Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project

Paula has kindly provided us with links to the BBC story on wildlife poisoning. You can click here and here for TV and radio respectively.

I have a few people who keep an eye on things pantherine in the media. One of them is Bertie, who, in a comment here raised the same concern that Paula referred to earlier today. Namely that press coverage of the challenges facing Kenya’s wildlife could very well discourage people from visiting Kenya. To follow this argument through, less visitors would mean less revenue is generated by wildlife, and consequently kenyans will be less tolerant of the (massive) losses to their livelihoods that they have to endure, living with wildlife on their land. consequently, it could be argued, there would be greater persecution of wildlife, and less funding for wildlife conservation, which would spiral some wild populations towards near extinction very quickly.

There may be some truth to this assertion. However it seems that there are very few kenyan conservation projects or institutions whose liquidity is entirely tied to tourism. The Mara conservancy should be mentioned as an example of an area that is totally visitor-dependent (and they still need your support by the way). I believe KWS to some extent relies on funding from the central Kenyan government coffers, which in turn depend on tourism. Other than these two examples and some other small operations, the connection between tourism revenue and “on the ground”, “in the dirt” wildlife conservation is not all that direct. Or to put it differently, its not as direct as it should be.

What to do? Well, for start we can pose difficult questions to the larger hotel chains that operate inside kenyan protected areas… what is African Safari Club doing to support the widlife that its healthy profits rely on? What is the Serena hotel group doing to conserve kenya’s wildlife heritage that has made it one of the most successful hotel chains in east africa? These questions are to some extent rhetorical, but go ahead and comment if you have a response.

For the record, I think Kenya is a beautiful place, full of both conservation and tourism potential. Its my home. But conservationsts and Kenyans should expect more from some local tourism companies.

(this was taken on the plains near where I live, a few days ago)

Technorati : conservation, lions, media

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I’m back in camp now, from a busy few days in Nairobi.

Let’s just skip politics and gender-relations and get straight to the exciting stuff: the weather.

Almost completely overcast this morning. the rains have pretty much finished for the moment, but there is still some grass around. The more perceptive readers, or the dedicated ones, will notice that I frequently photograph this mountain from different angles. I like its shape.

By the way, there’s been quite a bit of coverage of Obama and his granny in the papers here. Most of it is quite superficial, but one can’t help wondering “what if?’. its kind of infectious.

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I often find myself frustrated at not having more time to put into writing for this blog. I have a pretty good day job, so I can’t complain.

The theme of this blog should really be lions, and the work I am doing, but today I’d like to draw your attention to some of the external links on this blog. They’re a handful of the sites that I either use, or think are worth using.

A few examples: you might like to take a look at Ethan Zuckerman’s blog, that digs below the surface of people’s preconceptions of africa, the media and african ideas. Or perhaps examine some social and political commentary from closer to home (Kenya) at Sukuma Kenyablog. I like to refer people to People and Wildlifefor good human-wildlife conflict literature and a bit of buzz about what’s happening internationally in this research field. And if you thought taxonomy wasn’t cool, go check out the Tree of Lifefor and excellent, ambitious rendering of the diversity of life, as seen by scientists. Then of course there are links to our organisation (Living with Lions) where you can learn more about the rest of our projects.

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The media loves acronyms. A while back we had WMDs which kind of had the same evocative nastiness as “Ebola”. Which is not an acronym, but nevertheless brings to mind imminent chaos, death and collapse of society, a bit like “WMD”, or as I heard it said quite a lot at the time, “dubbya-emdees”.

I present to you today, “IDP”. It stands for “internally displaced people”, and kenya has quite a few. But more importantly I would like to draw your attention to a few kenyans that are asking questions. The right kinds of questions, at the right time…

My chain-smoking, flip-flops-and-socks-wearing, second-floor-dwelling friend Dipesh is currently editor of Wajibu. An excellent magazine with a conscience and a message. Hard to get hold of, but we forgive him for that (good writers are horrendous adminstrators, right?). There is some discussion of it (a review of sorts) here.

Technorati : Wajibu, internally displaced people, kenya, politics

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I’ve been following the events in Zimbabwe fairly closely. I spent part of my toddler-hood there. I also have a few people there who are very important to me.

 TB the ostrich’s “quiet diplomacy” is thankfully being replaced by more decisive actions from southern africans. Of particular interest is the 77 tons of arms that were due to be offloaded in South Africa, origin: China. Destination: Zimababwe.

 To my mind, 3 million AK-47 bullets, 1500 rockets and 3500 mortar shells are not going to help the people of Zimababwe recover from their currently desperate economic situation. Nor will they give citizens the freedom to express their political views. Nor will they promote peace and stability in the SADC.

I’m pleased to read here that even though the big man’s TB’s head is still firmly stuck in the sand, the SA Transport Allied Worker’s Union members refused to offload the ship in Durban. And futhermore that Mozambique has refused to allow the ship into its territorial waters.

Back to the subject of the title of this post. The Zim government coffers are not adequate to pay for this consignment. So uncle Bob, chose to trade 8 tons of Zim ivory for his weapons. This sale has not been appoved by CITES.

I’d be curious to hear some different points of view on this. I haven’t read any of the other wildlifedirect blogs which may have dealt with this, but will do so today. The story is well-covered in the South African dailies.

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