Baraza

Category: Africa, Ivory, Kenya, Trade, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: Maina

We could be headed back to the ‘dark ages’ of African elephant poaching going by the recent spate of ivory seizures in the continent. Wildlife enthusiasts will remember the horrible days back in the 1980s when the Kenyan elephant population was brought down to its knees by the large scale poaching that was also affecting most of the range states for the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana). Those days may well be back.

A few days ago, the Kenya Wildlife Service seized a large cache of illegal ivory at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Capital FM of Nairobi report in their website that “Police and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) personnel on Wednesday seized 61 tusks of raw ivory weighing 532 Kilograms (1,172 pounds) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).”The large haul is believed to have been headed to Bangkok, Thailand, through Addis Abab, Ethiopia. KWS Director Julius Kipng’etich reports that:

“The unaccompanied luggage was to be air-freighted to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the way to Bangkok, Thailand,” he said adding that the ivory had been falsely declared as “POLISHING BENCH” in the Airway Bill and was packed in four boxes.

As luck would have it, the KWS also received reports from Ethiopian Airlines that another larger consignment - 637 kg (1,404 pounds) - of similarly disguised ivory had been intercepted in the capital Addis Ababa two days earlier. “This consignment had also originated from JKIA destined to Bangkok via Addis Ababa by the same consignee,” said Kipng’etich.

The total of 1,169 kg (2,577 pounds) of ivory seized is suspected to be from Kenyan elephants, which would then prove that there is indeed a rise in elephant poaching. According to KWS data, this year, 145 elephants have been killed illegally. This compared to the 47 reported illegally killed elephants in the last two years, is indeed a cause for panic. The rise in number of illegally killed elephants is alarming!

The story of the tough times for elephants doesn’t end at the horn of Africa. On October 1, the same day that the KWS seized ivory in Nairobi, five suspects are reported to have been arraigned in a Harare, Zimbabwe court charged with possession of 30,8 kilograms of ivory worth more than $4 500 (American dollars, not Zimbabwean).

These outlaws had, withing their residence, a high caliber rifle used to kill elephants - .303! The Harare court remanded them out of custody, so they’ll be staying in their residence, probably shoot a few more elephants with another .303 rifle then go back to court on the appointed date for the hearing of the current case.

In Central Africa Republic, the French news agency, AFP, reports that “Police detained two major ivory traffickers in the Central African Republic as a part of a joint operation with animal rights activists”. So the cancer is spreading. According to the AFP, this is the first arrest of this kind in this central African state since they instituted a law against wildlife trade in some 30 years ago. This lot of thugs are said to have their own large stash of illegal ivory.

One of the suspects had 157 ivory objects weighing more than 200 kilogrammes (440 pounds). Unfortunately, these crooks will only get 1-year jail terms each should they be found guilty, which is a ridiculously soft punishment for someone who is probably responsible for the death of tens of elephants, if not hundreds.

Experts say some 38,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks. Most believe that the upsurge in poaching in recent months is due to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) decision to allow the southern African states of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe(!) to sell their ivory stockpile to the highest bidder in China and Japan. It is believed this prompted a spike in the illegal market for ivory, which, needless to say, is responsible for the upsurge in poaching.

I personally blame CITES for the mess that is ivory poaching. It is difficult and expensive to trace the origin of ivory, especially after it has been worked. What logic did they use to agree to the one-off auction of ivory?

Unless the illegal trade in ivory is completely stumped out, nobody should sell an ounce (or a milligram) of this item. In my opinion, there should not be any ivory trade at all, whether it is properly controlled or not.

Besides, what do humans need ivory for? If humans truly needed ivory, then God (or evolution) would have equipped them with a fine long pair each.

Tags: Africa, China, CITES, elephant, Ivory, KWS, poaching, wildlife

2 responses so far

Category: Kenya, National Parks and protected areas, Poisoning wildlife, big cats, conservation, furadan, national parks, poaching, predators, wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 29 2009 | By: paula

We are pleased to discover that we are not alone in our concern about the poisoning of lions with Furadan and it’s impact on Kenya. This is an email sent by Jake Grieves Cook to all in the tourism industry in Kenya.

There are 2 main reasons why lion numbers are declining in Kenya:

1. Human-wildlife conflict - spearing by herders and poisoning with FURADAN:

Lions are usually not very welcome in areas used for grazing livestock by pastoralists such as Maasai cattle herders. As a result lions are often speared when they go into these grazing areas and especially after they have killed livestock. The pesticide FURADAN is banned in many countries but is widely available in Kenya and is used by pastoralists to poison carcasses of livestock killed by predators. The predators return to the carcass and are killed by the poison. This can get into the food chain as any animal consuming the dead predators are also killed, from jackals to vultures.It is also poisoning people, see link below:

http://stopwildlifepoisoning.wildlifedirect.org/2009/03/06/detoxication-of-furadan

For more on Furadan click on the link below:

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=furadan+lions&aq=3&oq=furadan+&aqi=g10

As well as deliberate poisoning, some lions have been lost through accidental poisoning. One of the leading lodges in the Mara was using Furadan as a pesticide on its vegetable garden. Last year a hippo died after eating the vegetables sprayed with Furadan. Then a pride of lions died after eating the hippo. Then hyenas and vultures died after eating the lions. And so it went on…

2. Loss of habitat

Many wilderness areas which were formerly inhabited by herbivores and predators such as lions have been turned into farmland and are no longer available as wildlife habitat. In the outer Mara area there has been fragmentation of land with sub-division into small individually owned parcels.

See the map below of the Koiyaki and Ol Kinyei areas of the outer Mara divided into hundreds of 150 acre parcels:

The loss of habitat means that lions are no longer able to move freely around these areas as they did before and there is no longer availability of large numbers of wild herbivores which form their normal prey. So lion numbers decline.

SOLUTIONS

However there is a way that tourism can combat the decline of lions. This is by establishing wildlife conservancies on land owned by the local communities adjacent to parks. If the local landowners can earn a better economic return from their land from wildlife conservation than they can from cultivation or from keeping livestock then they will be ready to set up wildlife conservancies. They do not need to turn all their land into wildlife preserves but a community with over 150,000 acres, such as the former Maasai group ranches, could set aside 20% as wildlife conservancy and keep 80% for livestock grazing. I have been involved with the setting up of 3 community-owned wildlife conservancies over the last 12 years: Selenkay Conservancy in the Amboseli eco-system and Olare Orok and Ol Kinyei conservancies in the Mara. See maps below:

SELENKAY CONSERVANCY OL KINYEI & OLARE OROK

We have had great success with our 3 conservancies and have been given very enthusiastic support by the local communities who own the land on which we have established the conservancies. Since the conservancies were set up, wildlife has increased substantially, in sharp contrast to the surrounding areas. We have 2 American researchers based at Selenkay who have collared a female lion and have been tracking her pride. Two lionesses there have both had cubs. In our 2 conservancies in the Mara we have several resident prides of lions and estimates are that over 30% of all the adult lions in the Mara eco-system are now resident in Olare Orok and Ol Kinyei. Our lion numbers are increasing…

You might be interested in watching 2 short TV clips of a couple ofminutes eachon the links below:

The first is a BBC clip about a recent report by researchers on declines in wildlife numbers in the Mara eco-system but which also highlighted the success of the community wildlife conservancies with which we are involved at Ol Kinyei and Olare Orok within the same Mara eco-system. All the wildlife footage was shot in our two conservancies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8129816.stm

The second is a clip from local KTN TV which highlights the two conservancies:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PT7c8LPxHM

Below are a couple of pics, taken on a night game drive recently by wildlife photographer Paolo Torchio, of our resident lions in Ol Kinyei.

There is no doubt that total lion numbers are declining in Kenya. The answer is to ban the use of FURADAN and also to encourage the establishment of more conservancies. Now the government tax authority says it wants to charge VAT on the conservancy fees! Not exactly encouraging…

Kind regards

Jake

**********************
Jake Grieves-Cook
Managing Director
Gamewatchers Safaris
P O Box 388
00621-Village Market, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254-(0)20-7123129, 7122504, 7121851
Fax: +254-(0)20-7120864
Website: www.porini.com
Email: jake@gamewatchers.co.ke

Tags: conservaiton, endangered species, furadan, Kenya, Lion, Lions, Maasai, Masai Mara, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Africa, Kenya, Lions, Mara Triangle, Pride of Kenya, poaching, predators, wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 27 2009 | By: paula

Kenya’s lions are in trouble. Over 30,000 lions once prowled the wildlands of Kenya, today only 2100 are left! About 70 lions die each year after eating carcasses laced with deadly pesticides.

So what has a pink lion got to do with conservation? Well, if you haven’t guessed it already - the poisoning of lions using the pesticide carbofuran (Furadan) is thought to be the main cause for the decline of our lions, and it could push Kenya’s tiny population over the brink and into extinction.

The first thing you notice is that the Androcles lion is painted magenta pink.

It’s the colour of the brand Furadan, which is made in USA by the firm FMC and is distributed by Juanco SPS in Kenya.

Every lion in Kenya is estimated to be worth US$ 1 million. This is why the Androcles lions mane is made up of a thick layer of cash (photocopied money under permission from the Central Bank of Kenya). Money is also why lions are endangered, the commercial value of carbofuran is one of the main reaons why this dangerous poisonous product is being sold in Kenya. After realising that Furadan is killing lions, FMC said they have withdrawn Furadan from East Africa - but it’s still available in shops in Kenya and Uganda.

The Androcles lion is bound in a silver chain, each link is labeled, with the impacts of the chain reaction caused by this pesticide. On farms it kills insects, which are eaten by rodents, birds and small mammals. Hippos, antelopes, cattle and other wildlife eat the crops covered in Furadan and when they die, vultures, hyenas and other scavengers eat the carcasses and in turn they get poisoned. Many animals die from deliberate poisoning including lions, eagles, wading birds, and animals deemed to be pests like baboons, moles, stray dogs and rats. Some birds and even fish are poisoned for human consumption - so Furadan also threatens humans. Dino Martins has told us that bees and many other valuable insects are especially vulnerable to this deadly pesticide.

Although carbofuran sold in Kenya, it is made in USA where its use has been banned there due to its deadly effects on wildlife. To break the chain we must ban carbouradan in Kenya, Africa and the world (Carbofuran is currently banned in the EU and the EPA has revoked all tolerances for carbofuran in USA).

The Androcles lion will stand on a concrete base at the Yaya shopping center in Hurlingham just a stones throw from the offices of WidlifeDirect. The base will be covered in crushed purple glass, just like the purple granules of the pesticide. Carbofuran granules are purple but is hardly visible when sprinkled on a carcass. It has no taste or smell, it kills anything that eats the carcass, including lions, hyenas, jackals, and vultures. It only takes a few granules of Furadan sprinkled on a cow carcass to kill an entire pride of lions.

We owe so many people BIG thank you’s

1. Peter Greste for taking the lovely photos
2. The BBC Network Africa for airing the story on World News!
3. David Mascal a lion lover like no other - for the roar - you’ll hear it soon!
4. Boy Genius Tonee Ndungu who is creating something we can’t talk about yet
5. Elizabeth Klem, MD of the Yaya Center who gratiously agreed to host the Androcles lion for the next 2 months
6. The Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya who approved the wild idea of using photocopied Kenyan currency on the lions mane (yes it’s illegal without permission)
7. The Card Center in Yaya for fabulous poster pens - we’ll tell you about those later
8. John Muturi, Val Leakey and Mr Mwangi and all the Friends of the Nairobi City Park who initially offered to host the Androcles lion. It wasn’t possible this time - but perhaps next time?
9. Jake Grieves Cook for donation of a prize - weekend for two at a luxury camp in Masai Mara - we’ll tell you about the raffle later
10. Alice and Wanja of the Born Free Foundation for their patience and amazing tolerance - you guys are amazing

and most of all

THANK YOU MARY COLLIS - an amazing Kenyan woman who worked 24/7 to get the Androcles Lion ready on time.

Del.icio.us : , Androcles, lion, lions, wildlifedirect
Technorati : , Androcles, lion, lions, wildlifedirect

Tags: Androcles, Lion, Lions, wildlifedirect

19 responses so far

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

No responses yet

Category: Africa, Emergency appeals, Ivory, bushmeat, chimpanzee, drought, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade, wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 05 2009 | By: Maina

In the past week or so, our bloggers have been reporting some tough situations in their areas of work. From death of elephants to financial crises and other ravages of drought and the global economic crisis.

CERCOPAN of Nigeria were last week tittering on the edge of a financial cliff as they needed to raise US$ 3,333 in order to keep their premises and continue rescuing primates caught up in the deep rooted west African bushmeat trade. They launched an appeal for funds and WildlifeDirect has been helping them spread the word. As of today, they had raised US$1395 which is quite impressive. They however need some US$1,938 before the end of August to secure the 120 primates’ only place of sanctuary from the bushmeat insanity.

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) on Kenya is also facing a crisis with some of the most known African Elephants in the world starting to die because of the severe drought that is bringing Kenya and other east African states to their knees. They have lost valuable matriachs - and old friends - such as Echo, Grace, Isis, Leticia, Lucia, Odile, Ulla and Xenia in the last 1 year.  Echo, Isis, Leticia and Ulla have been matriarchs of their families since the 1970s. But the human hand is also dealing a blow to elephant conservation.

Poaching is taking out the large bulls. In the last 10 days three more big males have been killed. One, Ebenezer, had his tusks cut out with a power saw. That should send a warning alarm to wildlife authorities in Africa - today’s poachers are more advanced in their brutality.

To fight these poachers, ATE has supported two ranger bases in Amboseli area. Now they need a third and need to raise US$ 10,000 to fund building the base and to keep it running. Please help them.

The bushmeat trade in western Africa is really messy and two young victims of this grim trade have arrived at Tacugama in Sierra Leone. This is in addition to the three that arrived recently and all together Tacugama has in their care 96 orphaned chimps. They are, quite literally, bursting at their seems with chimp orphans. That makes it all the more needy for funds to rehabilitate these little ones until they are ready to get back into the forest and fend for themselves. You would help them wouldn’t you?

While all this is going on, we at WildlifeDirect want to keep this channel open so that you and your friends can respond to these emergencies and day to day needs of the wildlife of Africa, Asia and South America.  We also need your direct support so that we can pay Internet bills, electricity, rent and staff who keep these blogs working. We want you to continue enjoying the happy moments with our bloggers. To laugh with them, and to cry with them when times are hard. After all, you don’t want to wake up one morning and find that there is no WildlifeDirect. I believe you would be worried about all the poor defenseless wildlife that have been benefiting from the existence of WildlifeDirect. Please don’t let this happen.

Tags: Africa, bushmeat, chimp, DRC, drought, elephants, Kenya, Nigeria, poaching, wildlife trade, wildlifedirect

3 responses so far

Category: Africa, China, Ivory, Kenya, Rhinoceros, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Jul 20 2009 | By: Maina

On Tuesday last week, Kenyan authorities seized a 300kg haul of elephant tusks and rhino horn hidden in coffins at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). This large haul, valued at approximately $ 1-million, is thought to have either come from Tanzania or South Africa and was headed for Laos. Officials of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) however speculate that the load’s final destination was indeed China, but through Laos, the de-facto ‘gateway to China’.

A previous haul of illegal ivory as reported on Baraza in April 2009

The KWS has been complaining about increasing ivory poaching since the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) allowed a one-off sale of ivory from southern Africa to China and Japan.  The entry of China into the world trade in ivory was in itself a cause for alarm amongst many conservationists on account of what is viewed as China’s laissez-faire attitude towards wildlife - except the giant panda.  There have been reports from the KWS and other organizations in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa indicating that there is definitely a rise in poaching for ivory and rhino horn.

According to the KWS, the rise in ivory poaching is partly caused by the CITES declaration to allow minimal trade from southern Africa. They say that this declaration created the illusion that it was OK to trade in ivory. If the number of seizures of ivory being witnessed today is anything to go by, then the KWS are right: the CITES declaration is indeed responsible for this mess.

It’s not just elephant poaching that is a problem. Just the previous week, a report was made public that indicates that rhino poaching has reached a 15 year high. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, and the global conservation organization WWF, and their affiliated wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, told a CITES committee in a recent meeting that poachers in Africa and Asia are killing as many as two to three animals a week in some areas to meet a growing demand for the horns. What is more worrying is that this poaching is no longer a subsistence activity but it has now evolved into organized crime similar to cocaine and small arms rackets.

Elephants and rhinos are in a very dire situation as this new wave of wanton decimation of the majestic creatures picks up pace. We are witnessing the inevitable extinction of - in the case of the rhino - an evolutionary relic that generations upon generations of humans have marveled at; and the total loss of - in the case of the elephant - the gentle intelligent giant that has been the centre of almost all mythology.

Sentimental values aside, these are ‘keystone’ species that shape the environment that they occur in. Keeping a balance in the ecology of their habitat, and therefore determining the biological diversity of these habitats. The looming departure of these two could permanently alter ecosystems - in the most part - for the worst.

Poaching can do that, and this is going to happen in our lifetime.

A solution has to be found. We first have to stop lying to ourselves that there can be any sustainable trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn. We have seen this with our own eyes. It’s never going to happen. Having realized that, governments should tighten the noose on illegal traffic routes, cut down the poachers on sight, and increase punishment for poaching offenders. China and it’s Asian friends will need to be re-educated.

Dr Richard Leakey, while he was the head of KWS, led an elephant anti-poaching campaign back in the mid-1980s which brought down a large number of poaching rings. It has been 20 years since the symbolic burning of  12 tonnes of ivory - then worth about $3 million and from approximately 2000 dead elephants - at the height of the campaign. Today, elephant population that had dropped from 167, 000 in 1973 to a paltry 16,000 in 1989, now stand at 32,ooo. These numbers could easily start falling if nothing is done about the recent upsurge in poaching. Current wildlife officials could learn from this and step up the fight against poachers on the local level, while all conservationists push for the total ban on trade in ivory and rhino horn.

The symbolic ivory burning in 1989

Again, China and the Asian world that still believes that rhino horn has medicinal value, and carvings from elephant ivory  are ‘cute’, needs re-education.

Tags: Africa, Asia, burning ivory, China, CITES, elephant, Ivory, KWS, poaching, rhino, rhino horn, richard leakey, wildlife trade

8 responses so far

Category: Africa, chimpanzee, enforcement, poaching | Date: May 19 2009 | By: admin

Here is a disturbing note from our friends in wildlife enforcement in Cameroon
Dear Supporters,

Warm greetings from Cameroon.

On Thursday a long term LAGA investigation resulted in the successful arrest of an Italian director of a logging company for illegal detention of three chimps and other illegal wildlife trophies. Relentlessly fighting corruption, we insured the foreign national getts behind bars, we monitor the prison cell every few hours, to secure justice is served rather than bought out.

**********************************
LAGA
The Last Great Ape Organization

Wildlife Law Enforcement

Tel: +237-99651803

Website: www.LAGA-enforcement.org
**********************************

Tags: Cameroon, chimpanzee, corruption, illegal trade, Italian, LAGA, logging, SMK, trophies

One response so far

Category: Mara Triangle, National Parks and protected areas, conservation, poaching, wildlife, wildlifedirect | Date: May 18 2009 | By: admin

A new study has found that the Masai Mara is in a crisis. Based on an analysis of the monthly sample counts indicates that the losses were as high as 95 percent for giraffes, 80 percent for warthogs, 76 percent for hartebeest, and 67 percent for impala. Researchers say the declines they documented are supported by previous studies..” and  “Researchers found the growing human population has diminished the wild animal population by usurping wildlife grazing territory for crop and livestock production to support their families. Some traditional farming cultures to the west and southwest of the Mara continue to hunt wildlife inside the Mara Reserve, which is illegal, for food and profit.”

The report which is based on the analysis of 15 years of monthly counts for 7 species of ungulates; Cokes hartebeest, warthog, waterbuck, zebra, giraffe, impala and topi. The researchers didn’t examine the data in its raw form but manipulated it with a statistical model to illustrate the trends. In doing so, the authors claim that they were able to remove the effects of rainfall in order to highlight the individual impacts of land use, poaching, competition from cattle, range contraction and deterioration of habitat on the ungulate populations.

The graphs in this paper illustrate population trends in all 7 species. For all except zebra, populations initially decline between 1989 and 1993. This is followed by a recovery period peaking in 1995 and then further decline and stabilization until 2001/1 /. After this all species show upward trends as populations recover to 2003. The zebra population however is simply stable from the start of the study in 1989 until 2000 when it shows a dramatic increasing trend to the end of the study in 2003.

Finer detail is provided in a series of 21 graphs illustrating trends in each species giving a clearer picture of how these species numbers have changed in there different blocks of the Masai Mara Reserve. Many show a general downward trend between 1989 and July 2000, and almost all illustrate upward trends after 2000.  For the life of me I cannot find the 95% decline in giraffe in any of the blocks – the greatest decline that I can find is in block 3 where numbers of giraffe decline from 37 to 12 individuals.  That’s only a 67% decline.

The study has attracted global attention and hundreds of news articles. Here in Kenya the report caught many by surprise and prompted disbelief. One paper condemned the report as false  and at least one manager in the Mara refuted the results and said he did not know which part of the ecosystem the study actually referred to.  I spoke to the lead author, Joseph Ogutu to find out more.

Q1. Is the Masai Mara really in trouble?

Ogutu: This study found that the numbers of giraffe, warthog, impala, topi and hartebeest fell by 50% or more between 1979 and 2002. These declines were linked to rapid growth of Maasai settlements around the reserve.

Q2. Your paper documents a fantastic explosion in huts and bomas in the Koyiaki Group Ranch – some people say that this is an exaggeration.

Ogutu. We physically counted and mapped using a hand held GPS. We also used national census data which show more modest population increases. The number of homesteads or bomas increased dramatically because of the recent break up of group ranches into individual land titles. Families that once lived in small communal bomas in a large land area, have now built their own homesteads on their individual parcels of land. This multiplication of settlements has greatly increased the human footprint.

Q3. But the increasing human populations is occurring outside the reserve, how can this affect resident wildlife inside the reserve if these animals are non migratory?

Ogutu. The wildlife that are residential in the Mara Reserve are non migratory but they still move between the ranches and the Reserve seasonally. This is because the constant grazing of livestock outside the reserve keeps the grass low and nutritious in wet season. Inside the reserve the grass grows much faster than it can be consumed and gets tall and fibrous. Tall grass is not only unpalatable, it also hides the predators so grazers seek short grass for safety.  Once the wildebeest arrive on the annual migration, and after fires burn down the grass, these animals move back to the Reserve. Therefore anything that happens outside the Reserve affects what happens to migratory and resident species inside.

Q. 4 I witnessed the migration last year which was hailed as one of the best in recent years. Haven’t you guys exaggerated the situation a little?

Ogutu. Let me warn you that we are in for catastrophic declines in wildlife if we do not act now. He said that it was unfortunate that some people have challenged the study without looking at the data. If you are in the Mara Triangle you will only observe a small part of the ecosystem, and you will be oblivious of what is going on in the entire landscape. The Mara conservancy is a small section of the reserve where wild animals are increasing in number simply due to displacement of wildlife from elsewhere including the Loita plains

Q 5. Is it too late, is the Mara ecosystem collapsing? 

In the Mara Reserve some species are declining to worrying levels, but it is in the greater system Lemek Koiyaki, Loita and Siana there is a real cause for alarm” He says. According to Ogutu, we have already reached the tipping point in the northern wildebeest migration, which is restricted to Kenya. This unique but smaller migration involves the movement of wildebeest from the Mara Reserve to the Loita plains group ranches. The number of wildebeest has dropped from 120,000 – 190,000 in 1979 to fewer than 10,000 today. The wildebeest calving grounds of the Loita Plains have been ploughed, fenced and filled with cattle. Ironically, the increasing numbers of cattle have been paid for from tourism earnings.  Having studied wildlife in the Mara for 20 years now, Ogutu says that it is not clear if this northern migration exists anymore and laments that people see this everyday but nobody is saying anything about it.

Q 6. Scientists like David Western claim that the Masai way of life is wildlife friendly, your study suggests that they are villains causing to the collapse of the Mara ecosystem.

Ogutu. The traditional Masai way of life can co-exist with wildlife if their numbers and cattle do not exceed a certain density. Individual land ownership has led to the abandonment of traditional nomadic pastoralism in favour of cultivation which is now occurring right up to the Mara Reserve boundary. Subsistence farming and large scale commercial wheat farming are filling up the plains and destroying wildlife habitats, while rapidly growing developments including the settlements of Talek, Sekenani and Aitong are also blocking the migration routes. Add to this the illegal and unregulated extraction of water from the Mara river, and the destruction of the Mau forests which feeds the Mara River and we have a ticking time bomb. “Without the Mara River, the migration will cease” Ogutu warns.

Q. 7. Is it too late to save the Mara?

Ogutu. One of the most positive signs of hope is the growth in community owned wildlife conservancies. If this can be supported we can keep large parts of the the Greater Mara ecosystem open. Conservancies are becoming increasingly popular. The Masai like the conservancy idea because the land is rented by tourism companies from the individual land owners. This eliminates the corruption which was rife when dealing with elders and chiefs representing large communities on group ranches.

Q. 8 Given the economic opportunity, why have so few conservancies in the Mara ecosystem worked?

Ogutu. It’s no easy task to create a conservancy. Since the land is divided into 100 or 150 acre individually owned units, creating a conservancy needs the collective and coordinated action of numerous families. This can be difficult and slow. Nevetheless, families are signing contracts with tourism concerns. These leases typically run for up to 5 years, it is not a long enough period to ensure sustainable long term management. Longer leases would benefit both the investor and the land owner but neither side is willing to take the risk. Given what happened after the elections in 2007, investors are hesitant to accept full liability should tourism nosedive again, while families want to be assured of payments regardless of visitation.

Another problem that is holding back the speed with which conservancies are being registered, is the absence of policy framework or legal foundation for establishing private conservation areas in Kenya.  KWS, he says, provides no leadership or direction in this area, and are virtually absent on the ground.  As a result, each group ranch works independently, with little or no legal support.

Q 9. What can the world do to help the Masai participate in keeping the land open and saving the Mara and the great migration?

Ogutu. It is critical that some form of security is needed to back up or insure the land owners and investors. We need to create a trust fund to ensure the long term viability of wildlife conservancies in the greater Mara.  He is hopeful that this can happen because many people are interested in saving the Mara, and he mentioned in particular Sir Richard Branson.

After talking to Ogutu I am convinced that we have a crisis on our hands, not only in the Mara but in many of our other ecosystems too. Ogutu fears that this dismissal of the results will delay or even prevent the government from taking action. “KWS and DRSRS have been monitoring wildlife numbers for decades, but are they simply monitoring them into extinction? Why are they not analyzing trends and making the findings available to the public, the policy makers and the land owners?”

Ironically, KWS recently celebrated the launch of their new strategic plan which was proudly presented to the public by the Minister for Wildlife and the KWS Chairman who hailed it’s contribution to Kenya’s vision 2030. I asked the Director why members of the conservation community who contribute so much to the state of knowledge of wildlife in Kenya and on whose land most of Kenya’s wildlife resides, were not involved in drafting the document. He said it was done in-house but did not seem to agree that the voices of the public would have helped to create a more useful document. Amongst his strategies, he intends to improve customer service and raise park fees to improve the viability of the KWS.

I can’t help feeling that this blind business approach is why we are hemorrhaging wildlife in Kenya. No longer are wildlife or wilderness areas viewed as worth saving in their own right. Wildlife is now viewed as a commodity, something that should be paid for, and it’s assumed that only tourists appreciate it.  To everyone living outside of conservation areas, wildlife is a pest that costs $$ and should therefore be eliminated.  To unscrupulous traders wildlife anywhere, represents trophies or meat that can be sold for $$. To pastoralists and poor communities, parks are just stolen grazing or farming lands and many are fighting to have these protected areas degazetted.

There seems to be a shrinking community of Kenyans who visit wilderness areas to enjoy the peace and pleasure of unspoiled landscapes, to hike for health reasons, and who are excited by just watching zebras playing, lions greeting each other, or birds feeding their young. I can’t tell you all how sad I was to see that the new KWS strategy does not mention strategies to inspire Kenyans to care about wildlife. Instead KWS is looking to extract more money from the few Kenyans who do still go to the parks. No wonder, the KWS Director feels alone when neither the public nor businesses come out to support his proposals for greater government commitments to our wildlife heritage.

Leave a comment with your ideas, how can we turn around the situation in Kenya around. Or send me a question to ask the KWS director! What can we do to win over the general public, the communities, the government bodies and the management authorities?

Tags: Kenya, Mara Triangle, Masai Mara, migration, poaching, population crash, wildebeest, wildlifedirect

2 responses so far

Category: Ivory, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: admin

Two men were arrested on the 25th April for carrying 703 kg (1,550 lb) of elephant ivory in southern Kenya. They were traveling by vehicle in Tanzania when they were ambushed by wildlife scouts from the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association. They fled across the Kenyan border, and were caught and arrested by authorities tipped off by the scouts.

This is biggest seizure in recent times in Kenya and the ivory is valued at around 59-60 million Kenyan shillings ($750,000). The men, whose identities have not been released, appeared in a Kajiado court on Monday morning where they plead guilty. The men  face up to a year in jail.

The haul of 33 whole tusks and 57 pieces, weighing over 700kg, is believed to represent over 50 individual elephants.

The Amboseli elephants are not anonymous animals, after more than 40 years of research each elephant is individually known. The field team now fear that “some of the tusks could belong to the splendid bull Ganesh or Echo’s son, Ely, or the impressive long-tusked Theodora from the TD family that has been spending more time in Kimana than Amboseli over the last decade”.

Who killed them and how? One person claims that these elephants could be the victims of Furadan poisoning. This is one of several indicators that ivory trade is on the rise as is elephant poaching in Kenya, Asia and Congo. Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Trust for Elephant have been reporting alarming increases in poaching in the Amboseli ecosystem. We believe that this is all in response to the lifting of the ban on trade in ivory, and the one off sale that took place in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia in November last year.

Harvey Croze of ATE writes that “it appears that our concerns have been vindicated when Cynthia reported in February on increased poaching for ivory in Amboseli. Perhaps now authorities will take seriously the twin threat to Africa’s elephants: the one-off sale of ivory from southern African stockpiles to China, combined with the presence of Chinese roadgangs in the ecosystem”.

It is depressing that these two men face only a year in jail for one of the biggest seizures of ivory in Kenya. Their sentence will hardly dampen the demand or reduce the incentives for many who are greedy for ivory. We have it on good authority (from someone who wishes to remain anonymous), that the ivory was being transported in a vehicle owned by a powerful person. Until these bigger people are brought to justice, the poachers, and small time dealers will continue. The challenge is how to catch and prosecute these powerful, and politically connected big shots.

Four questions for you to think about

Kenya currently holds over 35 tons of ivory in her strong rooms - for some this represents fantastic commercial value, to us they represent death and destruction.

Q1. Do you think it is time we revive the ban on trade in ivory?

Q2. Do you think we should aggressively resume pursuing the perpetrators of this cruel trade?

Q3. Will you help us to raise awareness and demand for better protection for all elephants?

Q4. What should Kenya do with the 35 tons of stockpiled ivory?

Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Tags: Amboseli, Cynthia Moss, elephant poaching, Ivory, ivory trade, Kenya, KWS, poaching, Tanzania

17 responses so far

Category: chimpanzee, enforcement, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 20 2009 | By: admin

Friends,

I just received this email with good news from Congo Brazzaville that I wanted to share with you.  There are times when we get very depressed about the situation facing wildlife in Africa but then there are times when we realise that there is good reason for hope.

Paula

Deal all,

The Brazzaville court has passed the first sentence against a wildlife
dealer. The dealer (a chimp dealer arrested in December 2008) has to
stay one year in prison (plus three months since December) and pay
1,100,000 Fcfa.

We hope this first case against a wildlife dealer in Republic of Congo
will help us for the several next ones (nine cases since September
plus one in May 2009).

We have to thank the LAGA NGO (and especially its Director Ofir Drori
and one of his assistant Josias Sipehouo) for their help, the great
work they did and the motivation they gave. The PALF (Projet d’Appui à
l’Application de la Loi sur la Faune Sauvage), managed by The Aspinall
Foundation and WCS, have received a support (15,000 US Dollars) from
UNEP and now from USFWS (almost 50,000 US Dollars). The PALF has also
received an official support from the Ministry of Forest Economy and
the partnership is working.

We will progressively have to develop its activities in the whole
Republic of Congo.

Sincerely,
–
Luc Mathot
Coordonnateur

Fondation Aspinall
www.totallywild.net
Projet Protection des Gorilles - Congo
www.ppg-congo.org
13977 Brazzaville

Tags: bushmeat, chimpanzee, Great apes, LAGA, Ofir, poaching, Republic of Congo, wildlife trade, wildlifedirect

One response so far