Baraza

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: Hells Gate, Kenya, National Parks and protected areas, Snares, wildlife | Date: Jun 03 2009 | By: admin

March 29th 2009, from high above the cliff opposite the famous landmark, Fischers tower, when looking straight down, a strange tan rock like object with four, spindly and narrow branch like appendages extending from the right side lay motionless on the plain below. Could it be a carcass? The position and overall appearance of the object looked far too obscure to be one. Perhaps it is just a rock.

A couple of hours later driving in the park, my friend and I stopped the car on the track closest to a conspicuous fig tree with roots anchored between a large boulder, splitting the once complete mass into segments. The object we could see from the cliff turned out to be a hartebeest carcass, nothing unusual there except when you are standing right above it. A thick wire was wrapped several times around one horn and extended outward, the entire length of the carcass. The bizarre, contorted position of the hartebeest could now be explained by the presence of the wire. The carcass was so far decomposed, that all that was left was the hide. There was no evidence of the internal contents.

Perturbed by the sight of what looked to be a snare and the obvious neglect of the park authorities and rangers we walked closer toward the rocky outcrop facing the magnificent fig tree. Why hadn’t the park rangers taken the carcass for analysis, what was it doing lying out in plain sight of all the park tourists, right next to a track? What had happened to the hartebeest? If it was snared for bushmeat why was it still left there?

There was litter lying around on the rock, graffiti and someone had painstakingly chipped off a portion of the granite from the top. Our confusion quickly progressed into anger at careless and disrespectful tourists for defacing the park and the lack of supervision by the park authorities.

Further to the carcass lying out on the plain, I stumbled upon a tree adjacent to the rock with the graffiti, where another hartebeest carcass had been intentionally wrapped around the trunk of the tree with the same kind of wire attached to the first carcass. Frantically looking around the site for some kind of explanation I saw some used and filthy gloves anchored by a rock, acting as a weight. The gloves were on a rocky outcrop directly in front of the tree. It must have taken more than one person to accomplish securing a full size hartebeest carcass to a tree. At the base of the tree was a severed hartebeest head and it did not come from either of the two wire entangled ones, as each had the head attached. Neither of us could understand what was going on. It was most bizarre, to say the least. Was this some kind of research? What kind of research would be so twisted? Are the park authorities aware that there is something so disturbing in plain view of anyone who visits the park? What sort of an impression is this creating?

The ranger or warden at the gate could not tell us what was going on. He looked at the photos and repeatedly confirmed the location where we encountered this was the ‘green tree’. He did not know of any research groups working around that area. It was quite a miserable effort on the parks behalf to assure us that someone was going to look into it. His manner was rather nonchalant.

I asked some of my colleagues at WildlifeDirect for their interpretation of the photographs. It seems like leopard baiting is the most plausible. Whether for research conducted by scientists or poachers, it is unclear. If it were for research, how were the hartebeest carcasses obtained? Were they killed by someone for this purpose or did the hartebeest die of natural causes and their carcasses used as bait? By whom? Does KWS know? Have they consented to such research, if it is indeed the reason? I want some answers. There is no procedure I am aware off where a visitor to any Kenyan National Park can file a formal complaint that is documented and given a response to. It seems to be upon the discretion of park visitors to report any incidences witnessed inside KWS protected areas. So much information is lost that way. There were also illegal cattle grazing at the southern end of the park on the far end of buffalo circuit, something I have seen year upon year but no action seems to be taken against such activities. They have been reported informally at the gate several times.
What do you think the hartebeest scenario looks like? Some answers and/or explanations to this would be welcome.

Tags: bushmeat, Hartebeest Carcass, Hells Gate, Kenya, KWS, national parks, Snare

5 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 26 2009 | By: paula

As WildlifeDirect we often find ourselves receiving and sharing information that authorities do not want to hear. This has happened recently over the poisoning of wildlife using Furadan as well as over the deepening bushmeat crisis facing – both issues affecting wildlife in Kenya.

I guess we should expect questions and concerns, to verify our data etc, but to be outright dismissed? That was not what we expected.

I ignored all those who said ‘watch your back’. After all, we live in a democratic country with excellent freedom of press in Kenya.

Nevertheless, I can now report that despite our communications with some government regulators, we are not getting any positive constructive response, indeed we are being told to lay off. In the last few days I have even been personally harassed and threatened which makes me think one of two things.

1. We are on the right track to have upset some people so badly

2. It is even more important that we stay the course as a member of a large community of conservationists who are witnessing threats to wildlife and are willing to raise concerns and do something about it. But, we need to be very careful. It’s not uncommon for ‘accidents’ to affect people who stick their necks out in this country

Needless to say last night I went to bed feeling rather angry at the short sightedness of our government authorities, and frightened for the first time. I didn’t want to make this statement on the blog, but feel that I should make are record of it though I will not name the institution or individuals involved.

But I will reiterate what I’ve been saying all along, we need open and constructive dialogue between the conservation community and government agencies, after all, we are all on the same side and have the same objectives, that is to save wildlife and wild places.I’m happy to say that at least FMC, the manufacturers of Furadan did come to us to discuss our concerns even if we disagreed on some points. That dialogue helped us to understand each others concerns.

Tags: bushmeat, conservation, FMC, furadan, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS, wildlife, wildlifedirect

7 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

Category: Forests, bushmeat, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Nov 17 2008 | By: Maina

A US geneticist from the University of Arizona is planning to use DNA testing to study the roaring bushmeat trade in west Africa with a view of identifying “species that can be harvested sustainably”.

According to a report on KTar.com, the geneticist, Hans-Werner Herrmann, will analyze the bushmeat at village markets, track how it got there and study how the information could be used to better manage affected wildlife populations. He hopes that finding species that can be hunted sustainably will curtail poaching and halt wildlife decimation particularly in African forests.

According to Herrmann, rural Africans are driven into bushmeat hunting and trade by extreme poverty and he cannot just say it is bad to hunt without answering the poverty question.

Roughly 1 million tonnes of bushmeat are harvested in the badly ravaged African forests. a CIFOR report that Dr Richard Leakey felt had erred in its recommendations says that 80% of proteins and fats in rural Africans’ diets come from bushmeat. This is a big problem and solutions to bushmeat hunting need to be found before all wildlife becomes extinct.

The study will involve African researchers in Cameroon taking DNA samples from bushmeat in the markets, and sending it to Arizona for analysis and identification. They will then track how the meat got to the market and study how the information can be used to help in management of the affected wildlife populations.

How useful this study will be is subject to debate. Particularly, when they find wildlife species that they perceive to be “bushmeat viable”, does it mean that they will recommend legalization of bushmeat hunting? Perhaps we need this research to prove that there is no way bushmeat can be harvested sustainably.

There are three things that make sustainable hunting virtualy impossible: one, there is not enough wildlife, two, there are too many humans on the planet, and three, our African governments have problems implementing anti-poaching legislation. To me, these are the fundamental questions: not whether wildlife can be harvested sustainably.

Perhaps the researchers - who by the way have applied for a $1-million from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) for the study - should use these funds to find out how we can prevent the malignant human population growth from overrunning the planet and all wild things that live in it. Better still, these funds could be used to find alternatives sources of protein and income (poverty reduction) for the rural poor in Africa. Alternatives that are not bushmeat.

For wildlife populations to recover, and to avoid imminent mass extinctions, all manner of wildlife trade needs to be stopped - at the very least, as a precaution. We don’t really understand wildlife population dynamics that well to sustainably use it. We haven’t yet fathomed the complex interaction between humans and wildlife to say that we are in control of hunting and trade.

We know a few things though. One, bushmeat hunting has already resulted in the empty forest syndrome, where the forest vegetation is relatively intact but no wild animals live there. Two, governments have good legislation intended to control bushmeat poaching but implementation is weak. Three, losing our wildlife is not good for the planet.

With these truths in mind, perhaps what we need is to stop all human-centric arguments that perpetuate eating of wildlife and start focusing on finding ways to improve wildlife’s welfare.

Tags: Africa, bushmeat, CIFOR, DNA, extinction, forest, hunting, richard leakey, UNEP, University of Arizona, wildlife, wildlife trade

8 responses so far

Category: Climate change, wildlife trade | Date: Oct 11 2008 | By: Maina

In a previous post in this blog, Paula reminded us that destroying the environment is far worse than the collapse of banking and other financial services that we are witnessing worldwide. But climate change, accelerated by the same factors that are contributing to loss of biodiversity, has an uglier face that could lead to further economic disasters.

A report produced by a team from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Global Health Program and presented at the ongoing IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain shows that climate change is not just a problem of rising sea level and melting ice-caps. Climate change, according to the report, will also bring with it the plague of emerging infectious diseases such as Lyme disease, yellow fever, plague, avian influenza, Ebola, cholera, and tuberculosis which have crippling economic consequences.

Reportedly, these diseases, which can be transmitted from wildlife to humans, could reach cataclysmic levels as climate change continues to ravage this planet. The WCS has selected 12 out of the 600 ailments that are shared between humans and animals and labeled them the Deadly Dozen because of their immense human health risk. There are 14,000 recorded ailments but the 600 are known to infect both humans and wildlife.

As climate change affects temperature and precipitation patterns and levels, wildlife is being forced to change their migratory patterns, their habitat ranges and other population behaviors. Pathogen carriers, such as ticks and mosquitoes, are also expanding their ranges to areas where the resident animals and humans have not evolved any defense mechanisms against the pathogens attacks. In short, diseases are coming into areas where no one is prepared to deal with them.

Wildlife, in their resident ecosystems, have evolved with their pathogens and therefore have mechanisms to limit disease prevalence such that there are hardly any epidemics. Where the hand of climate change has played havoc to the ecosystem, there may be new pathogens or the old pathogens may be favored by - say - warmer temperatures thus becoming more successful. This could lead to epidemics.

The health experts at WCS believe that programmes to monitor the health of wildlife could act as early warning systems that can help prevent the outbreaks of epidemics among humans. An example is the Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance (GAINS) programme which monitors the movement of bird flu through wild bird populations around the world. Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT3), a champion for the GAINS Program, is quoted in the WCS website saying that “Emerging infectious diseases are a major threat to the health and economic stability of the world.” She adds that “What we’ve learned from WCS and the GAINS Program is that monitoring wildlife populations for potential health threats is essential in our preparedness and prevention strategy and expanding monitoring beyond bird flu to other deadly diseases must be our immediate next step.”

Monitoring wildlife thus becomes important. But to monitor wildlife, such wildlife must exist. An article posted at the National Geographic website by Christine Dell’Amore quotes William Karesh, co-author of the report and vice president of Global Health Programs at the New York-based WCS saying “Without the presence of wildlife, we would be clueless about what’s going on in the environment.”

Wildlife, and its role in the propagation of infectious diseases is already aided by nasty unnatural factors such as poaching and illegal wildlife trade supported by the large wildlife products market in Asia. China’s appetite for Civet-meat for instance, according to Dell’Amore’s article, led to a sudden outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which reached epidemic levels in 2002.

Dr Richard Leakey, in his statement against proposals to legalize bushmeat, cited the spread of these dangerous diseases as a good reason not to allow the killing and eating of wild animals. It is now even more imperative not to allow bushmeat hunting and trade given that climate change, a much more complex problem, has reared its ugly head into an already deteriorating situation.

This is a two pronged problem now. When bushmeat and climate change combine forces, then woe betide planet earth. Estimates of how much these disease outbreaks can cost have already been done, and it is pretty obvious that they are costlier than the credit crunch and collapsing banks. For instance, WCS says that “avian influenza and several other livestock diseases that have reemerged since the mid-1990s have caused an estimated $100 billion in losses to the global economy.”

Three things come to my mind right now: one, we have to adopt sustainable living as humans to reduce the severity of climate change and its effects; two, now more than ever, we have to safeguard our wildlife for they are our early warning systems against outbreaks of these deadly diseases; and three, bushmeat trade has to come to an end - and there is no question of whether it is legal or illegal.

What is your take on this matter?

Tags: bushmeat, Climate change, disease, Dr. Richard Leakey, health, IUCN Congress, National Geographic, WCS, wildlife

8 responses so far