Mar 13 2008
Militias, mercenaries, and doomsday arks
I was recently asked about my opinion regarding the use of armed forces in conservation. Afterwards I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The question was something like this
“Do you advocate for the use of arms by wildlife conservation personnel”
“Of course I do!” I shot (easy, next question)
I reminded the interviewer that over 150 Congo rangers have lost their lives in the line of duty. Rangers in Congo face poachers and rebels all the time. Their jobs are extremely dangerous. How could you send a ranger un-armed into rebel infiltrated regions? It would be suicide.
I don’t know what it’s like in USA, Australia or Europe, but in most parts of Africa, poachers are armed with AK47’s to hunt elephants, rhinos, hippos and other big game. Sometimes they are only after meat, often they are going for valuable trophies. It’s a no brainer. Of course the rangers must be armed to defend themselves and yes, sometimes the poachers get shot and sometimes they die.
But the next part of the conversation made me wonder if I’d been too quick to answer. Maybe I’m not seeing things clearly, from all angles. Is it right to send armed men out into the wilderness or does this up the ante?
The interviewer turned to a topic that I found particularly hard to digest. The concept that we Africans are doing such a bad job in conservation that a number of charismatic species in Africa may be on the brink of extinction because of the threats posed by poachers. :
“African rangers, armed or not, were obviously not effective to stop the killings of gorillas” that’s what I thought he was implying.
“What do you think about the possibilities of employing foreign paid mercenaries to come in and clean up?”
“What?” My mind spins. “What on earth would mercenaries do in Africa?” I asked
“Well, protect the wildlife against armed militias like in Congo, don’t you think they could save the last mountain gorillas?”
My brain was screaming but I kept a cool voice
“No, not at all, in fact any organization that thinks sending mercenaries to Africa is a solution, obviously does not have a clue about the situation on the ground”.
I turned the image upside down.
“Imagine African mercenaries deployed in USA to save the last few wolves. Would THAT be acceptable? Of course not” – or at least I don’t think so.
At WildlifeDirect we come across some weird people and weird thoughts all the time. Here are some hair brained ideas – or are they?
There’s a plan afoot to create a mountain gorilla sanctuary in Hawaii where they claim it “is a vital step towards saving the species from imminent extinction”.
David Attenborough is involved in a 50 million dollar project to save Britains butterflies - I love him but isn’t Britain going to be too warm for these species in a few years?
A doomsday ark is being built on the moon - or is at least planned.
A doomsday vault of frozen seeds has been built in a mountain side in Norway
I find it s rather depressing, all this doomsday talk and planning. Should we really be investing so much in doomsday scenarios? Shouldn’t we be doing our damnest now - investing in the natural ranges where these species occur?
Is there really NO reason for hope?
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