: it causes inflammatory destruction of periodontal tissue, which in turn provides nutrients (destructed tissues) further promoting dysbiosis. This generates a self-perpetuating pathogenic cycle. It should be noted that host susceptibility might not simply be a determinant of the transition from a symbiotic to dysbiotic microbiota but it may underlie the predisposition of the host to develop inflammation sufficient to cause irreversible tissue damage.
Traditional studies on infectious diseases have focused extensively on pathogenic microbes that directly damage tissues in hosts. It is increasingly recognized that direct attack is not the only way that microbes cause diseases. Evidence has accumulated that some commensal microbes living as the normal residents in a host can also induce diseases or contributes critically to disease development. These commensal microbes that can cause or promote diseases under certain conditions are often called opportunistic pathogens or “pathobionts” [40]. When some species become dominant in their relative abundance in a community, the relationships among the resident members in the community might become imbalanced called dysbiosis, which indicates the breakdown of the homeostasis in the community. The keystone pathogens identified from various ecosystems also play key roles in disturbing the microbial–host homeostasis, leading to dysbiosis, which can be the cause or the consequence of diseases and is largely dependent on microbial–host interactions in a microbial community. Recent studies reveal that factors that can disturb the microbial homeostasis likely result in the dominance by pathobionts in a community, predisposing a site to diseases [39, 40]. A common feature of these diseases is that they are often associated with multiple species of pathobionts, so these diseases are referred to as polymicrobial or community-based diseases [12, 42]. However, only certain species play major roles in driving a commensal community toward the pathogenic shift [41]. Despite multispecies features, a major challenge using antibiotics to treat these diseases is that wide-spectrum antibiotics may indiscriminately kill the resident organisms in the community, resulting in ecological disruption or other negative clinical consequences [43]. Current understanding of polymicrobial or community-based diseases has changed the strategies for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of these diseases.
\nIt is now known that most biofilm diseases are associated with multiple species of microorganisms. These polymicrobial diseases such as dental caries, periodontitis, otitis media, cystic fibrosis lung infection, inflammatory bowel disease and other biofilm infections are clinically characterized by a chronic process with acute or subacute episodes [41–43]. The homeostasis breakdown leading to dysbiosis in a community is the key step for the initiation and development of these diseases [40]. Because alternations in the microbiota at a given site are potential biomarkers of disease activity, analyzing the microbiome at the early stages of diseases would allow clinicians to diagnose, predict and prevent potential risk, severity and outcomes of these diseases. In particular, identification of keystone pathogens could have substantial clinical benefits, as it may facilitate the development of targeted treatment by focusing on a limited number of pathobionts in biofilms. Since every human body contains a personalized microbiome, analyses of the microbiome will pave the way for more effective diagnosis, prevention and therapies, contributing to the development of personalized medicine.
\nFor a long time, our understanding of microbial communities has been hampered by the intrinsic limitation of conventional culture-dependent techniques. Our views of the complexity and genetic diversity of microbial communities based on cultivation strategies are severely biased. Fortunately, a number of DNA-based assays or genomic approaches have been developed to help overcome such limitation, allowing us to obtain a clearer picture of microbial communities in terms of their structural complexity and genetic diversity. Since intermicrobial interactions in a community often create many new physiological functions that cannot be observed with individual species, community-based assays have emerged to analyze microbial compositions and associated physiology, which has greatly contributed to our understanding of the microbiomes and dysbiosis. Common strategies used to analyze microbial communities or the microbiomes include 16S rRNA gene (pyro)sequencing [44, 45], genomic or metagenomic approaches [46], checkerboard DNA–DNA hybridization [47], PCR-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) [48] or denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) analyses [49] and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis [50]. The application of these community-based techniques in the analysis of the human microbiomes has revealed astonishing diversities of largely uncultivated microorganisms present in human samples. These approaches have been expanded to many clinical samples collected from a broader patient pool with a diverse range of healthy conditions and diseases, promoting the discovery of many new species of the human microbiome.
\nWith our new understanding of microbial communities and their associated diseases, there is an increasing interest in approaches that modulate the ecology of microbial communities to achieve reduction or control of community-based diseases. These diseases may be prevented or treated not only by inhibiting the putative pathogens, but also by interfering with the factors disturbing the homeostasis in microbial communities. Among them, probiotic approach has been a popular method for modulating microbial ecology [51]. The probiotics refers to live microorganisms that can confer health benefits on the host when administered in adequate amounts [52]. In the past decades, there have been numerous exciting discoveries that reveal beneficial effects resulting from administering probiotics, ranging from direct inhibition of pathogenic microbes to improving host immune functions [53]. The rationale of using probiotics is based on the fact that probiotics can interfere with invasion by foreign pathogens or with pathogenic shifts by keystone pathogens in microbial communities. These may reduce the potential of a community to become a pathogenic one or dysbiosis [51–53].
\nAnother strategy is to interfere with microbial cell–cell communication via quorum sensing in microbial communities, since quorum-sensing mechanisms play important roles in biofilm formation and cell density-dependent virulence [13–18]. In recent years, scientists actively search for natural and synthetic compounds that act as quorum-sensing inhibitors (QSIs) that can target bacterial quorum-sensing mechanisms and their controlled pathogenic activities [54–56]. It is believed that QSIs target bacterial cell–cell signaling and coordinated activities required for infections, thereby, essentially disarming the bacteria and tipping the balance in favor of the host and allowing the immune system to clear the infectious pathogen [54]. QSI therapies that specifically block bacterial quorum sensing can make the pathogens become ‘deaf’, ‘mute’ or ‘blind’ rather than directly killing them. Therefore, QSI therapy may achieve the treatment but much less likely cause selective pressure to create resistant microbes [54–56].
\nFor some community-based diseases, such as periodontitis and intestine inflammatory diseases, anti-inflammatory agents can be used to break the cycle of inflammation and tissue destruction, both of which promote the homeostasis breakdown or dysbiosis in a community [42, 43]. In particular, these agents combined with some antimicrobials that specifically target the keystone pathogens or pathobionts would provide much better therapy both by targeting the putative pathogens and by interfering with the processes that drive breakdown of the homeostasis in the community [43].
\nOther strategies in regulating microbial ecology to prevent homeostasis breakdown in some microbial communities include diet regulation such as sugar substitutes that reduce carbon source for bacterial fermentation, increasing flow of body fluids such as saliva, use of oxygenating or redox agents that reduce the growth of obligate anaerobes in a biofilm community, and use of nonantimicrobial agents such as fluoride, chelating agents such as EDTA, and metal ions that compromise some metabolic activities of certain microbes [8, 33]. For example, fluoride can inhibit enzyme activity required for bacterial metabolism, particularly under low pH, but shows little bacterial killing, thereby, not significantly affecting community ecology [8].
\nCurrently, available antibiotics exhibit broad killing spectra with regard to bacterial genus and species. Indiscriminate killing of microbes by these conventional antibiotics may disrupt the ecological balance of the indigenous microflora, resulting in negative clinical consequences [51]. To circumvent the problem, a new class of such antimicrobials, called pheromone-guided antimicrobial peptides (PG-AMP), has been developed as potential alternatives [57, 58]. The rationale of using such antimicrobial agents is based on the addition of a targeting domain of a quorum-sensing signal pheromone from a target organism to the killing domain of a known antimicrobial peptide. Both domains are fused via a small linker to generate a fusion PG-AMP without detrimental change of their activities [58]. The targeting domain can guide such a fusion peptide to bind selectively to the target organism, leading to selective killing [57–59]. These narrow-spectrum antimicrobials can selectively target specific organisms with little effect on the other members of the community [51, 57–59]. Therefore, PG-AMPs have added an exciting opportunity to develop new antimicrobials that target keystone pathogens in a community-based disease. Recent studies explored the possibility of utilizing a pheromone produced by S. mutans as a targeting domain to mediate S. mutans-specific delivery of an antimicrobial peptide domain [57–59]. It is found that PG-AMPs constructed in this way are potent against S. mutans in animal dental caries model [60]. The PG-AMPs are capable of eliminating S. mutans from multispecies biofilms without affecting other noncariogenic species, indicating the potential of these molecules to be developed into targeted antimicrobial agents. This proof-of-principle strategy suggests that it may be possible to develop PG-AMPs that specifically target other keystone pathogens and modulate microbial ecology in community-based diseases [58–60].
\nResearch over the last 30 years has generated a substantial amount of knowledge on microbial biofilms. We have learned that microbes form highly diverse communities on surfaces of human body, which are increasingly recognized to have profound impacts on human health and diseases. It has been well established that microbes in such biofilm communities can develop complex social interactions and networks, which play important roles in modulating the community stability or homeostasis important to host health. Despite our rapidly increasing knowledge of the compositions of the human microbiome, we know little about what determines the stability of these communities. However, significant advance has been made to identify factors that affect microbial interactions, ecology and pathogenesis. Evidence shows that some biofilm diseases can be prevented or treated not only by targeting the putative pathogens, but also by interfering with the processes that drive the breakdown of the homeostasis in biofilms. Studies of the human microbiomes in health and disease will open a new avenue for the development of more effective diagnosis, prevention and treatment of community-based diseases, contributing to personalized medicine.
\nThis work was supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) Operating Grant MOP-115007 and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant RGPIN 311682-07. The authors would like to apologize to those researchers whose work was not included in this chapter due to space limitation.
\nIn the recent decades, wildlife poaching, driven by the demand for bushmeat and trophies, has been increasingly featured as one of the major global crimes [1, 2, 3]. The crime, ranking the third after human trafficking and drugs [4, 5], has some far-reaching repercussions ecologically, economically and politically. The large and charismatic wildlife species have been the main targets of poaching, leading to a dramatic decline of their numbers. For instance, in 1930 the number of elephants in Africa ranged from 5 to 10 million [6]. The number plummeted to 1.3 million in 1979, and in 1989 only 600,000 remained [7, 8]. The number dropped further to about 350,000 in 2016 [9, 10]. The population of black rhino, which was widely distributed in Africa, declined from almost 100,000 in the 1960s to less than 3% in the 1990s [11, 12]. These species are ecologically important as keystone and umbrella species due to their ecological role in ecosystems [13, 14, 15]. Extinction of keystone species and, subsequently, ecological cascade effects in ecosystems are one of the ecological repercussions of wildlife poaching [16, 17, 18, 19]. The ecological cascade effect involves a series of secondary extinctions triggered by the primary extinction of a keystone species in an ecosystem.
The detrimental impacts of poaching on household and national economies are apparent. This is due to a role played by wildlife species, especially large mammals, as principal resources in tourism. In Africa, availability and diversity of wildlife species are the main factors which influence tourists’ willingness and decision to visit a particular destination and pay for available services and products. Large and charismatic species such as elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, lions and leopards offer unique experience and opportunity for hunting and game viewing. Poaching of these species deprives the households, communities and governments substantial benefits generated through tourism. The annual analysis of the global economic impact of Travel and Tourism in 2017 indicated that, in Tanzania, where almost 80% of tourism is wildlife-based, tourism contributed 17% of the GDP and 25% of the foreign currency. It created 1,092,500 jobs in 2017 and was projected to rise by 6.6% in 2018. Revenues reached USD 2.43 billion in 2018, up from USD 2.19 billion in 2017 [20].
In order for conservation, as a land use, to excel and win popular support from people and the government, it must be able to compete effectively with alternative land uses by generating adequate benefits to households, communities and the government [3, 21]. It is unlikely for this to happen when significant numbers of the charismatic species capable of attracting revenues through tourism are exterminated by poachers. Failure to do so waters down the commitment to conservation and rationale to forgo economic activities which are ecologically destructive [3, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26]. For instance, in Tanzania, in the face of human population growth, there has been a growing pressure from local communities and politicians urging the government to open protected lands for agriculture and livestock grazing. Land use conflicts between conservation authorities and local communities have also increased. In addressing this long-term concern, on 15 January 2019, H.E. the President of the United Republic of Tanzania directed the conservation authorities to identify the protected areas which were devoid of wildlife and allocate them to landless peasants and pastoralists. Expounding his directive, the President stated bluntly:
“I am not happy to see cattle keepers rejected everywhere. If there is a wildlife reserve which is not being utilized, we shall change the law, take part of it and distribute to pastoralists as well as farmers [27].”
The President’s Directive was implemented on 23 September 2019, when the government deregistered 12 game controlled areas and 14 forest reserves covering 707,659 and 46,715 acres, respectively, in order to redistribute to farmers and pastoralists (The Citizen, 24 September 2019).
Wildlife poaching is also linked to global insecurity and erosion of government credibility. The revenues generated from poaching are believed to finance civil wars and terrorist activities in Africa, thus affecting conservation programmes and making some destinations risky places for tourists [28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33]. Poaching lowers credibility and reputation of the governments in international forums. The countries with high gravity of poaching have been implicated with poor governance, corruption and lack of accountability [34, 35].
This review identifies different ways in which research can contribute in combating the problem—including establishing status and trends of poaching, understanding the drivers and effects of poaching, inspiring interventions at different levels and recommending the appropriate policy actions and strategies.
Tanzania’s wildlife sector is faced with numerous challenges, wildlife poaching ranking at the top, among others. Poaching is pursued to cater for subsistence and commercial needs. Household poverty and a need to meet the dietary requirements are the main drivers for subsistence poaching [35, 36, 37, 38]. Commercial poaching is mainly motivated by high market demand and, consequently, high economic returns accruing to criminals [4, 5]. Both subsistence and commercial poaching are linked to a dramatic decline of population and local extinction of wildlife species in different parts of Tanzania [35, 36].
Tanzania had registered two major poaching episodes in her history. The first episode occurred between the 1970s and 1980s following global economic meltdown which weakened the law enforcement capacity [3, 35]. The populations of two keystone species, elephant and rhino, were reduced to less than 30 and 10%, respectively [39, 40]. In 1991, the elephant population was less than 58,000 individuals compared to 203,000 in 1977, while rhino population dropped from 3795 in 1981 to 275 in 1992 [40].
The second major poaching episode emerged between 2009 and 2016. Though its span was shorter, it had colossal impact on wildlife species, particularly elephant. In a period of 3 years, the country’s population plummeted to 109,000 in 2009 from 143,000 in 2006 [34, 41]. Further declines were noted in 2013 and 2015, when the numbers recorded were 50,500 [41] and 43,500 [34], respectively. The major drivers of poaching were the increased demand for ivory in Asian countries and widespread corruption in different sectors within and outside the country.
Basically, scientific studies seek to find answers to numerous questions and guide decision-making process. They provide an opportunity for knowledge and experience sharing on best practices, challenges and strategies to address the problems. Furthermore, they bring changes on understanding and inspire the necessary reforms along with forming the basis for future studies about the subject. Scientific studies on poaching in Tanzania have sought to understand the magnitude, drivers, trends and effects of poaching, behaviors and characteristics of poachers, seasons, poaching hotspots, strategies employed in poaching and genetic makeup of species, among others.
Numerous studies in Tanzania have established the magnitude, drivers or factors influencing poaching and the resultant effects. These studies acknowledge the gravity of poaching as a major challenge facing conservation with far-reaching economic, security, ecological and social repercussions [3, 35, 36, 37, 42]. The drivers of poaching identified include poverty, inadequate conservation budget, cultural reasons, immorality and corruption, high opportunity cost of conservation and political instability associated with refugee influx from neighboring countries (Table 1). The effects established, among others, include financial losses, loss of biodiversity, insecurity and loss of national credibility (Table 1; Figure 1).
Drivers of poaching | Source | |
---|---|---|
1. | Household poverty – limited livelihoods options | [10, 35, 36, 42, 43, 44] |
2. | Poor economic policies | [3, 35] |
3. | High economic returns from wildlife products | [3, 21, 35, 45] |
4. | Limited budget – inadequate resources for anti-poaching patrols | [35, 46] |
5. | Political interference, insufficient support from other institutions and low employees morale | [35] |
6. | Cultural reasons | [47] |
7. | Corruption and poor governance | [10, 34, 35, 42] |
8. | Population growth | [35, 44, 45, 48, 49] |
9. | Increased demand for wildlife products within and outside the country | [3, 10, 35] |
10. | Failure of wildlife conservation to compete effectively with alternative economic activities | [21, 35] |
11. | Political instability/refugees influx | [37, 42, 50] |
Effects of poaching | Source | |
1) | Impact on tourism and economic losses | [3, 35, 51, 52] |
2) | Inadequate budget for conservation | [3, 35] |
3) | Credibility of the country eroded | [3, 35] |
4) | Increased political conflicts; refugees and terrorism | [3, 35] |
5) | Loss of habitats; wildlife populations decline and local extinction | [3, 35, 37, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57] |
6) | Reduced incentive for conservation and a need to adopt land uses which are incompatible with conservation | [3, 35] |
7) | Violent behavior against the wildlife rangers and staff | [35] |
Drivers/causes of poaching as identified in different studies.
The schematic presentation of the political, security, ecological and economic implications of wildlife poaching [3, 35].
Understanding the drivers of poaching is crucial if practical solutions of the challenge are to be sought. For instance, addressing poverty and provision of alternative livelihood strategies may be an appropriate intervention against food and income poverty among the communities living around the protected areas [10, 35, 36, 42, 43, 44]. Similarly, adequate budget allocation to wildlife sector can improve law enforcement and reduce poaching [35, 46], while implementing good governance policies and curbing corruption can equally lower the levels of poaching [35]. Furthermore, knowing the magnitude and effects of poaching rings a warning bell for conservation authorities to act promptly by adopting appropriate interventions to address the challenge.
Knowledge on characteristics of poachers (e.g. in terms of age, gender, wealth, residence, ethnicity, poaching strategies and behaviors) helps to identify a specific group of poachers which should be targeted for anti-poaching operations and the most appropriate strategy to deal with such group. For instance, if bushmeat trade is more common among the male-headed households living in proximity to the protected area, efforts to address the challenge should target these households [70]. Studies seeking to uncover strategies employed by poachers to surmount anti-poaching efforts and avoid arrest by rangers can provide an entry point for devising the best ways to counteract poaching strategies and improving planning for anti-poaching programmes [71]. Understanding the drivers and factors affecting poaching can help in changing the behaviors of criminals. For example, if the drivers are associated with poverty or lack of alternative sources of income, provision of alternative economic options can reduce pressures on wildlife. If poaching is linked to particular ethnic or affiliations, mitigation strategies should target these specific groups. For instance, in Western Serengeti, where bushmeat poaching is endemic, it is estimated that approximately 40% of the crime is committed by people of Ikoma tribe [44, 72]. By using this fact, the conservation authorities can take advantage of traditional practices and systems of this particular tribe to address the challenge of poaching [73, 74].
Studies seeking to understand the areas of high risks of poaching (poaching hotspots) and seasons are useful in informing the sites where the conservation managers should focus for intervention in terms of allocating human and financial resources to achieve maximum anti-poaching results. Examples of studies of this nature were conducted in Selous [46, 75] and Western Serengeti [44]. Wasser et al. [76, 77] used DNA to track the origin of large seizures of elephant ivory since the 1989 trade ban. The results revealed that most of the ivory originated from a relatively small area in the Selous and Niassa protected areas along the Tanzania and Mozambique border. This evidence was important for the planning of law enforcement operations to curtail further elephant losses and disrupt the organized transnational crime [76].
The objective of wildlife research is to provide solutions for problems and challenges facing the sector. Research findings are the bases for informing policy actions and recommending appropriate strategies to address the existing and potential conservation challenges. A number of research articles reviewed in this chapter have recommended some policy actions for combating poaching (Table 2).
Policy action/strategy | Source | |
---|---|---|
1. | Strengthen law enforcement and patrols (increase number of rangers and equipment, increase penalties) and intelligence-led operations within and outside the protected areas. | [42, 57, 58, 59, 60] |
2. | Increased budget for conservation | [35] |
3. | Appropriate and timely compensation for wildlife staff | [35] |
4. | Community involvement, incentive schemes | [22, 42, 59, 61] |
5. | Application of technologies (forensic, poaching detection technologies, SMART etc.) | [49, 62, 63] |
6. | Enhanced sustainable livelihood opportunities and delivery of alternative sources to reduce dependency on vulnerable habitats and wildlife (Distractions) | [44, 49, 60, 64, 65, 66] |
7. | Employment opportunities to local communities | [59] |
8. | Promote political stability within and outside the country | [35, 37, 50] |
9. | Intensify war against corruption | [35] |
10. | Address the challenge of political interests overriding professionalism | [35] |
11. | Reduce demand for wildlife products | [35, 67] |
12. | Improve conservation education programmes | [44, 49, 59] |
13. | Address the problem of household poverty and unemployment | [21, 22, 35, 64, 65] |
12. | Encourage presence of researchers in areas with minimal protective status and low government surveillance | [68] |
11. | Addressing root causes of poaching through strategies that go beyond coercive measures | [69] |
Policy actions and strategies recommended for addressing poaching problem from various research articles.
Besides coming up with recommendations, wildlife research can also play an important role in evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of the existing conservation policies and strategies [78, 79, 80, 81, 82]. Research may also inform the best ways of implementing the specific policy actions for combating poaching.
In order to combat poaching effectively, it is imperative that the problem is critically analyzed to establish its magnitude, trends and effects. This calls for adequate data and information, which are obtained through a planned and executed research targeting a number of indicators for poaching (number of poachers arrested, type and number of weapons confiscated, species and number of animals killed, number of carcasses, number of staff injured or killed and poaching hotspots).
The research findings about the magnitude, status, trends and impacts of wildlife poaching in the country have been crucial in shaping the policy decisions towards the appropriate course of action. They have inspired considerable support and interventions in combating the challenge from the general public, conservationists, media, influential personalities and international community. The interventions prompted by these findings are discussed briefly hereunder.
Tanzania has made several interventions in stepping up efforts to address a challenge of poaching. One of such interventions is collaboration with other countries through ratification and implementation of a number of regional and international conventions, protocols and agreements. Examples of these protocols include the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) of 1979, Protocol Concerning Protected Areas and Wild Fauna and Flora in the Eastern African Region (1985), Lusaka Agreement on Co-operative Enforcement Operations Directed at Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora (1994); and SADC Protocol on Wildlife Conservation and Law Enforcement (1999). Besides, on different occasions, Tanzania was compelled to launch nationwide anti-poaching operations to reverse the poaching trends and safeguard the populations of its wildlife species (Table 3).
Operation | Period | Results | |
---|---|---|---|
1) | Operation Uhai (‘Operation life’): The six-month Operation Uhai to curb poaching and to rupt ivory trade. | 1989–90 | Over 2,000 people were arrested and 10,000 firearms were confiscated. |
2) | Operation “SpiderNet”: Coordinated efforts of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, including National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU) and Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), to combat ivory poaching and arms smuggling in Katavi. | 2014–15 | Hundreds of firearms were confiscated; dozens of arrests were made with special emphasis on villages within the Katumba Refugee Camp which was implicated with giving shelter to Hutu rebels with ties to the Rwandan genocide |
3) | Operation Kipepeo (Butterfly): in Selous Ecosystem to curb elephant poaching | 2009 | Some criminals were arrested and firearms confiscated |
4) | Operation “Tokomeza Ujangili” (Eradicate Poaching): The goal of operation was to curb poaching in protected areas, identify and arrest suspected poachers and organized groups, and seize property of poaching suspects. | 2013 | 952 suspects were arrested and 104 pieces of ivory were seized. However, the operation was canceled after alleged human rights abuses conducted by Tanzanian authorities, which included rape, torture, murder, and illegal seizures of property (including livestock). |
5) | Tanzania’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU): Operations Against Major Wildlife Traffickers | 2016–18 | Major criminal syndicates, high-profile poachers and wildlife traffickers were arrested |
6) | Operation Costa: (in collaboration with other East African nations of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) to stem illegal wildlife trade with a focus on ivory. | 2009 | Over 100 people were arrested and roughly 1,500 kg of elephant ivory were seized along with hundreds of other wildlife products |
Some of the major operations conducted in Tanzania to curb wildlife poaching.
Other interventions adopted recently have included formulation of National Elephant Action Plan, a National Ivory Action Plan and National Strategy for Combating Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade [83]. The Conservation and Management Plans have also been developed to guide the conservation of species which are facing a high risk of poaching and other threats. Examples of species with such Plans are elephant and rhino [84, 85] (Figure 2).
Tanzania elephant and rhino management plans.
Following poaching crisis and subsequently launching of Operation Uhai in 1990, Tanzania adopted community-based conservation as a new conservation approach to complement the centralized (also known as ‘fences and fines’) approach. This resulted from a perceived failure of the latter to conserve wildlife [82]. It was also clear that, though it was proven to be effective, ‘Operation Uhai’ was an expensive undertaking which could hardly be sustained as a long-term strategy. Community-based conservation was premised on the assumption that long-term conservation success depends on the involvement of local communities in management and guaranteeing them tangible benefits [22, 25, 79, 80, 82]. Essentially, the idea behind the approach is to motivate local communities to align their behaviors with conservation goals by refraining from activities which are illegal and destructive to wildlife including poaching.
However, Community Based Conservation approach has not been a panacea to a poaching challenge. Multiple strategies are being pursued along with further transformation of the natural resources sector. The complexity of wildlife crime has increased following technological advancement and access and use of more sophisticated firearms among the poachers [3, 35]. The government has, thus, adopted a paramilitary model in managing its natural resources in view of increasing efficiency and effectiveness in combating the challenge.
Intervention in combating poaching by the international community has often involved financial and technical support along with imposing sanctions to pressurize the individual countries to comply with international commitments in fighting wildlife crime. The following are examples of interventions from the international community:
In March 2013, the CITES Standing Committee singled out Tanzania along with the seven other countries—Kenya, Uganda, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Thailand as the ‘Gang of eight’ due to worst record in illegal ivory trade [3, 86]. This followed a widespread elephant poaching that occurred in the 2010s. The Committee directed each of the offending countries to submit a detailed National Elephant Action Plan to curb the illegal ivory trade or face a ban on all legitimate wildlife trade.
In 2014 the World Heritage Committee inscribed the Selous Game Reserve on the List of World Heritage in Danger [87]. The Committee called on the international community, including ivory transit and destination countries, to support Tanzania in the fight against this criminal activity. Tanzania was further required to submit an Emergency Response Action Plan for Selous Game Reserve to the Committee.
During the 2014 London Conference on illegal wildlife trade, the London Declaration was adopted in which 46 countries including Tanzania and 11 international organizations resolved to adopt a number of measures to reverse the trend of wildlife crime. These measures included ending the market for illegal wildlife products, putting in place effective legal frameworks and deterrents, strengthening enforcement and guaranteeing sustainable livelihood options, nurturing poverty reduction strategies and building on and strengthening the wider global efforts to combat the crime [88]. The declaration took on board the scientific facts on the magnitude of the crime and the potential effects which it could bring to national security and sustainable development.
In 2016, UNDP launched a large-scale project which sought to support the Government of Tanzania in implementing the National Strategy to Combat Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade by strengthening legislation and capacity to tackle poaching and wildlife trafficking at the national level [89]. The Project also seeks to enhance the collaboration to fight illegal wildlife trade between Tanzania and neighboring countries, which is in alignment with the objectives of the overall Global Wildlife Programme, launched in 2015 by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Research findings, particularly on population numbers and trends, have also played a significant part in inspiring actions from important personalities. For example, in July 2013, the US President, Barack Obama, issued an Executive Order 13648 outlining measures to combat wildlife trafficking. The Order pledged financial and technical support to governments to address the challenge [90]. The royal family in the UK has also been in the forefront in supporting efforts to address poaching and illegal wildlife trade through funding and conducting numerous campaigns. For example, in February 2014, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and his father, Prince Charles, the Duke of Wales, released a video clip urging global efforts to end poaching and illegal wildlife trade:
“We have come together, as father and son, to lend our voices to the growing global effort to combat the illegal wildlife trade - A trade that has reached such unprecedented levels of killing and related violence that it now poses a grave threat not only to the survival of some of the world’s most treasured species, but also to economic and political stability in many areas around the world. [91]”
Many other personalities expressed concerns over wildlife crime and urged actions from different stakeholders. These included UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, Heads of States and other people.
Wildlife poaching remains one of the top threats to wildlife and humankind despite efforts devoted to conservation work. Poaching has serious ecological, political, social, security and economic ramifications. It is responsible for a dramatic decline of wildlife populations and species extinction, habitat loss, household poverty and economic loss to government. Furthermore, poaching erodes credibility of governments when high poaching levels is attributed to poor governance, corruption and lack of accountability. In recent years, the crime has emerged as one of the main security issues due to its role in funding civil wars and terrorist activities.
Research has the potential to contribute effectively to wildlife conservation through combating poaching. It provides a better understanding of the relationships between the drivers of poaching and individual poacher motivation and, therefore, provides an entry point towards developing the effective policy actions and strategies. The studies which establish the magnitude, trends and effects are important in inspiring interventions at different levels, while understanding the poaching hotspots and vulnerable species targeted by poachers can help in allocating time and resources for anti-poaching operations. Knowledge on types, behaviors and characteristics of poachers is important in devising the policy responses which can suit each type.
Despite the relevance and potential of different scientific studies in guiding decision-making and providing practical solutions against poaching, the evidence on how much do wildlife managers and authorities make use of the findings generated in addressing the challenge is scant. Further studies are, therefore, imperative to address this knowledge gap. This will ensure that time and financial resources used in research are not wasted and that the findings are used effectively to solve conservation problems rather than being left to gather dust in the shelves.
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