Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 07 2008 | By: admin

When we reported the gorilla killings last year on the the gorilla blog, it immediately made headlines around the world. The story is one year old and still remains top of the conservation agenda, thanks to National Geographic there is a renewed interest and concern about gorilla conservation in Congo. They even ran a special on Innocent and Diddy who really do deserve hero status. NPR have also just done a story and radio interview with Emmanuel here

We may never know just how much of an impact the Gorilla blog is having, but it’s worth noting the Institute for Environmental Security draws heavily on the blog for content and explanation of the security situation in eastern Congo in its own publications! Theres one article in particular, in and please don’t let it’s corny title put you off Charcoal in the Mist which summarizes out all contributing factors, and has a series of excellent maps that have certainly helped me to understand the geographical and social context of the conflicts in this volatile region of Africa. The article draws heavily on WildlifeDirect and the gorilla blog for the most up to date content, revealing just how powerful these blogs from the front lines are.

But the study falls short

Despite this recognition of these blogs however, I found the study utlimately short sighted. Its recommendations are the usual blah blah blahs (More World Bank kind of projects) and fails to recognize the opportunity that the blogs present. It doesn’t mention the empowerment of rangers on the ground, the boosting of morale, the significance of funds raised for the running of the Virunga park. In it’s recommendations it does not mention WildlfeDirect in the section on ‘Raising global awareness’. We need bigger thinkers to write these articles, visionary people who can visualise the power of social networking….and the value of putting power into the hands of the people on the ground - that is what will lead to sustainability, not more foreign experts telling the local people what they should stop doing.
Why does it matter?

As you all now WildlifeDirect does not deduct any overhead from your donations to blogs - we don’t want to take anything away from your intention. This puts us in a really difficult situation to raise funds to cover the costs of our Nairobi office, the team, the support and training we give to the bloggers many of whom have never even used a computer before! Take Diddy and Innocent for example. Would anyone have ever heard of them if it wasn’t for their blog? Of course not. Today these guys are computer literate, and are globally recognized for their contribution to gorilla conservation.

Yes, I’m a bit miffed with Eric van de Giessen for his complete failure to mention this in his article about the work of conservation organizations on the ground. I spend about 50% of my time writing grant proposals to cover our core costs to enable us to deliver quality blogs from all around Africa. I need to persuade donors that what we are doing is probably the most innovative approach to conservation since National Parks! While they think it’s ‘cool, unique, clever’ instead of seeing a fantastic opportunity to be part of something unique, many donors find the concept hard to fit in with their traditional grant giving - it’s infuriating! If they heard people like Eric from IES saying one priority for the Albertine Rift should be empowerment at the grass roots through initiatives like WildilfeDirect, that would help our applications immensely.

Thats why when we get ‘forgotten’ in big highly visible, and much respected articles, it hurts

What can I do? What can you do?

It’s not all doom and gloom. We have to educate people! There are three things we can do

1. Calm down (deep breaths, count to ten….)

2. Write to Eric and tell him about his big boo boo (If you have read the article and you want to write in support of WildlifeDirect so that we get the recognition we deserve in this and future articles, you can write to info@envirosecurity.org - attention Eric van de Giessen).

3. Help us to get the word out about the power of WildlifeDirect’s blogs by publishing articles in your own blogs or local magazines, directing any journalists you know to our blogs, and leaving comments on anyone else’s blog where WildlifeDirect is mentioned.

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