Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 28 2008 | By: baraza

Hello everyone. Apologies for the absence, it has been very busy, first week back to school for the brat - uniform, books, shoes….its never easy.

I have been monitoring the blog activity and donations and wanted to say a big thank you to all those who have helped us over the past 12 months. We have just spent the last three days processing the donations for the virunga blogs which they will receive today.  It will go a very long way to helping through this crisis.

On the Mara Triangle we recently received a thank you from their board  for the donations received so far through the blog. Not only has the blog been superb, but a proposal we submitted to US Fish and Wildlife Service for them was approved bringing in another $50,000 towards emergency costs. It feels great to have had that much of an impact.

We’re now looking at a few new blog requests, one for rhino conservation in the Aberdares, another for dolphin conservation in Argentina amongst others.

I’m also preparing for a trip to USA for the launch of our book ‘looking for Miza’ and then to the IUCN World Conservation Union meeting in Barcelona. The African NGO’s are organizing to coordinte conservation in Africa.  If you had three points to say to the head of the IUCN , what would they be?

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Tags: Gorillas, IUCN, Mara Triangle

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Category: Climate change | Date: Aug 24 2008 | By: baraza

In a recent publication titled “Native wildlife on rangelands to minimize methane and produce lower-emission meat: kangaroos versus livestock” George Wilson  and Melanie Edwards argue that we should be eating Kangaroos not beef and lamb. They show that cattle and sheep produce 11% of Australias Green House Gases, while kangaroos produce negligible amounts. Basically they don’t belch or pass wind unlike most other livestock! They suggest the removal of 7 million cattle and 36 million sheep by 2020 and the increase of kangaroo numbers to 175 million to produce same amount of meat. This they say “would lower Australia’s GHG emissions by 16 megatonnes, or 3% of Australia’s annual emissions”.

The Australian wildlife protection council warns that “Australia has no culture for the eating of kangaroo meat. It was eaten during the starving tomes of early white settlement but was considered a poor substitute for beef, sheep meats, pork and chicken”  another Australian, Corey Bradshaw, says” Beef is bad but skippy is better”.

The math adds up, but there’s no question it would be an uphill challenge to change the cultural and social standards of diet and livestock production. Nevertheless, trials are underway based on international experiences of managing free-ranging species to give farmers an option to reduce the contribution that livestock make to green house gas production.

Personally I hate the idea of eating Kangaroos, but I do eat meat. I also love Kangaroos (Skippy is tattooed on my brain) and doubt I could ever eat one.

What about you? Knowing the carbon benefits, what do you think about eating Kangaroo meat to save the planet?

1. Absolutely, I wish I”d known earlier, I’ll switch to roo in a minute

2. I’ve no objection, I’d eat it at least part of the time

3. I’m vaguely disgusted at the idea  of eating Kangaroo and wouldn’t switch from beef/lamb/pork etc

4. I’d never eat a roo. Never! In fact, if there was no other choice I’d become a vegetarian

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Tags: Climate change, eating kangaroos, green house gases, Kangaroo, ruminants

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 23 2008 | By: baraza

 As if 125,000 more western lowland gorillas wasn’t enough, more good news has emerged from the International Primatological Society meeting in Scotland,

The discovery of the distinctive lemurs with jaws powerful enough to crack giant bamboo, their favorite food, occurred in 2007 in the Torotorofotsy wetlands of east central Madagascar, which is designated a Ramsar site of international importance under the 1971 Convention on Wetlands.
To read more about this good news story visit biology-blog.org

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 22 2008 | By: baraza

From time to time I work from home where it’s quiet and peaceful - and I get to be inspired by all the animals around me. Right now I’m  watching bird wars at the feeding table - doves vs starlings vs weavers and bulbuls, vs the newly arrived squirrel and a slender mongoose!

We recently had some rain which brought all sorts of colours, smells and new creatures.

Flying ants, actually termites come out in the millions where upon they make a suicidal dash for my lights, crash into windows and leave their wings that litter all over the house. Swifts and housemartins get a rare feeding frenzy, moving at speeds to difficult to capture. The mass of bugs also attracts human predators - these dudus’ are considered an important source of protein for some tribes here.

At night the bats go crazy for the moths,- I took hundreds of photos through the window and on my verandah.

Most pictures were complete rubbish, but I thought you’d ilke these - the top bat is catching moths by flicking them off my window with it’s tail!

This bat is flicking a just caught moth into it’s mouth. Check out those massive ears! Anyone out there know what kind of bat this is?

I’m always rescuing bugs that can’t find their way out in the morning. This is a mayfly I think.

One of my most dedicated companions is Panda - I rescued her from a cruel breeder who was trying to persuade me that the sickly puppy was a pure German Shepherd with a white gene! She looks like a cross between a shepherd and a border collie although I strongly suspect she’s  actually an alien dog. Panda visits me several times a day, entering the house which is strickly out of bounds, stares at me with those heart melting eyes, and if I ignore her, I get a gentle tug on my arm by her fluffy paw.

If she could talk she’d say  ‘time for a health break, I’m going for a walk, you coming?’

I follow the flag that is her tail - afterwards she complains about the hours of painful combing to remove the vegetation that happily hitches a ride as she bashes through the bush. She’s a fanatic retreiver and sniffer … very hard to keep up with her - she can disappear for hours .. reporting back to her Alien Dog king I suspect.

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Tags: Bats, flying ants

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Category: Forests, tourism | Date: Aug 22 2008 | By: Maina

For years now, the controversy of whether or not to evict squatters in the Mau Forest Complex in southwestern Kenya has been played by politicians to their own gain. The problem at the Mau has survived four general (parliamentary and presidential) elections so far, and it doesn’t seem to be going away.

Allow me to introduce you to the largest, near-continuous montane forest block in East Africa before I tell you what the problem is (or is thought to be). The Mau is huge and critically important to the three East African states of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The forests cloak the western slopes, and part of the crest, of the Mau Escarpment, a block of raised land that forms the western wall of the Gregory Rift Valley, rising steeply from the floor and sloping away more gradually to the west. There are five main Forest Reserves: Eastern, Western and South-western Mau (c.66,000, 22,700 and 84,000 ha respectively), Trans-Mara (34,400 ha) and Ol Pusimoru (17,200 ha).

A sixth large block, the Maasai Mau (c.46,000 ha) is as yet ungazetted. In early 2001, a total of 59,134 ha (35,301 in Eastern Mau, 22,797 ha in South-western Mau, 713 ha in Western May and 1,030 ha in Western Mau) was designated for degazettement meaning it would be removed from protection status and left to the dogs.

Now here is the problem. Since the ill advised forest excisions of the late 1990s (to settle landless people), thousands of people have invaded the forest and laid waste to large swathes of especially the eastern Mau. The government led resettlement is said to have brought some 28,000 households into the eastern Mau. This settlement of agricultural communities also opened up the forest to a large racket of illegal logging that has contributed to the loss of about 28% of forest cover in the eastern sector (cumulative since 1967).

The 28,000 may not be removed since they are there “legally” and so the target for eviction is those considered “illegal squarters”. Attempts to remove these aliens have had casualties in government and politics. President Kibaki’s attempt to remove them during his first term - about three years ago - cost him the constitutional referendum that was seeking to usher in a new constitution for Kenyans. Then in December 2007 when Kenyans voted - in what was to turn into the bloodiest election ever - Kibaki’s opponents used the Mau again to make him unpopular. Lots of lesser politicians have fallen and others gained political favour because of the Mau.

The Mau problems are multifaceted. There is the obvious environmental degradation concern, there is also a community face whereby the Kipsigis (who are majority squarters) claim that they bought their land in the Mau and the Maasai who an ancestral claim to the Mau. The community card is the politicians pet and has been used to divide these two communities in an annoyingly predictable patterns. There is also the Ogiek, who are thought to be the indegenous people of the forest and are traditionally hunter-gatherers. The Ogiek are a minority and were evicted from the forest in the 1980s

Due to the immense importance of the Mau as a one the five most important “water towers” in Kenya, there are economical ramifications to consider. The Mau issue have never - in the public eye - been seen as an environmental issue, but recently, as it increasingly becomes clear that environmental degradation has economic repercussions, the environmental aspect has begun to get noticed.

Picture this: Numerous streams originate from the forests west of the scarp crest, forming part of the Sondu and Mara river systems, which flow into Lake Victoria, and the Southern Ewaso Ngiro system, which flows into Lake Natron. The Eastern Mau is the main watershed for Lake Nakuru, through the Njoro, Makalia and Enderit rivers. Take the out the Mara River alone and you don’t have the Masai Mara (as we know it) and parts of the Serengeti, northern Tanzania. That is bad for the multi-billion tourism industry in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Mau complex has complex problems and the political tug-of-wars are not helping. If we dont stop the destruction of the Mau, millions of people will suffer. Only several thousand people have invaded the Mau, but millions downstream will suffer the consequences.

Recently, the Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, announced the formation of a Task Force to chart a way forward in the removal of the squatters. It consists of some high profile conservationists together with the usual political puppets. We hope the environmentalists will prevail and a people-friendly and environmentally sound formula is found to remove the squatters.

One thing is clear, and the Mr Odinga said it: there are no two ways of saving the Mau. The only way to save the Mau is to remove those folk from the forest and protect it against illegal logging.

I will keep an eye open to see what the Task Force comes up with.

To learn more about the Mau there are several links:
1. A Birdlife Perspective
2. Mau in the News
3. More news on the Mau
There is also a community group that is trying to save the Mau and see also the story of the Ogiek
You can also download a report done by the UNEP about the destruction of the Mau here

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Tags: community, Forests, Kenya, Masai Mara, Mau Complex, tourism

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 22 2008 | By: baraza

I was so sad to read this story - and kind of glad that I couldn’t watch the video about lost baby whale in Australia

The BBC report that the “Australian wildlife officials have put down an injured baby humpback whale named Colin that began suckling on boats in waters to the north of Sydney”.

MSN give more details here 

The authorities felt that it would be stressful to try and feed it and that it would have died of starvation. Surprisingly the mercy killing has not sparked much response apart from a comment in Chai’s marine blog  -

What do you think? Did they do the right thing to give up on  him or could this baby have been saved? What could have happend to it’s mother?

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Tags: Australia, baby whale, mercy killing

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Category: Gorillas | Date: Aug 20 2008 | By: baraza

In Africa we always say that when elephant bulls fight its the grass that suffers.

In this article published today on The National, Matt Brown interviews a ranger who work for CNDP (Nkundas’s faction) and who is paid US% 10 per month by a conservation organization for this dangerous job.

“When the rebels took over the territory, most of the rangers from the government-run wildlife service fled the area. Those that remained are considered to be working for the rebels.“The ICCN [the Congolese wildlife service] refused to work with us because we are rebels,” said Canisius Kanamahalagi, a conservationist working for the rebels in the gorilla sector of the park. “They decided to take all the rangers and said whoever works here is considered a rebel.””

Can you imagine being in the shoes of Canisius? It must be very tough. There’s so much controversy over whether conservationists should support these rangers (or are they rebels?).

Nkunda has been in control of the Mikeno sector for nearly a year now and judging from the International Crisis Group reports here it looks like he’s there to stay for the time being. What do you think? In the interest of gorilla protection, should conservation organizations support the rangers now working for the rebel Laurent Nkunda?

If you could advise Emmanuel what would you say?

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Tags: DR Congo, gorilla, Interational Crisis Group, Nkunda

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: baraza

Folks I just found out today from Feral thoughts blog that the Australian Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, announced on August 3rd that Savannah Cats will not be allowed into Australia. I’m sorry I missed that announcement - would have been a great cause for champagne popping!

According toTony Peacock, CEO of the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre

“The Minister has used his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to amend the definition of domestic cat to rule out cats with genes from the Serval.  Good on him.  I’m not sure of the details yet, but that should be enough to discourage others contemplating bringing exotic “pets” with wild genes into the country to think again.  The potential cost to Australia’s environment is simply too high.

Apparently, the Department considered 549 submissions, and 526 of these supported a ban - that’s an extraordinary response to a wildlife issue.  It shows people value our unique environment and don’t want it put at further risk”.

Congratulations Australia!

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Tags: Savanna cats

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Category: Climate change, Emergency appeals | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: baraza

Thanks to Sheryl  and Ethics and Animals I have sent my letter and below I am copying information here for you to take action and stop the dilution fo the Endangered Species Act.  Anyone from anywhere can write to Secretary Kempthorne, and it’s been made so easy … so friends you have no excuse click the link to send a letter and do it now. Deadline is September 15th.

The Center for Biological Diversity provides a letter that you can edit and send to Secretary Kempthorne, protesting the changes. The changes to the ESA include: -

• Exempt thousands of federal activities from review under the Endangered Species Act
• Eliminate checks and balances of independent oversight
• Limit which effects can be considered harmful
• Prevent consideration of a project’s contribution to global warming
• Set an inadequate 60-day deadline for wildlife experts to evaluate a project in the instances when they are invited to participate — or else the project gets an automatic green light
• Enable large-scale projects to go unreviewed by dividing them into hundreds of small projects.

In addition, last week Kempthorne and Bush tried to slip another proposed rule change under the radar that would limit protection of a species only to where it is currently found. Under the current rule a species has protection in its entire historical range. However many endangered species have lost substantial portions of that range. For example; under the proposed changes, prior to being reintroduced, the California condor would only have been listed in zoos.

Defenders of Wildlife also has a letter you can edit and send to your Congressional representatives. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is no longer accepting public comments by e-mail or fax. Every other agency in the government does accept comments electronically, but not USFW. So, we have to mail our comments about Monday’s proposed rule to gut the ESA. I learned this by reading SFGate’s Thin Green Line blog and perusing the end of the proposed rule itself. You can access it on the link to the blog. So, we need to start writing IMMEDIATELY. We don’t have a lot of time left because the Bush Administration cut the usual 60-day comment period in half. They don’t want us to know what they’re up to, so let’s make sure they get lots and lots of written public comments delivered by snail-mail at USFW. You can write your comments and mail them to the following address or you can keep an eye on the National Resource Defence Council’s Switchboard blog for information on how to submit them electronically to NRDC. They will then print out your comments and deliver them to USFW. The link will be live on Monday at NRDC Action Fund. Here’s the USFW mailing address for comments (they will also post any personal information you provide in the Federal Register): Public Comment Processing Attention: 1018-AT50 Divisioin of Policy and Directives Management U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222 Arlington, VA 22203

Thanks for all this info Sheryl, Paula

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Tags: conservation policies, Endangered Species Act, ESA, Polar Bears, USA

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: baraza

Joy just sent me this story about baby turtles losing their way and ending up in a seaside restaurant. Luckily for them, turtles are not eaten in Italy and the stranded babies were released back into the sea. But this story serves as a reminder about how vulnerable these amazing animals are.

The problem caused by artificial lights has been  documented in Kenya where turtle conservation groups like the Lamu Marine Conservation are working night and day to save turtles.  Meanwhile the Born Free Foundation have also reported tagging turtles while Nimu from the whale sharks blog has sent out an appeal to save Chelonia, an Australian based turtle conservation organization.

If you love turtles  please contact these different blogs and tell them!

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Tags: chelonia, Lamu Marine Conservation, Turtles, whale sharks, wildlifedirect

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