Baraza

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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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

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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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

To all our friends, donors, readers, supporters all of us at WildlifeDirect would like to wish you a very happy July 4th  Independence day!

We hope you are having wild and fun celebrations and we look forward to hearing what you did to celebrate the Birthday of USA! I’m going to miss the fireworks!

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Tags: America, Independence Day

Earlier this month I received a wonderful colourful bundle of letters for Owen, Mzee, Stephen, Toto and me from children in grades 2 and 3 of Plainseville Primary school in Ontario Canada. In a cover note, their teacher, Mrs Holden told me that they had made a donation to WildlfieDirect.

This note is to thank the children of Plainseville Schoool and especially Mrs. Holden. Here are some of the adorable letters and pictures. I feel like this is an early birthday present.

Thank you all so much!

I hope we find Owen Saubion too!

Amazing artwork - I’m going to keep it on my office wall!

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This is a quick note to thank you to everyone for your amazing contributions to this blog. Your support has enabled us to train a number of new bloggers and keep up the blogger support services which is so vital to the success of WildlifeDirect.  We’ve been working especially hard to keep up on training and support for key emergency projects like the Masai Mara and the Gorillas. I hope you have all noticed our new widget? It shows who we have received funds from. So Asante sana wote (thank you everyone!).

I know you are all waiting to hear the podcast - I am editing it now - I know you will have a good laugh as well as get a real sense of what  it’s like to go out on a gorilla hike. I’ve got to do it properly so please be patient  I’m juggling so much while in Rwanda that editing takes a back seat while I finish a major grant proposal!

Cheers, Paula

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I had to pull out my camera when I found myself behind this matatu….I wonder what Obama thinks about being branded on the backs of the public transport in Nairobi!

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Tags: Kenya, matatu, Obama

Hello everyone, this is Paula writing from a hotel called the Gorillas Nest. Its nestled in the Volcanoes mountains - and its cold! I’m here with a team from USA and Rwanda including children, film makers, story tellers, and donors (including Craig Hatkoff, folk from Tribeca Film Festival (they ahve helped create the Rwanda Film Festival), Eric a Rwanan film maker who made 100 days (a must see about the genocide),  and the kids who made the Owen and Mzee hipposodes. We are here to attend the Kwita Izina Gorilla naming ceremony and to do some animation with Rwandan children.

Excuse me for the sleepy nature of this post, it is 6.30 am, birds are screaming, and the sun has just emerged casting  a red tone on the mist shrouded mountains, an the coffee is only only just starting to permeate my veins. I came with  Dino from Dudu Diaries who is identifying rare birds and giant mosquitoes so expect some bizarre posts in coming days from the two of us. We are all so excited - last night we met the Director General of ORTPN the conservation authority here - she, YES She!!! is young, beautiful and amazing. Today is the gorilla naming ceremony and tomorrow we go gorilla trekking!

We are taking photos and will create a podcast too - keep your eyes open for more from us

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Dear friends,

We now have 4 volunteers for our bloggers who will be helping bloggers. Thank you all so much!

I want to use this post to draw attention to the horrific situation in  Zimbawe which makes it very hard for our bloggers there to operate. I’m referring specifically to  Lisa Hywood who has informed us that the situation for the Tikky Hywood Trust is critical. They urgently need our help to make the blog a success.

Due to the dangers of being too open, she cannot reveal the kind of information we would probably want to read. Believe me when I say that the situation is tough.

So, I’m looking for a virtual volunteer  to help Lisa get more attention and raise more awareness about her work saving 7 of Africa’s very interesting species including the very strange pangolins (which are one of my personal favorites).

If you  have blogging experience, know how to use Facebook, Myspace and other social networking tools, and if you have a few hours a week to help  we want to hear from you!

Kind regards

Paula

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