Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 25 2008 | By: admin

Well, the results are in - we spent hours and hours going through the many many suggestions after 4 people responded to our Conservation Crazy competition :(, and it was close but we were eventually unanimously agreed that the winner is “Jim from Mass” who reported an interesting conservation initiative.

So, CONGRATULATIONS JIM - your prize is on the way (since you already have the book Owen and Mzee, we’re sending you an original photograph of the two signed by the photographer, Peter Greste!). We hope you enjoy it….from all of us at WildlifeDirect

NEW COMPETITION - GIVE THE PHOTO A CAPTION 

Remember this photo on the orangutan foundation blog? The competition here is for a caption - I’ll recognize the top 5 captions in a post (please God let there be at least 5!) and I’ll give prizes to the top 3 - with something yet to be decided but undoubtably something good!

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Tags: competition, Conservation Crazy, Orangutan

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 17 2008 | By: admin

One of the most powerful pieces about the black market trade of wildlife is currently on MSNBC narrated by Patrick Brown here.

His photographs will chill you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and any of the other pieces on that site.

And, thanks for all the kind comments, my cold has almost gone though my head is still reeling.

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

There is a shocking new prediction that extinction rates are 100 times faster than previously thought. The findings suggest that animals most at risk include the western lowland gorilla which has been hard hit by ebola and commercial bush meat trade, the Sumatran tiger, and the Malayan sun bear, the smallest of the bear family. The Yangtze river dolphin could be already extinct. The study reported in the Guardian is about to be published in the journal Nature by Brett Melbourne an ecologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Alan Hastings at the University of California, Davis. They said that “Some species could have months instead of years left, while other species that haven’t even been identified as under threat yet should be listed as endangered,” said Melbourne.

What’s interesting is that their work is based purely on mathematical models – frankly I have a hard time believing these models – having seen how they work before. Most of the time we can tell that species are on the verge of extinction by their population size – I mean, with only 700 mountain gorillas left we don’t need mathematical models to give us a precise date of when they will go extinct. They are in trouble NOW and need help now. I get so mad that millions and millions are spent on study upon study – and very little ever makes it to the ground to actually address the problem!

And I’m also so proud that WildlifeDirect has taken on the challenge head on by supporting field conservationists like Wong who is saving sun bears and the ICCN who are saving gorillas

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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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6 responses so far

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

I live in an amazing place with incredible views. Waking up can be a chore though, especially when the birds take it upon themselves to rouse me at 5 am. The rains have started, and its not even the rainy season! Before the trees have even had a chance to respond, the air is filled with sounds of happy animals. Here are some of my visitors ….how many do you know?

This is a daddy with his chick who eats non-stop. They come to my verandah every single day and wait in a nearby tree for crumbs and fruit. Whoever can name the species gets to name these two friendly guys who until now are currently known as ‘noisy’ and ‘greedy’. Who are they?

This pair loves bananas and papaya. They are always together and shriek outside my bedroom window if I’m late with the ‘breakfast’. They have beautiful red wing patches. I’ve seen them attacking ‘greedy’ above and killing lizards! Otherwise they are really a very pleasant chatterers. What are they?

Initially shy, this fat bird figured it out and has discovered that there is such a thing as a ‘free lunch’ and will wait for me to bring the food! What is it?

This little beauty nests in the eaves above my bedroom with a family of many others. Any idea what it is?

Who lives in this nest just outside my house?

And here’s someone who came out with the rain and had to be rescued. Any idea what it is - well even if you do there’s no point in naming him (or her), I’ll probably never see it again.

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

I used to work for the Kenya Wildlife Service where my job was to manage trade in wildlife – I had to examine and approve export permits. At that time Kenya had a proud record of not exporting any animals – until I found out that we were! Thousands of monkeys were being exported for medical research in UK.

I still get a warm feeling when I recall how we found out - someone hacked our website and instead of a photo of our Director there was a monkey behind bars!  And an appeal to everyone to boycott Kenya until this trade was stopped. I wasn’t popular for stopping the trade, some people were getting rich off this trade. One guy was left with hundreds of monkeys to care for and eventually release back to the wild.

The guy behind the trade had a permit from many years before – he had persuaded the authorities back then, that primates were needed for research to produce vaccines for diseases like polio (which he suffered from). Kenyan policy makers didn’t see a problem, after all primates like baboons and vervets can be pests - this guy was promising to relieve the problem! So exporting them was perceived as a great solution. I would take none of that.

For a while the trade stopped, but we knew that it would just migrate to a neighbouring country. Today my stomach turns. It has been reported in the Sunday Times that trade that hundreds monkeys are being exported from Tanzania to Iran scientific experiments.

Apparently Britain has now banned experiments on primates. It’s laughably predictive what would happen, the experiments are simply being conducted in countries that don’t have these rules and Kenyan monkeys are moving through countries that don’t mind exporting them.

The Times Online sums it up “All will undergo invasive and maybe painful experiments leading ultimately to their death”.

Apparently One up to 4,000 vervet monekys are sold by one Tanzanian dealer, Nazir Manji, who runs African Primates, an animal-supplying company based in Dar es Salaam. He gets $120 for each.

One dealer Rubibira told an undercover reporter posing as a buyer “that the Cites office in Tanzania would sign permits regardless of what fate awaited the monkeys. “They don’t care about that,” he said. “If it’s for scientific, if it’s for the zoo, if the plane is accepted for transport they don’t care about that . . . The purpose is not a problem.” “

Apparently the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Iran bought 215 vervet monkeys this year and are behaving very secretive about their purpose. They state that they are used for producing for vaccines but the exporter does not believe this. The Times suspects that they could be being used in research on germ warfare agents. No surprise, the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, which has its headquarters in Karaj, near Tehran, has been accused in the past by an Iranian opposition group of conducting biological weapons testing.

According to US intelligence, the pharmaceutical industry in Iran has long been used as a cover for developing a germ warfare capability.

Animal welfare groups called for an immediate inquiry into the revelations. Will Travers, head of the Born Free Foundation, said the captured monkeys would endure “terror and suffering” followed by “possibly painful” experiments and then death.

He said: “Following this Sunday Times exposé, Born Free is calling on the Cites authorities based in Switzerland and the Tanzanian government to immediately investigate exactly what is going on.”

Michelle Thew, chief executive for the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, said: “The BUAV is appalled by the findings of The Sunday Times. The BUAV renews its call to governments such as Tanzania to protect its indigenous populations of primates and put an end to this unacceptable suffering.”

Vervet monkeys, like most other primates, are classed in the Cites appendix II, which stipulates that all the species listed “although not necessarily now threatened with extinction may become so unless trade in specimens of such species is subject to strict regulation”. In practice this means that dealers are legally able to sell thousands every year.

However, the use of all wild-caught monkeys in experiments has effectively been banned in Britain since 1997 and the pharmaceutical giant Glaxo-Smith-Kline, which produces a quarter of the world’s vaccines, has also stopped using them.

The European Commission is reviewing a directive on the use of animal experiments in Europe which may lead to an EU-wide ban on wild monkeys being used.

The monkeys are caught, or “harvested”, by men who first herd them into a tree at dusk.

The catchers then lay a 200m net below the tree and, at daybreak, scare the monkeys out of the branches and into the trap.

Then they are transported 250 miles overland from the main trapping grounds in Arusha near the Kenyan border to Dar es Salaam.

On arrival at Manji’s holding farm, where he can accommodate up to 1,000 monkeys at one time, they are transferred into tiny metal cages where they often remain for several weeks. They are then flown in wooden rates on Air Zimbabwe planes to countries such as Iran.

It is unclear exactly which type of vaccine the Razi scientists are claiming to be using the vervets for, but the World Health Organisation guidelines on the production of polio vaccine state that vervet monkeys used for testing it should weigh a minimum of 1.5kg.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 05 2008 | By: admin

All the current news on fisheries seems to be bad. Africa is being particularly severely hit. Lake George on the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo boarder is in trouble because of dwindling fish stocks due to overexploitation. If fishing can raise funds then why doesn’t that money get used for proper management to sustain the fish?

What I find most immoral is the effect of commercial fishing fleets operating of the coasts of East and West Africa which is putting local fishermen out of business. Local authorities can’t do much, they don’t even have  sea worthy vessels to pursue the illegal fishing vessels. And where there are legal agreements the terms are tilted strongly in favor of the fishing company - usually they don’t even have limits on amount of fish that can be taken. The consequence has been the collapse of local fisheries and in desperation young men are fleeing west Africa in search of a new life and economic fortunes in Europe  - often making a dangerous sea voyage to get to Spain. Nobody wants these illegal immigrants, but how come nobody is putting 1 and 2 together? Arghhh it makes me so mad!

It gets worse! We never seem to have enough money to put good management systems in place do we? Yet oddly, we do have billions to resolve crises when they strike. According to this article International Donors have pledged the sum of $1.4 billion at a Conference in the Niger capital Niamey to help save the Niger River from drying up. Why is it drying up? Because of bad management …..wouln’t it have been cheaper to solve the problem before it became a crisis? Apparently the money will be used among other things to build dams, and plant trees (I bet I can guess which countries the contractors come from).

On the other extreme and bizarre, Japan, Norway and Iceland are trying to argue that the global decline of fish  is due to the growing number of whales!. At the latest International Whaling Commission meeting the Humane Society International, WWF and the Lenfest Ocean Program presented three new reports debunking the science behind the ‘whales-eat-fish’ claims emanating from whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland. The countries had hoped that the whales-eat-fish  argument has been used to bolster support for whaling, particularly from developing nations.

“It is not the whales, it is over-fishing and excess fishing capacity that are responsible for diminishing supplies of fish in developing countries,” said fisheries biologist Dr. Daniel Pauly, director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.

Meanwhile in Canada imprisoned fish have had a taste of freedom, 30,000 farmed Atlantic salmon that had escaped from a fish farm near Campbell River. Some  have been caught by anglers in the area – poor things they must have thought they were free at last from that concentration camp!

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 04 2008 | By: admin

People in Kenya always surprise me with their talents.H ere are some photos that I hope you enjoy.

Shoes made from old vehicle tyres! they come in many styles and last forever.

Inventiveness starts at a very young age. This toy is just a jar lid connected to a stick and rolled along …

This metal work seems to specialise on giraffes. He may never have seen the animal in real life! I wonder who he sells to - but the herd has been growing every day!

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Tags: , Africa, giraffes

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 04 2008 | By: admin

Last night I went on a walk though time, back to our first Baraza post and recalled the crazy Ideas we had for the blog. We had intended to run competitions but we never quite got round to it. But when we got this link to a really amazing project called Go Elephants that is taking place in Norwich, UK.

We have decided to revive the chance for you, our readers to participate in competitions to have fun and to learn, interact and win great prizes!

So, Here’s Competition no. 1. CONSERVATION CRAZY

 All you have to do is some research to find and then send us the craziest conservation idea that has ever been implemented. It has to be one that that actually worked. Just post your idea on this post and we announce a winner by the 15th of July!

Were will send a signed copy of Owen and Mzee to the person with the craziest find. Our definition of CRAZY IDEA is  that it is a mad, impractical, unusual, absurd, passionate and/or extreme idea.

Rules: Don’t repeat the same entry that someone else has proposed! Entries close on 14th July.
Go elephants

Go Elephants! has turned the streets, parks and public spaces of Norwich into a giant urban savannah. A herd of life-size baby elephants are currently on safari in locations across the city until 31 August before being sold at a special gala auction in September 2008.

There are fifty-three different elephants to look out for. Each one has been beautifully decorated by an artist or community group, creating an outdoor art gallery showcasing the rich artistic talent the region has to offer.

I think that this idea couldl be turned in to a conservation idea by auctioning off the herd and sending the money to conservation. It could be replicated in cities around the world - why not do it in your city?

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 04 2008 | By: admin

I get so mad when I hear countries, organizations and individuals saying that the solution for wildlife protection is to just make money from it. Ok the value of wildlife is immense - in fact the illegal trade in wildlife is apparently worth many billions and is second only to the illegal trade in arms. So if legalizing wildlife trade would lead to it’s protection …then should we legalize the trade in weapons? We are such hypocrites.

Top of my venting list today Namibia. According to a news article here  Namibia’s state-owned national game reserves plan to auction and export black rhinos and buffalo to South Africa and Botswana to raise funds for conservation and community development. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has authorized the auction of eight black rhinos and 40 buffalos on July 25 in a biennial sale of rare animals, Mark Jago, an official at the ministry, said in an interview from the Namibian capital of Windhoek today. And it’s totally legal - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species allows Namibia to export the animals.

What do you think, will selling rhino’s will lead to their preservation ?

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Tags: conservation, Namibia, Rhinoceros, wildlifedirect

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