Baraza

Category: Gorillas | Date: May 08 2008 | By: admin

I hope that this is a hoax,  apparently someone is trying to sell baby gorillas online in Cameroon.

http://www.bikudo.com/product_search/details/43204/west_african_gorillas.html

Given that we only just got the Taiping 4 back home, this seems foolishly daring, but I’m not taking any chances and have alerted the Lusaka Task Force. Does anyone have any other ideas about how to get to the bottom of this?

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Category: Emergencies | Date: Feb 13 2008 | By: admin

Recent posts on WildlifeDirect are very disturbing for conservationists. I also want to draw attention to several burning issues that we really need to work on if we are to make a difference in conservation in Africa.

The bushmeat trade may be an important source of protein and cash for communities living in and around protected areas. It is threatening many species such as the bonobo as revealed in the Lola ya bonobo blog today and in Ashley Vospers blog on Lomami. Some of our bloggers have said ‘it’s not a good day’ …hopefully by bringing you the facts from the ground, you will be better informed and able to make a decision about how to make a personal difference.

The importance of wildlife and natural resources to humans often causes conflicts. The charcoal trade in many parts of Africa, supply much needed domestic energy for cooking and heating. Through the ending charcoal blog we hope to find and test solutions to the use of charcoal in Congo, that can be applied anywhere in Africa. We are especially excited that this blog is a collaboration between two people in different continents who are working together! That is the spirit of community building that we are proud to promote.

We keep hearing stories about poison as a means of killing wildlife ‘pests’ and predators. We’ve heard about it in Kenya where it affects vultures, lions, elephants and primates, as well as in Uganda, Congo and southern Africa. In fact, the more we look the more we see. We have decided to do something about it so look out for a new blog on wildlife poisoning by bringing news from different sources to one place as a forum for discussion, for planning and tackling this cruel and deadly. And it’s not all bad news. In India, scientists and conservationists working with political and legal people were able to ban some of the most lethal drugs that were causing die-offs of vultures. We believe we can achieve it in Africa too.

Several of our bloggers have also revealed to us the scale of illegal wildlife trade that is going on in Africa. Trade in wildlife is sometimes for consumption, but is often for supplying the pet and ornamental trade like parrots, frogs, snakes, orchids, monkeys and insects in the west and Near and Far Eastern countries, as well as for commercial products and ornaments, (eg. Timber, ivory, rhino horn, insects and hippo teeth), medicine and pharmaceuticals, and we have heard that many primates are illegally traded for the biomedical research.

How does this happen when there are wildlife authorities in these countries both Africa and Europe and USA? Well, the business is worth billions, so “corruption” is a key word here. In addition, some countries are not members of important treaties like CITES the convention on trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. Some countries don’t have trained customs officers, and identifying some part of an animal, or a small frog is often impossible with out the right tool or training.

Sometimes illegal trade is going on right under the authorities noses – the official forms are filled correctly but with garbage information that nobody checks. For example, in 2005 Uganda allegedly legally exported over 1 ton of hippo teeth from wild sources – I doubt that Uganda doesn’t have enough hippos to provide this – it probably came from Congo where hippo populations have collapsed due to illegal trade.

Someone has to do something.

We can help those interested in ‘revealing’ what’s happening in order to raise attention in source and market countries. We will receive information through our normal emails and info@wildlifedirect.org, and post it to keep you informed. We’d appreciate your interest and action whenever there’s need.

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Category: WildlifeDirect news | Date: Nov 27 2007 | By: admin

Paula here … in the office enjoying an ant free experience (which Ephrem, Dipesh and others could kill for right now).

Today I was sent a very disturbing story that I’d like to share. Actually the entire week has been disturbing already, and it’s only Tuesday! I’ll start with the story…

Dino of Dudu Diary sent me link to an extraordinary story – it reminded me that as much as we love and try to preserve our different cultures, it can get you into legal problems. Take this story by Tom Hays for example … it’s about a lady of Liberian decent who has been importing monkeys meat and bones (among other things) into USA – it seems that she has been doing it for many many years. I shudder to think about how many monkeys have died for the cultural and religious purposes of the African diaspora in USA and Europe. You can read it here

How could you even think about eating someone who tickles you?

I love the fact that she may get 5 years for this offense (If laws were like this in Africa we might not be losing so much wildlife) .. .but I can’t help wondering about the justice system. She’s currently serving a 2 year sentence for trying to run over a woman who she suspected of sleeping with her husband. 2 years for attempted murder, 5 for importing monkey meat….Hmmm……

Is it me, or is there something odd about this?

Talking of cars and running over things, I have another bit of bad news is about Masumi and Will who are doing a safari at the coast – helping our existing and new bloggers. Dipesh and others have described the roads (or lack of) in Congo where road traffic is dangerous … but then we don’t have to go far….

We have our own home grown flying coffins….Kenyan matatus (read over-loaded public transport system driven usually by a mad man who may or may not be intoxicated). Will was driven off the road by a crazy matatu driver who was overtaking another crazy matatu driver and basically hogging the entire road.

To save his life he pulled off the road and ate a sign board…. this minor accident could have been deadly… (well, the car is pretty messed up and may consider itself to be in Intensive Care) but there were no human injuries. The matatu drivers drove on - ignoring Will - though many other people came to his rescue.

Dealing with the police has been a major headache but it’s all sorted now (call it an education). I’m sure we will give a full update of this safari complete photos once Will and Masumi catch their breath.

It’s only 2 pm but Juliet of the Northern Rangelands Trust has also just reminded us that eating monkeys is not the only wildlife problem … we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us if we are to tackle the poisoning of predators which may be one of the biggest challenges that these animals face in Africa today. We will be letting you know about this new campaign quite soon. The pictures may shock you so for now I’ll leave you with a happy one…

We should learn from our cousins and play more!

The sun is shining outside, monkeys are playing and there is never a dull moment in this office….. I had a good chuckle at Dipesh’s expense today… his computer has died due to a virus called Kibaki. He’s a very quiet guy so you may not know that Mr. Mwai Emilio Kibaki is our current president, but he is fighting vigorously for re-election which is an extremely dirty business that will be held in less than a month. He’s doing an Obama on us and has a website (WOW!!!) but sadly for him it is infecting anyone who dares visit it…… Why weren’t the ministers this innovative and effective when in office?

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