Baraza

Category: Climate change, Emergencies, Kenya, Lions, Poisoning wildlife, drought, national parks, poaching, wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 17 2009 | By: paula

A race against time

Published in the East African Standard

By Dauti Kahura

Conservationists and wildlife experts have sounded alarm bells over declining numbers of wildlife, which contributes 70 per cent of the country’s tourism earnings.

“What is happening with the wildlife is worse than the degradation of the Mau complex,” says Dr Joseph Ogutu, an ecologist with the International Livestock Research Institute (Ilri) based in Nairobi. “The decline of wildlife is real and frightening and we need to act fast,” he says.

Ogutu says the decline is in the protected and non-protected areas. Protected areas are the national parks and game reserves while the non-protected ones are pastoral lands and group ranches that surround parks and reserves. Two weeks ago, a conference in Beijing, China heard that the number of wildlife in East Africa is being depleted.

Dr Paula Kahumbu of Wildlife Direct, who attended the conference, says Kenya’s wildlife is at greater risk of eradication.

The country loses between four and five per cent of its wildlife annually. The Department of Remote Sensing and Resource Surveys (DRSRS), a Government department formerly known as Kenya Rangeland Ecological Monitoring Unit, says wildlife has declined by more than a third over the last 25 years.

Kenya has 23 parks, which fall directly under the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and 26 national reserves, which are under the district administration.

The country also has the largest bio-diversity of large animals in the world. Masai Mara has the largest concentration of wildlife and hosts 25 per cent of the national total, underscoring its importance.

With this resource under threat, conservationists say the Government should use all means to preserve it. Ogutu, who has been doing research in the Mara ecosystem since 1989, says drought, changing land use, climate change and poaching are a threat to the resource.

“KWS is in denial of what’s happening,” says Ogutu.

KWS’ TAKE

He says the organisation is only present in the national parks and the game reserves but absent at the group and private ranches. The unprotected areas hold about 65 per cent of the total wildlife and hence hold the key to the future. KWS has refuted claims of wildlife decline. Corporate Communications Manager Paul Udoto says KWS cannot conclusively say whether the animals are decreasing or increasingly generally. Udoto says one could only talk of specific species.

Ogutu lists the most affected parks as Masai Mara Game Reserve, an area that covers 5,600sq km, Tsavo East and West, Meru National Park, Nairobi National Park, which includes the Athi Kaputiei ecosystem. Lake Nakuru National Park has also been affected. The Athi Kaputiei, for instance, had one of the most spectacular migrations of wildebeest after Mara but the migration has all but fizzled. At the height of the migration, the animals ranged between 10,000-15,000 in the early 1990s.

“Today, it would be a spectacle if you spotted 300 wildebeests,” says Ogutu.

The situation at the Nairobi National Park, the only park within a 10km radius of a metropolis in the world, is severe. This is because of the drying up of its only permanent river, Athi River.

“Many crocodiles, hippos and fish have died,” says Ogutu. Poaching has also been cited as one of greatest factors leading to the decline. Richard Leakey, who is the founding director of KWS, says poaching could be on an unprecedented scale perhaps not experienced since the days of Wildlife Conservation and Management Department, the KWS predecessor.

“When former President Moi asked me 1989 to redirect the conservation of wildlife, poaching was rampant,” recalls Leakey.

He says black and white rhinos have been lost in large numbers in the protected and unprotected areas and KWS does not know the exact number of the species so it cannot quantify the loss. Leakey believes rangers could be abetting poaching. KWS senior wardens who sought anonymity concurred.

“Our rangers have become demoralised and demotivated, it is true they are abetting the wildlife poaching especially the big mammals like elephants and the rhino, said a senior warden at the KWS headquarters.

Human Intrusion

Tsavo East and West national parks have one third of the total number of all the elephants in the country. There are currently 38,000 elephants. Although the numbers have been on the increase, about 400 elephants are lost yearly, says Leakey.

Another major crisis that is threatening the existence of wildlife is the cattle incursion in the parks. Udoto concedes KWS is aware livestock owners are encroaching on the parks to the detriment of wildlife.

In the Nairobi National Park, it is estimated about 20,000 cows graze there at night.

Some livestock owners claim to pay Sh10 per cow to the rangers to be allowed into the park. Besides depleting food resources, livestock could carry diseases that are harmful to the wildlife.

Technorati : East African Standard, KWS, Kenya wildlife service, drought, kenya, lion, poaching, wildlife

Tags: drought, East African Standard, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS, Lion, poaching, wildlife

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Category: Africa, Emergencies, elephants | Date: May 22 2009 | By: Maina

The most severe drought ever to hit Mali in the 29 years is devastating the 400 or so desert elephants resident in Gourma district to the southeast of Timbuktu. We have recieved a press release from the Save the Elephants organization informing us of this crisis and we are sharing it with all that we know.

The pictures accompanying the press release are heartbreaking. Dead elephants lying around the parched dust fields to juvenile elephants lying down to die. The drought is intense, but you can help by donating in the Save the Elephants website. Save the elephants will soon start blogging at WildlifeDirect so that you can stay up to date on their noble work of saving elephants. In the meantime, please read the press release below and help in whichever way you can.

NAIROBI, Kenya – 20 May 2009. The future of a rare herd of desert elephants in Mali is under threat from one of the worst droughts in living memory, which has left a key water source at its lowest level in a quarter of a century and is breaking down the usual peaceful co-existence between the elephants and local herdsmen.

The 350 to 450 elephants of Gourma, the northernmost herds still alive in Africa, are being forced to trek ever-longer distances within the Sahel on the fringes of the Sahara to find scarce water, conservation organisation Save The Elephants warns today. Juveniles are likely to be among the worst affected, as – unlike the bigger bulls – their trunks are not long enough to reach deep into remaining wells.

Six elephants have already been found dead. Four others, including three calves, were recently extracted from a shallow well into which they had fallen when searching for water. Only the largest survived.

Save the Elephants’ scientist Jake Wall is in Mali following the situation closely. He says “Banzena has almost completely dried leaving no more than 30 cm of muddy, sediment filled water. The elephants are now in a deadly situation as they wait for the rains to begin. Six elephants have died in the last couple of months from causes related to the drought conditions.”

A group of NGO’s comprising Save the Elephants (STE) and The WILD Foundation (WILD) have been monitoring the last rare desert elephants in Mali in collaboration with the Malian Environment Ministry directorate for conservation – Direction Nationale de la Conservation de la Nature (DNCN). This unique herd of elephants is now in a desperate situation due to a drastic shortage of water, and we are launching an emergency appeal to save them.

The desert elephants of Mali live in the Gourma district to the South East of Timbuktu. They are the northernmost elephants surviving in Africa, estimated at between 350 and 450 in number. They have adapted to survive in the harsh conditions of the Sahel by migrating long distances in search of water and food but live on the margin of what is ecologically viable.

Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants has been monitoring their range since the mid 1970s. He says “In the Gourma region of Mali are the last elephants living in the Sahel and they are northernmost in Africa. Their range has shrunk drastically since the 1970’s due to climate change and overstocking of livestock which has degraded the habitat. These elephants have the longest migration route of any in Africa and move in a counterclockwise circle of about 700km. At the height of the dry season there are only a handful of shallow lakes left to them until recharged by rains in July and August.

” This year the water levels are extremely low in the Gourma region due to uneven rainfall in 2008. The most important of these lakes, Banzena, is the lowest it has been since 1983 when it dried completely. Over the last few years a team of Save the Elephants and the WILD Foundation in collaboration with the DNCN have been closely following the movements of the elephants using 9 collars fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. The collars transmit the hourly positions of the elephants three times daily via satellite link and give real-time information about the activities of the elephant herds.

On the16th May, Jake Wall a scientist with Save the Elephants returned from the most important water source, Lake Banzena, on which the elephants rely at the height of the dry season. He found it almost dry. “The situation is equally dire for the Touareg and Pheul herdsmen who rely on Banzena for their cattle and many cows are now dying each day from lack of water and the soaring temperatures which reach 50 degrees Celsius in the shade. The stench of rotting corpses fills the air and what little water remains is putrid and undrinkable by all standards.

The normal peaceful coexistence between the elephants and herdsmen is starting to break-down and giving way to conflict over access to water.” Very few options now exist for finding water and we are witnessing erratic movements further and further afield as they desperately search for water and forage.”Small thundershowers last week left tantalizing puddles 20 km to the south of Banzena, enough to survive on for a couple days at most, but the herds are now being forced back north to the almost dry lake.”

At a dry lake bed 50 km to the east of Banzena, 6 bull elephants are surviving by getting on their knees and reaching for water with their trunks that is 3 meters beneath ground level and through a hole dug by the Touareg. Younger elephants who are not as big or as skilled cannot possibly reach these to hard to get at water points. The long distances, high temperatures and weakened condition will also take a heavy toll on the younger elephants.

Jake Wall says “I have witnessed first hand how tough the situation can be for young elephants. Last year during a radio-collaring operation, I came across 3 elephant calves trapped in a mud hole along with a half grown female. From the age structure it looked like they had lost their matriarch. Evidently, this young female had led the youngsters into a waterless area. They happened upon a shallow well dug by herdsmen for watering cattle and it appears that the elephants, desperate for water, tumbled into the well and all four were hopelessly stuck in the mud for three days. Our Save the Elephants team pulled them out one by one, but they were so weak that only the large female survived. She was radio-tagged and we watched her dash 80 km to the nearest water at Lake Banzena.”

Urgent action is now needed to secure water for the elephants until the rains commence as predicted in early June. Fortunately, two pumps already exist at Banzena for pumping water and can be used for helping the elephants. Save the Elephants, in partnership with the WILD Foundation and the Mali government, is appealing for funds for diesel necessary for their operation. It is not certain whether the water quantity will be sufficient and close monitoring of the situation is needed.

If you want to help us save these elephants please send a donation via our website:

Tags: Africa, drought, dying, elephants, Mali, Timbuktu, water, West Africa

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Category: Appeals, Emergencies, Emergency appeals, wildlife, wildlifedirect | Date: Mar 28 2009 | By: baraza

Dear friends there is a crisis facing bonobos at Lola ya Bonobo .

In the last six days 6 bonobos have died of flu. Another ten are sick.

Claudine, Vanessa and all the staff have launched an appeal to raise funds to enable them to respond to this emergency. The center which is facing a financial crisis - there is no time to lose. If we can reach 10,000 people each of whom give just $100, we can avert this crisis and save the bonobos.

You can help by doing any or all of the following things

1. Make a donation now
2. Appeal to your friends, networks and family (facebook, myspace,twitter, local news agency, call your )
3. Hold an emergency fund raisier to raise more funds
4. Send Claudine, Vaness and the staff at Lola a message on their blog right now, tell them that you care, and what you are doing to try and help.

Thank you everyone, we really appreciate your support
Paula

2 responses so far

Category: Emergencies, Zimbabwe, bushmeat, poaching | Date: Nov 25 2008 | By: Maina

I read Iregi Mwenja’s first installation in his two-part series called Painful Death and I was quite disturbed. Looking at the pictures of animals trapped and helpless, or dead and rotting, or - perhaps even worse - maimed, was very upsetting.

As if on cue, Rosemary Groom of Zimbabwe Wild Dogs finally gets a picture of a wild dog puppy that she has been told that it was moving around with a wire snare still tightly digging into the flesh of its neck and she posts a blog entry. I very well know that wire snares are the “weapons” of choice for many subsistence and small scale commercial poachers. But these nasty, stomach heaving photos jolt me to a stark reality that may have gone sublime in my mind. It just looks painful how these animals die.

I try to be rational and unemotional when discussing wildlife crime. I try to remain level headed but this method of harvesting bushmeat is simply barbaric. And it peels off my gentlemanly, unemotional, rational skin to expose the painful bare flesh that is my emotions. It is hard not to get emotional when you see this kind of death.

Iregi Mwenja says that statistics indicate 90% of the dead animals will go to waste as the poacher will either forget where he put his snares or he’ll never go back to check on them. The meat will just rot away. Granted, wild carnivores will eat some of the meat, but that also may well be contained in the 10% that is eventually utilized.

Then Iregi follows this with another installation in the second part of his series. This one is loaded with statistics. Suddenly, I am aware that a single David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) de-snaring team can remove an average of 450 wire snares in a month - working only two weeks a month. That there are several DSWT teams. That there are other organizations apart from the DSWT - such as Born Free Foundation - that are also carrying out some heavy de-snaring work. I suddenly am confronted with colossal numbers, and my heart threatens to stop. Iregi explains:

Just one de-snaring DSWT team lifts approximately 450 snares [per] month operating for a maximum of two weeks per month. One poacher can set at least 100 snares per day with a success rate of about 20% and about 15-20 poachers enter the park per day. With a success rate of about 20%, and assuming that one poacher sets about 100 snares a day, then 15 poachers have a probability of killing at least 300 animals per day. This figure may seems to be unrealistic. But the number of snares lifted per day and the number of animals found dead and those rescued by the de-snaring teams is a true testimony of the magnitude of the bushmeat crisis.

It is shocking, but it is the result of scientific research in one corner of Tsavo East National Park (where DSWT conducts most of its de-snaring operations). I am left wondering what the national, regional and global statistics are like. I wince.

Rosemary gives us a clue as to how much it would cost to get a wire snare out of a single wild dog pup’s neck in her blog post. Suddenly, there is money involved, and I shudder like someone forgotten inside the butcher’s cold room. She explains:

Unfortunately, until I have my wildlife immobilization license…we need to rely on someone else to come and do the darting, and he is not always available at short notice. There is also a considerable cost associated with calling him out and getting the pup immobilized (US$100 per day fee plus the cost of drugs and fuel and scout time), and the current prevalence of snaring is really eating into our budget. (Likewise, for me to do [an immobilization] course so I can immobilize the dogs myself, costs US$1500).

That is only part of the story. Organizations such as DWST, Born Free and the African Wildlife Conservation Fund (Zimbabwe Wild Dogs) invest thousands of dollars in de-snaring operations. The Zimbabwe Wild Dogs project is already groaning under the weight of snaring happening in Zimbabwe. And that is just one part of the once wildlife rich nation (hopefully there are still wildlife surviving the madness that is governance in Zimbabwe).

These are deadly statistics - and painful pictures - of how dire the state of wildlife in Africa is. The Zimbabwe Wild Dog project has an appeal. They need your help on saving this little puppy, the rare species of which it belongs and other wildlife in Zimbabwe. Right now I ask you to urgently help them save this particular dog by donating through their blog. And continue to help them whenever you can in the future.

I read a book once, titled “Who Will Feed China?” and in the same fashion I will ask, who will save Africa’s wildlife?

Tags: African wildlife, Born Free Foundation, Bushmeat in Kenya, david sheldrick wildlife trust, Kenya, poaching, wire snare, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

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Category: Emergencies, Forests, Gorillas, Trade, wildlife | Date: Oct 10 2008 | By: baraza

We are all been glued to the depressing headlines every day about the housing crisis, economic credit crunch, collapsing banks. On the bright side we are witnessing an unprecedented level of global cooperation to manage bailouts and rescue packages to save the worlds’ economies.I don’t think I’m alone in wondering how come we couldn’t get this level of cooperation on global climate change. Surely it is having an even greater impact on global economies.

The current financial news focuses on industrial nations of North America and Europe but here in Africa (and I’m sure it’s similar in other developing countries) we are already feeling the impact. We’re experiencing massive inflation which affects us all. Yesterday I heard about a middle class Kenyan family who are now feeding their children on anything that fills their stomach. Although they are a well educated couple, they cannot afford to balance their children’s diet. It’s a vicious cycle – the kids will be undernourished, will perform poorly at school. This will cap their own prospects and limit their capacity to escape poverty.

So, we are reacting to the financial crisis because it affects each of us individually. We approve the bail out rescue packages, and have allowed our governments to take billions of dollars from our taxes to rescue failing financial institutions.

Many environmentalists and conservationists are amazed that we can galvanize global coordination to prevent a global financial crisis; and furious that the same countries couldn’t come together and agree on a rescue package to address other global crises like climate change and poverty in developing countries.

This story appeared today on the BBC website and it stirred me to write this post because while the financial situation may be a global crisis, it is nothing compared to the unfolding environmental crisis . A new report by TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) informs us that are racing towards catastrophic damage to our economies because of what how we are destroying biodiversity and ecosystem services.

What are ecosystem services and how dependent are we on them?

Our very existence is tied to ecosystems.

They clean our water and air; give us fertile soils; provide us with building materials and clothing (timber, cotton); pollinate our crops (bees); store carbon and stop the world from over-heating. The list goes on.

33 Billion - the annual value of these ecosystem services in US Dollars

16 Billion – the annual value of the global economy

In this study by Robert Costanza and others  of 17 ecosystem services in 16 biomes, the value of ecosystem services that are not already captured in economic markets is US $15 – 54 Trillion (that’s twelve 0’s!) with an average of US $33 trillion. They emphasize that this is a minimum estimate. To put this into perspective remember that the Global economy is worth about US $16 trillion – half of what nature gives us for free.

To make this real, consider pollination services – without pollinators like bees, we would have virtually no vegetables and of course no honey! The value of pollination of our commercial crops is estimated to be US $216 billion every year. We can survive without bees, of course but imagine if we had to do all that pollination by hand!

It is this value that we do not capture in our economic evaluations. These ecosystem services are considered free public goods! There are no markets and no prices. We simply don’t count them in our national economies and they don’t feature in our economic planning.

We are trashing our ecosystems and losing a host of free services

By 2050 11% of the natural areas remaining in 2000 could be lost to agricultural expansion, the expansion of infrastructure, and climate change.

Almost 40% of the land currently under low-impact agriculture could be converted to intensive agricultural use, with further biodiversity losses

60% of coral reefs could be lost - even by 2030 - through fishing, pollution, diseases, invasive alien species, and coral bleaching due to climate change.

And climate change is exacerbating this problem.

What are the global financial implications?

In an interview here, the lead author of the TEEB report Pavan Sukhdev warns that “the fisheries that are basically going to die out in 40 years time don’t just mean $80 to 100 billion worth of lost fishing income, but also lost protein for the world’s billion poorest people”.

Nearly one-third of the world’s fisheries are severely depleted, and some have suffered complete collapse, such as the Grand Banks cod stocks off Canada’s eastern coast. If current trends continued, we will have no commercially viable marine fisheries left within fifty years.

The loss of biodiversity will have serious repercussions on the world’s economy. The TEEB report predicts we are losing forest ecosystem services at a rate of between $2 trillion and $5 trillion per year. This is the combined value of their services, including cleaning water and absorbing carbon dioxide. The situation will worsen with time as our natural stock is depleted, and we lose the services they provide. It’s a little like losing the interest from an investment, as you eat into the capital. Except that the value of the services a forest provides, is worth many times what we would make if we were to chop down the timber and sell it on the open market.

We tend to undervalue things that we get for free.

We understand the value of those things that we spill our sweat for. The TEEB report suggests that we have flawed economic analysis and we’ve been making policy mistakes. Because environmental services are ‘free’ their loss often is not detected by our current economic incentive system, losses due to deforestation, unsustainable harvesting, habitat destruction etc will continue unabated. To add salt to this wound, the world’s poor are most at risk from the continuing loss of biodiversity, as they are the ones that are most dependent on the ecosystem services that are being degraded.

How big is the problem?

Between 1900 and today we have destroyed 50% of the worlds wetlands. In addition 30% of the our coral reefs are damaged and 35% of our magroves deforested. Extinction rates are now 1000 times greater than they should be and the IUCN states that 70% of the worlds plants are in jeopardy. This is already affecting food, water and health. By 2050 7.5 million square kilometers be lost – that’s the size of Australia.

The TEEB report suggests that the cost of the loss of biodiversity today dwarfs the current financial crisis and that we urgently need a rescue package for environment.

You can read the full TEEB report here or the executive summary here.

Bailing out ecosystems

We know that our very well being is totally dependent upon these “ecosystem services” and that we are hurtling towards a crisis, and yet we are not even talking about any sort of rescue package for ecosystems. No one has dared quantify how much that would cost us.

However, the TEEB report warns that if we do not adopt the right policies, the current decline in biodiversity and the related loss of ecosystem services will continue and even accelerate. Some ecosystems are likely to be damaged beyond repair. With a “business as usual” scenario, by 2050 we, or our children and grand children will be faced with serious consequences.

I agree with Corey, the TEEB report is “Yet more evidence that we have to stop the extinction crisis“

Although it sounds horrendous, we mustn’t see this situation as hopeless. Ecosystems are far more robust than banks and economies. If we lose millions of dollars in ecosystem services by chopping down a forest, we can recover that value with a relatively small investment in forest restoration.  It’ll take years but nature also has her own inbuilt repair mechanisms. We can help her to speed up the recovery by planting, protecting and managing the restoration.

Here’s an example of what can be achieved after only 30 years of forest restoration in Africa.

Tree planting with nitrogen fixing casuarina after open cast mining has stripped all the surface soil and rock at Lafarge in Mombasa Kenya

30 years later the restored ecosystem provides many services - cleaning water, producing fish, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, recreation and income generation. It is a global showcase and should be replicated and scaled up. You can see more about this amazing place here

Tags: biodiversity, rescue plan, TEEB report, wildlifedirect

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Category: Emergencies, Gorillas, National Parks and protected areas, WildlifeDirect news, wildlife | Date: Oct 09 2008 | By: baraza

We have been following the alarming developments in Eastern Congo on the Gorilla protection blog and here we bring some of the latest reports on BBC here and from the United Nations official site

There is additional inforamation at the UNITED NATIONS Monuc website here Oct 8, 2008 - The Democratic Republic of Congo’s envoy to the United Nations called Wednesday for an urgent UN Security Council meeting to discuss what he called an “imminent” Rwandan attack on the eastern DRC city of Goma.

Speaking to AFP, Atoki Ileka said DRC authorities had “observed concentrations of Rwandan troops in the Rwandan border town of Gisenyi,” and that this suggested that an attack on Goma, located just across the frontier, was “imminent.”
In an earlier statement, the United States has responded angrily to Nkunda’s recent declarations in this statement from the US Department of State

“The United States condemns and rejects the statements made by General Nkunda, leader of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), claiming the CNDP intends to overthrow the elected and universally recognized Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (GDRC). The U.S. calls on the international community to support the GDRC as it works to consolidate its democracy and capacity to govern justly its entire territory. The U.S. opposes all those who seek to foment instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The Goma Agreement and the Nairobi Communiqué remain the only true viable framework to bring stability to eastern Congo. The signatories should respect their commitments and implement them swiftly. All concerned parties should also respect the current cease fire and move quickly to disengage their forces in accordance with the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (MONUC) Global Disengagement Plan. The U.S. applauds MONUC for its efforts to stabilize eastern Congo and calls on all parties to cooperate with those efforts. Conflict between the CNDP and the DRC Armed Forces only detracts attention from resolving the root problem causing instability in the region posed by the ex-Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR), the Interahamwe, and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).
The U.S. remains committed to supporting the GDRC and the people of the Congo to ensure a strong, democratic state, free from all illegal armed groups. At the October 3rd UN Security Council meeting on DRC, the U.S. condemned statements made by Nkunda and called for the improvement of MONUC capabilities to better carry out its mandate. The U.S. will continue to work with the DRC and the Great Lakes countries both bilaterally and through the Tripartite Plus process to strengthen regional cooperation and build a stable and prosperous region.
The U.S. will work to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in eastern Congo and elsewhere”.

Tags: CNDP, Gorillas, MONUC, Nkunda, rebels, Rwanda, Virunga National Park

3 responses so far

Category: Emergencies | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: baraza

I could kick myself for canceling a trip to attend the IUCN World Conservation Congress meeting in Barcelona. I attended the previous Congress in Bangkok which was a great meeting of conservation professionals, except in retrospect I realise that there was alot of talk and not much achieved … except species continue to slide towards extinction. In its first of the 10 days of meeting the report has revealed an alarming statistic that a quarter of the world’s mammal species are at risk of extinction.

It seems that every study on biodiversity reveals increasing threats to species - many of my colleagues form university were involved in this study so I believe the statistics.

Mammals are not faring very well

Imagine if one in four mammals actually went extinct! Some of the species at greatest risk include Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) which may number fewer than 150 and continue to decline due to a shortage of its primary prey, the European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).

The Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) has declined by more than 60 percent in the last 10 years due to a fatal infectious facial cancer, while Southeast Asias  Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) has become endangered due to habitat loss in wetlands.

Mammals in Asia are especially vulnerable because they are hunted for food and traditional medicines. Rapid rates of development and population growth also means that habitats are shrinking and as a result of these combined threats, more than 70 per cent of known species in Asia, are now under threat.

Reptiles and amphibians are doing much worse

Other groups of animals are faring even worse. Thirty-one percent of reptiles, 30 percent of amphibians and 37 percent of fish are deemed threatened. In total, 22 percent of assessed species are nearing extinction, and thousands more animals, especially reptiles and fish, have yet to be evaluated. Birds are not faring as badly as the other groups,  almost one in eight birds are threatened.The main reason for these threats include habitat loss and over exploitation of terrestrial mammals and marine mammals, and pollution, and global warming …it is ironic that human populations meanwhile are on the increase.

African Elephants are recovering in some places

Thankfully it’s not all bad news. Apparently African elephants are less endangered than before as a result of effective conservaiton efforts and the ivory ban in Southern and Eastern Africa. Five percent of mammals are actually doing better than before, these include the black footed ferret which was extinct in the wild but has now been reintroduced. The Chinese Père David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus) though now extinct in the wild may yet recover. The captive population has increased in recent years and it is possible that free-ranging populations could soon be re-established.

The IUCN study and related issues are under discussion by more than 8,000 peope who are attending the World Conservation Congress.  I wish I could feel hopeful, somehow I doubt that they will actually come up with a workable game plan for a sustainable future. However I was pleasantly surprised to read Cindy Ellen Hills article explaining how the Institute for Environmental Security handles the threat of lack of security to species in an article called Waging a Sustainble Peace

“key military leaders at an invitation-only roundtable to spearhead a paradigm shift in thinking about the intersection of environmental issues and local, regional, and national security.

The IUCN Roundtable on Environment and Security will match representatives from the military (USA, Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, Nepal, Mauretania), NATO, and other members of the world’s security community with key environmental leaders to explore strategies for waging an environmentally sustainable peace.”

I am curious about what the security meeting will conclude but in general I doubt that “Barcelona” will get enough attention to really gain political will for conservation. One major problem is timing, this meeting couldn’t have come at a worse time with global attention focused on the worlds unfolding financial crisis.  It’s a pity, many scientist are convinced that we are witnessing the sixth wave of extinctions, and it’s entirely man made. We could lose nearly a quarter of the worlds species just because we don’t care enough. I was looking at these photos from the wildlife photographer of the year competition and couldn’t help feeling  sad that some species will never be photographed in the wild again.

For more detailed info and official documents go here I can’t find a single blog from the congress… if you find any please send me the link.

Tags: endangered species, extinction, Gorillas, IUCN

One response so far

Category: Emergencies, Gorillas | Date: Jul 09 2008 | By: baraza

It’s another sad day for conservation. We’ve just seen it on the wires and it’s been reported on Gorilla Protection blog that a WWF vehicle carrying 11 passengers including ICCN staff in the Virunga National Park was attacked and two people have died. Sadly they were both women, the wife and daughter of the Park warden. The attackers were the Mai Mai - you can read about it on the BBC piece on the attack

This incident reminds me of how complex the political and security situation is in this part of Africa. The Mai Mai are not Nkunda’s men, but a community-based militia that formed to resist the invasion of Rwandan forces and Rwanda-affiliated Congolese rebel groups, they are also exploiting the war for their own advantage by various illegal acts.

I’ve just spoken to someone at WWF Nairobi but they haven’t got any more update than what Radio Okapi has reported

According to Wikipedia the “Mai Mai” include armed forces led by warlords, traditional tribal elders, village heads, and politically motivated resistance fighters. The Mai Mai are particularly dangerous because they have had only the most tenuous internal cohesion, and different Mai Mai groups ally themselves with a variety of domestic and foreign government and guerilla groups at different times. The term Mai Mai does not refer to any particular movement, affiliation or political objective but to a broad variety of groups.

Confused? Not to worry, so am I!

The Mai Mai have been particularly active in the provinces in the east bordering Rwanda, North Kivu and South Kivu (the “Kivus”), which were under the control of the Rwanda-allied Banyamulenge-dominated rebel faction, the Rally for Congolese Democracy-Goma (RCD-Goma).

This is not the first time they have attacked park wardens. In May of 2007, Mai Mai killed a wildlife officer in Virunga National Park and threatened to kill mountain gorillas if the government retaliated. Watch the video made by Elie Mundima last year

All WildlifeDirect staff offer their sincere condolences for the families and relatives of those who were involved in the attack and we wish all ACF staff and ICCN are safe.

Tags: , Mai Mai, Virunga National Park, Warden attacked

4 responses so far

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

5 responses so far

Category: Emergencies, National Parks and protected areas, Podcasts, elephants | Date: May 03 2008 | By: admin

Ephrem just received a report that three more elephants were killed in Virunga, bringing the total to 17 in the last two weeks. This is unprecedented. Every single one had its ivory hacked out. The price of ivory is believed to be at around US$150 per kg on the local market. At this rate, Virunga could lose all of its elephants before the end of the year. We are working on deploying the Advance Force of rangers in the area, although they are quite badly overstretched in Southern Sector of the park, on the efforts to stop the charcoal trade.

This was an interview given on Voice of America on Thursday night, following the killings.

7 responses so far