Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project

The cryptic title of this post is a reference to comments on my last post that generated some discussion.

First of all, I noticed two pingbacks to this post. They look like auto-generated links, but nevertheless their presence is significant: obviously something in this discussion of conservation, tourism, lions and media triggers some response from “the internet”. Interestingly most of my regular readers also felt they had something to say.

It should be mentioned that KD has donated 50 dollars. This is great news, and hopefully a portent of things to come. Thanks KD. So far you are the most significant donor to this blog [and now we go to a short advertisement break] - Folks, if you find what we write and discuss here interesting, or if you would like lions to be conserved in maasailand, or if you liked some of the photos on this blog, or if you just love animals / africa / James heriot / Gerald Durrel / dangerous furry animals / Darwin / Dawkins / Steve Irwin / God’s creation / teachings of the Dalai Lama I hope you will be inspired to support an indigenous african (aka me) doing conservation in the field, outside governmentally protected areas. Its important work. [infommercial over now]

Wim, your input has a habit of cutting to the chase. This was no exception. Wim makes the important distinction between journalism and media coverage with an agenda or purpose (be that overt as in advertisements, or subtle, as with infommercials). In private email conversation with one of the readers of this blog who is a film freelancer, this person pointed towards the same distinction that Wim makes: media is not a fundrasing tool in itself, or at least, good journalism shouldn’t be. My correspondent said this in an a recent email:

“I think everyone has to be fairly realistic about the power of the press. It is there as a witness — so nothing is untold…”

And further to the subject of blogging generally for conservation research, a comment from a fellow scientist:

“…this whole media thing is such a waste of time.”

To a certain extent I agree with both of my correspondents. But, (to badly paraphrase some politician whose name I don’t know), the world is made up of shades of grey, not black and white. With the suggestions from Wim, insight from correspondent 1 and healthy cynicism from D, W and L I think I will continue to use media to futher my objectives. I’m not sure that there is all that much “sound, balanced and truthful” (from Bertie’s comment) reporting on wildlife conservation, but I can give it a try here on this blog..

I like one of Wim’s responses to all this, so I’m pasting his / her comment here to close off with:

When I’m the absolutely final ever tourist to visit Kenya,
my own endangered species,
Last of the Tourist Mohicans,
Gawping, bleary-eyed and nonplussed at the sedated Hyrax and single juvenile Vervet peeling a satsuma
which will then comprise the total wildlife population “success” of the Maasai Mara.
I just know
I’ll look up to see,
tapping their feet and tutting with impatience,
three not terribly competent conservationists,
resenting my presence.

(One of the adult females from Nempakai’s pride)

Whatever cats you may have at home, whatever your morning paper is, have a good day. Signing off from southern maasailand…

Technorati : conservation, lions, media, obscure culturally specific metaphors, ostriches, wagging the dog

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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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Yesterday a story was published on the BBC website that draws attention to the poisoning of wildlife in Kenya. It used an image from the recent poisonings in the Mara., published by Asuka.

The anti wildlife-poisoning movement in Kenya seems to be gaining some momentum. There have been a few references to it in the international media recently. And the wildlifedirect stop poisoning blog is going well.

In case I have new readers to this blog, you can look at the Lion Guardian site for a description of a lion poisoning incident in southern maasailand in January this year. As much as the post received mixed reviews from local conservationists, I think it helped to draw attention to the poisoning problem in east africa generally. And pesticide control products board of kenya will hopefully not be able to ignore the noise thats being raised from all quarters.

Do have a look at the BBC story. Its quite a good, balanced view. In particular it mentions the FMC corporation as a dominant producer of furudan, one of the most widely used poisons. Here is the FMC website. I have a few questions for them. I was thinking I might write them an email or two, or three, or three thousand.

Technorati : FMC, lions, poisoning

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I snap photographs occasionally of things I see on Kenya’s highways. I had a discussion elsewhere on the web a while back about how obscure and elusive the idea of “visual poetry” is. Sucker that I am I even looked it up. “Vispo” for short, of you’re interested.

Some of the slogans on vehicle in Kenya might classify…If you can tell me what the slogan on the matatu (taxi) below means I would be grateful. Is the owner a farmer perhaps? Or maybe he / she has some sort of deeper metaphorical intentions that led to the pasting of poetry on this vehicle? In case you can’t read it, just below the number plate is says “make it rain”.

And in other breaking news, the UN regional headquarters in East africa has come under severe criticism for their carbon-consumption excesses. There have even been requests from certain militant sections of Kenyan society for the UN to place its carbon-reduction reccomendations for africans in its collective dark, personal and uncomfortable places.

So, if you’re an african in need of rescuing from your own excessive carbon consumption, use a wind-up alarm clock, not a digital one. Probably best to buy several of them. The only ones I have found at Nakumatt are made in China and will, beyond a shadow of a doubt break shortly after purchase (if they work at all).

Technorati : kenya, matatus

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Today is a slow day. I’ve just finished dissecting a hyaena, but will probably be stuck in the office for a while attending to project admin, funding proposals etc. If this post seems a little boring then, well, its because my day is boring.

For a brief diversion, please have a look this ABC story I found this morning. I find myself puzzling over why its in the Science and Technology section.

Technorati : conservation, lions, science

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Today is an interesing day, media-wise. I helped to fact-check a press release just a short while ago, that mentions lions, Laurence Frank, Amboseli National Park, the Maasai and a new big cat fund, and now its being picked up by most of the usual suspects. CCN International has put this into their technology section Washington Post picked it up, as did News24, the Seattle Times, and the LA Times And it turned up in a few other places like Newsvine and the Science News Review. Most of the press coverage centers around a National geographic fund that has been set up for big cat conservation. the stated uses of the fund are the following:

• Education for students and adults
• Animal husbandry solutions
• Jobs for the Maasai people
• Community conservation efforts

Do have a look at the National geographic fund site as its the most comprehensive description. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Technorati : Frank, amboseli, conservaiton, kenya, lions

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A few days ago I mentioned the links on the sidebar of this blog. One of my favourites is afrigadget. As a tribute I’ve put together a few pics of a tool that the builders in camp are using at the moment.

I think its name in english is “adze“. Its a curved, bladed tool for chipping wood or cutting rope / papyrus. The builders are from Mombasa and they use it to make footholds in coconut trees, to climb to the top.

You can click here to buy one, for oh, maybe 150 pounds (thats the money people use in England by the way. England is an island. to get there you go all the way to New York, and then carry on going…)

Or… you can find someone with a sturdy vehicle, and redistribute one element of the spring pack (note: here in africa we like euphemisms). For a landcruiser like this one, you’ll need probably 12, 16 and 18mm spanners, a bit of time, and a moerse hammer.

Next, find a large truck.

You can either buy, borrow or nationalise one of the wheel nuts, depending on your fiscal relationship with the truck’s owner.

A man with a welding machine will, for a small fee, trim and join these pieces together. If he doesn’t get it right the first time then get him to try again. Don’t worry too much about how it looks… form follows function and all that. Cut a branch from the nearest tree, to use for the shaft…

sharpen the end to a deadly edge…

You can use the back of the adze to knock nails into wood, or to make more adzes. Or simply to impress your friends. If you tried really hard you could probably even slice and dice vegetables. If you’re as enthusiastically clumsy and accident-prone as me you will probably hurt yourself in the process.

signing out from southern Maasailand,

Seamus

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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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I’m in Nairobi at the moment, dealing with admin for the project. Sometime I hope to find a bit of time to write more about this chaotic, dirty, polluted, sprawling african capital. Suffice it to say its a tough place to move around in and do business. I spent 6 hours driving within a relatively small part of Nairobi today, trying to get errands done. The style of driving of many of the people I meet on the road here can best be summarised as “offensive with extreme prejiduce”. One has to be very assertive, and pretty much rude by western standards, to get anywhere. Last night a 30-seater bus came up from behind me and cut across the corner of my vehicle while I was waiting to enter a traffic circle. The driver clipped the front of my bush-bars and no doubt left a nasty gouge on the side of his bus. he obviously had other important busness to attend to, and carried on driving. I went on my way.

I found a tiny deposit of fresh lime-green paint on one of the bolts on my bush bars, but that was about all the evidence that I could show anyone that I had been hit by a bus.

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