Baraza

Category: Africa, Lions, Podcasts, conservation | Date: Nov 03 2009 | By: paula

I am amazed! Someone took our blog post and podcast about lion vs warthog in the Masai Mara and mashed it up to produce this great Youtube video!

Thank you Tigersandme!

And all of you out there please feel free to do the same - send us links to your mashups!

Tags: conservation, Kenya, Lion, Lions, Maasai, Masai Mara, warthog, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Africa, South Africa, furadan, wildlife trade | Date: Nov 01 2009 | By: paula

Someone asked me if we go ‘trick or treating’ in Africa to celebrate Halloween. Apart from expatriates, we generally do not. In fact many Africans may be surprised at the idea of celebrating scary superstitions.

Sadly superstitions abound in Africa and often to the detriment of wildlife. In South Africa it is believed that consuming the eyes of vultures will give you good eyesight.

According to Kobus du Toit

“The vulture is used because of its good eye sight and local people believe if they use certain parts of the bird (head) that it will help them to see in the future”

He recommends the banning of carbofuran because “Companies develop toxic products to be used in first world countries in a responsible way. When third world countries used these products it is not usually for the primary cause what the product was developed. When a product is misused as in the case of Furadan a company can be responsible to the extinction of a species (e.g. Cape vulture in South Africa). The monetary value that a company can earn in a third world country will never match the negative publicity when a species is exterminated from the earth”

Owls are feared around the world and in Africa are  viewed as the dreaded bearers of bad fortune and are killed indiscriminately in many parts of Africa, nests are often raided and eggs smashed or chicks killed.

Fortunately its not all bad news as some brave people are trying to change cultural traditions to save owls. Darcy Ogada and Paul Murithi have been monitoring the rare and beautiful Mackinders owls in an agricultural area of Kenya where such cultural taboos abound .

From a study of 16 pairs of owls, Darcy and Paul noted that some farming practices threaten this population, particularly the poisoning of owl prey with pesticides. They found that 28% of farmers said they controlled vertebrate pests using pesticides, but they believe the figure to be much higher and note  “we also noticed that carbofuran (tradename Furadan) was often misused to kill vertebrate pests”.

To change perceptions about owls and therefore save them, Paul and Darcy are promoting owl tourism, these beautiful owls are a draw for bird tourists and the income generated from this supports individual farmers and community projects. Farmers who benefit from owl tourism are likely to know about owl diet and habits.  Paul is hoping that this will be key to saving them.

This work has not gone unnoticed as  Tony Warburton of the World Owl Trust has noted

“In his village of Kiawara near Mount Kenya, Paul has defied his community’s traditional fears by using owls as a tourist attraction. For the past five years he has been feeding and protecting owls in their natural habitat in the forest near his home. This has resulted in some 26 birds becoming habituated to human presence, some of which perch calmly in the branches of nearby trees, while others roost by day in caves scattered across the forest. He has erected roadside signs to attract foreign tourists who pay Paul to guide them to view these elusive birds. Thus, he has demonstrated to his fellow villagers that wildlife – even owls – can provide them with a source of income if only they and their habitat are protected. To reinforce this message, Paul encourages them to appreciate the enormous value of the birds by providing the same services to local people, free of charge. Truly a ‘Champion of Owls’ if ever I heard of one”.

Tony has nominated Paul for an award for his brave dedication to changing taboos about owls, and to encourage him to continue. We congratulate Paul and wish everyone a very happy Halloween.

Tags: Africa, conservation, halloween, Kenya, Owls, wildlife, witches

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Category: Africa, WildlifeDirect news, wildlife, wildlifedirect | Date: Oct 22 2009 | By: paula

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking in a panel at PopTech about Conservation 2.0 - the New edge of Conservation.

I spoke about WildlifeDirect and I showed our video on Youtube which we produced in partnership with National Geographic and told Antony Kasanga’s story about the Lion Guardians. Antony’s story has really captured the attention and imagination of Americans  Here’s a story that reveals the value the interconnectedness of everyone through the internet .

After my talk someone asked me what it was like being a woman working with people in the remote and dangerous parts of Africa.

The beauty of WildlifeDirect is that all our projects are local. Anthony is a Masai and the reason why his work is so effective is because he is working with his own community. WildlifeDirect not only identifies good, ..or should I say Great projects, that are having important impacts on the ground. But we are also enlisting and nurturing a community of future African leaders.

The people who support the Lion guardians  must be hugely proud about what they have enabled to happen. Everyone is talking about the lions that the Lion Guardians have saved.

It was one person who commented on Antony’s blog and left told him about the scholarship in Oxford. Today that person must have a huge smile on his face. He has completely changed Anthony’s life and given him a tiny peace of information that I believe will enable Antony to reach his potential.

So Chris Santon this blog post is a Shout Out to you -you may not realize the significance of the gift you gave to Antony. It may be some years before you realize just how important that simple act was. Asante Sana Chris! From all of us.

The gift goes the other way to - I’m sure that Chris’s life will never be the same. He has achieved something that most of us only dream of. The gift of being able to really help someone.

Here’s Antony at Oxford giving a presentation in front of the University Vice Chancellor. Antony we are so proud of you!

I think I saw a few teary eyes in the audience when I showed the photo of Antony in Oxford against the original photo of him at work in Mbirikani.

Mine certainly were!

I’m so proud that we can tell Antony’s story because I know it inspires many Africans and will continue to inspire generations to come.At the social event later several people came up to me asking how they could help. That’s what I love about PopTech, it’s the first time I’ve been at  a meeting where everyone is here for one reason only, to find out how they can help.

I want to thank all the Lion Guardians for everything they have done and for letting WildlifeDirect be a part of their amazing story. I have always had a passion for wildlife. I believe that everyone cares about nature and wants to do something.

WildlifeDirect is the only conservation organization that makes it possible for individuals everywhere to participate directly in conservation - by linking donors directly to people on the ground and making it personal.

As Sheryl says

“I enjoy donating my time and money to WLD wildlife protectors because
they’re doing important field work that I can’t do.”

By selecting genuine high impact projects on the ground we know that we can save wild animals. With very little cash the Lion guardians have saved tens of lions - that’ s HUGE - there are only 2000 lions left in Kenya and each is valued at between 500,ooo and 1 million dollars. That return on investment should excite any business person.

I already met some great people here at PopTech and I’m so excited about developing new relationships. It has been a tough year for us but we have passion and belief, and a model that works.

Participate PopTech visit the website Poptech.org and read their blog here  and join us live on webstreaming from 9 am today when the mystery box will be opened. Tell all your friends.

Tags: Antony Kasanga, conservation, Kenya, Lion, lion guardians, Lions, Maasai, Masai Mara, PopTech, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Africa, Gorillas, In the News, Uganda, hunting, wildlife, wildlifedirect | Date: Oct 15 2009 | By: Maina

Conservationists are taken aback over Uganda’s re-introduction of sport hunting in selected areas outside of designated protected areas. Conservationists from Nature Uganda and WildlifeDirect voiced their concerns over Uganda’s claim that they have enough wildlife to sustainably practice this consumptive use of wildlife. Ben Simon of AFP has the complete story.

Uganda under fire over legalized big game hunting

By Ben Simon (AFP)

KAMPALA — Outraged conservationists said on Wednesday that Uganda had neither enough game nor adequate control mechanisms to reintroduce sport hunting on animals such as elephant and buffalo.

Animal and environmental protection groups were angered by the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s (UWA) decision to sell shooting licences in a bid to boost tourism revenue.

“I do not believe that Uganda has enough game animals to sustain sport hunting,” Samuel Maina, of Nairobi-based WildlifeDirect, told AFP.

UWA spokeswoman Lillian Nsubuga said population levels had recovered from years of war in some areas and argued that ending the decades-old ban would contain crop-crunching elephants and buffalos while creating jobs.

Maina voiced doubts that the 90 percent loss of the large mammal population during the unstable 70s and 80s had been reversed.

“Sport hunting is thus likely to be unsustainable in the designated hunting areas and there is a likelihood that to sustain this lucrative sector, Uganda will have to extend hunting into protected areas,” he said.

Achilles Byaruhanga of Nature Uganda, a Kampala-based advocacy group, also judged the initiative to be dangerous because it is impossible to know the real strength of big game populations.

“I would want to ask UWA: Where is your data and your information coming from? Just because some animals have moved out of a wildlife reserve doesn’t mean their numbers are strong enough for sport hunting,” he told AFP.

UWA chief Moses Mapesa said that big game hunting was happening already and that the plan was simply for Uganda to benefit from it.

“In the absence of controlled hunting we have had a loss of animals and a loss of potential revenue,” he said.

But Byaruhanga argued that the reintroduction of legal hunting was unlikely to stop illegal hunting by needy local communities or create enough guide jobs to provide a viable alternative.

Maina also warned that Uganda had not proven it had the capacity to control the hunting effectively.

“Hunting-law enforcement is going to be difficult when new hunting blocks are opened. I doubt UWA has enough personnel and machinery to prevent abuse of the hunting licenses and concessions,” he said.

Maina also argued that sport hunting was incompatible with the east African country’s current attempts to enhance its international image as a destination for ecotourism, with gorillas the main attraction.

“Ecotourism and sport hunting are more or less mutually exclusive. Ecotourists do not want to go to places where wildlife is being killed,” he told AFP.

“The growth of sport hunting tourism will give Uganda a bad name as an ecotourism destination and is thus likely to reduce earnings from ecotourism including gorilla tracking,” he added.

Tags: conservation, ecotourism, illegal hunting, Nature Uganda, sport hunting, tourism, Uganda, Uganda Wildlife Authority, wildlife

12 responses so far

Category: Africa, Appeals, National Parks and protected areas, conservation | Date: Oct 09 2009 | By: paula

If you haven’t made a donation yet on WildlifeDirect, consider this

There are days when can not sleep because of fears that WildlifeDirect  cannot survive this disastrous economic crisis. Fund raising has not been easy nor fun lately - and it’s affecting or ability to do effective conservation of endangered species.

Because everyone is affected by the economic crisis, many of our donors are telling us that they can’t contribute anymore, and the average donation of those generous donors who have continued to support us have declined by about 50% from an average donation of $100 to $47.

Despite the drop in funding, our bloggers remain convinced. We now have over 80 conservation blogs from the frontlines in Africa, Asia and South America. Half of these bloggers get funds every month and every month more people inquire and ask to join our network. It is so rewarding to know that good conservationists believe in us. This is what keeps us going at WildlifeDirect.

Here are some reasons why you should support projects on WildlifeDirect

1. It’s direct - you can choose the blog, item and place you want your funds to go to
2. It’s accountable – you can see your money working by reading the blogs
3. It’s easy  - we use paypal and you will get a tax receipt
4. It’s quick – you can respond to any wildlife conservation emergency and make ….But what I like most about this is that
5. It’s cost effective – a little money goes a long way in Africa where $100 can pay for a rangers salary for a month! Our bloggers only ask for essential things –rations, petrol for patrols , critical equipment, food for animals and basic field costs. They are working on shoe string budgets – many of them volunteer.

Watch our video and Join us

WildlifeDirect has had a far greater impact on bloggers than we ever imagined. Next I will be interviewing Anthony Kasanga (lionguardians) about how his life changed after he started blogging on WildlifeDirect.

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS STAYED WITH OR RECENTLY JOINED WILDLIFEDIRECT.   YOU ARE ALL AMAZING PEOPLE:)

Tags: Africa, conservation, endangered species, Gorillas, Lions, Paula Kahumbu, richard leakey, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 28 2009 | By: admin

With the drought biting hard KWS has been aggresively chasing cattle out of the parks and the government of Kenya has been trying to solve the humanitarian crisis by buying huge numbers of cattle. It is not going very well and nature is taking it’s course - cattle are dying all over the country in droves.

The degradation due to over grazing outside of parks has predictably led to wildlife returning to the parks for the only grazing available. Nairobi Park  in particular  now looks like the Serengetti in full migration!

The influx of wildlife has led to the appearance of big cats. Lion, leopard and cheetah sightings are now quite common.

Stalker!

After half an hour of great tension the lion had crept right up to this zebra and seemed about to launch herself onto the stripes when I heard the sound of other cars approaching. Sadly the hunt did not conclude in breakfast for the lioness, my wild gesticulations asking them to slow down and stop, seemed to attract the vehicle even more. The tour van revved up beside me for tourists to get a good shot - which of course flopped because the zebra got spooked and walked off. The lion lay down in the grass and turned to us glaring angrily.

Just seeing this today made me feel proud of what we are doing at WildlifeDirect - saving endangered species so that we can continue to enjoy rare and  precious moments like these.

Thank you all  for reading our blogs and supporting all of our the amazing projects.

Paula

Tags: cattle, conservation, drought, Kenya, Lion, Lions, nairobi national Park, wildlife, wildlifedirect

3 responses so far

Category: wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: admin

This is a fun survey - please take a moment and give us your  thoughts on this survey

Oh, and forward the link to your friends, through email, Facebook, Twitter, myspace… have I left anything out?

Thanks !

Tags: bunny hugger, conservation, elephant, Lion, survey, tiger, volunteer, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Africa, Kenya, Lions, big cats, conservation | Date: Aug 25 2009 | By: paula

The decline of Kenya’s lions has become the talk of the bloggosphere. Adam Shake on Twilight Earth blog reminds us taht the main threat facing Kenya’s lion is teh poisoning using Furadan, a problem that WildilfeDirect has been instrumental in raising awareness about.

And an education activist called @aureliom posted this on Twitter

Lion Dethroned, Bemoaned

Kenya losing 100 lions every year: conservation group

We’re losing lions in Kenya by the hundreds.

The Wildlife Service warns they could disappear

Within twenty years: a naturalist’s dreads.

It’s just that humans are moving in too near.

The open spaces globally invaded

Diminish land and corner animals everywhere:

The flora, fauna, jungles dense green bladed

Are disappearing, leaving beasts no home there.

Returning to the jungle king dethroned,

The reasons given for concerned protection

Are not the ones zoologists bemoaned:

Regreting safari loss, tourist defection!

Inhabitants of kingdom wild must exist:

How creeping human spread to cease, desist?

The Pride of Kenya campaign will raise enormous awareness in Kenya about how close our lions are to extinction. With only 2000 left, they could go extinct with in 20 years, or less. Please help us spread awarness about the plight of lions, tell your friends, send us your ideas, donations and any advice on how we can solve the problem of lion declines in Africa. Visit our lion blogs to find out more about innovative approaches to save wild lions in Kenya. Ewaso Lions, Lion Guradians and Predator Aware.

Technorati : conservation, kenya, killing, lion, poaching, wildlife, wildlifedirect
Del.icio.us : conservation, kenya, killing, lion, poaching, wildlife, wildlifedirect

Tags: conservation, Kenya, killing, Lion, poaching, wildlife, wildlifedirect

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Category: Africa, Kenya, Lions, Poisoning wildlife, Pride of Kenya, furadan | Date: Aug 23 2009 | By: paula

As the artists gear up to complete their lions, we’ve been sneaking in to get first impressions - well, here are three amazing lions I saw today.

Here’s Butterflion and his creator - yes you guessed correctly, its our very own Dr Dudulittle, Dino Martins our resident entomologist who writes Dudu diaries. This lion sponsored by Kenya Data Networks (KDN) is a puzzle of butterflies and other bugs that children will have to find…Dino has hidden little gems like ticks in uncomfortable places..you’ll have to come see it Butterflion to understand

Ole Simba is a mosaic lion being put together by these two absolutely lovely ladies (talk about gigantuan patience! It’s slow hard work)

And Mr. Bones reveals the insides of the lion, sadly the artist, an apprentice with Nani Croze of Kitengela Glass was not there but her work is pretty amazing!

His other side is totally different

Pretty impressive aren’t they?

The artists working at Kitengela on the edge of Nairobi National Park are especially motivated because the parks lions are in peril. These artists are busy working away to complete the lions by the big day - September 2nd which is the launch of the Pride of Kenya. It will take place at KWS head quarters and the 50 lions will be loaded onto trucks and taken to Uhuru Park in Nairobi’s city center. The KWS band is apparently going to play! It should be great fun.

Every one is very excited, Nairobi is certainly in for a very interesting experience.

If you want to participate but are not in Nairobi you can! Just send us a message or a promise to lions and we will make sure that it will be seen. You can also tell all your friends, share the information with your networks on Face book or Myspace, twitter etc, Send us ideas of activities that we can conduct during the next two months to inspire the world to care about lions.and if you have a spare dollar, send us a donation and we’ll use it for kids activities. If you don’t have a spare dollar, why not send a letter to someone you know who will sponsor this event? If you’d like to know more about how you can help, email me on paula@wildlifedirect.org I really look forward to hearing from you

To follow the event Pride of Kenya please visit our blog “Pride of Kenya“. The event is a collaboration between The Born Free Foundation and a British organization called Wild in Art (remember Go Elephants in Norwich, or Superlambbanana in Liverpool…well Pride of Kenya is part of that series).

 There are only 2100 lions left in Kenya - help us save them, Donate now

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Technorati : Born Free, Lion, Pride of Kenya, WildlifeDirect, conservation, endangered animals, wildlife

Tags: Born Free, conservation, endangered animals, Lion, Pride of Kenya, wildlife, wildlifedirect

9 responses so far

Category: Africa, In the News, conservation, wildlife, wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 18 2009 | By: Maina

Recently, Jeremy Hance of Mongabay interviewed Paula, our CEO about the status of wildlife conservation and endangered species during these hard economic times. Paula had just returned from a Society for Conservation Biology meeting in China where it emerged that funding for wildlife conservation and endangered species protection had declined. Environmental funding has shifted to funding climate change and global warming programs. The interview which appeared on Mongabay on 17 August is very telling on how dangerous these times are for conservation and endangered wildlife protection. The interview is reproduced below.

Economic crisis threatens conservation programs and endangered species, an interview with Paula Kahumbu of WildlifeDirect
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
August 17, 2009

Founded in 2004 by legendary conservationist Richard Leakey, WildlifeDirect is an innovative member of the conservation community. WildlifeDirect is really a meta-organization: it gathers together hundreds of conservation initiatives who blog regularly about the trials and joys of practicing on-the-ground conservation. From stories of gorillas reintroduced in the wild to tracking elephants in the Okavango Delta to saving sea turtles in Sumatra, WildlifeDirect provides the unique experience of actually hearing directly from scientists and conservationists worldwide.

Paula Kahumbu, Executive Director of WildlifeDirect.

“Anyone can interact, participate, and donate from anywhere in the world,” Paula Kahumbu, WildlifeDirect Executive Director, explained to Monagaby.com in an August 2009 interview. “By networking people at the conservation frontline with others all over the world, we have created what we call a virtual endowment. It is a vast community of people ready to respond when called upon in a time of need or during a crisis to help solve wildlife conservation challenges.”

The program has been a success, providing small, but vital, conservation initiatives with much needed funds and attention.

“To date we have over 100 bloggers and over 70,000 unique visitors per month. Last year this community donated to over 70 projects raising nearly $500,000 which went directly to the field,” says Kahumbu. Although stationed in Kenya, and with a general focus on Africa, WildlifeDirect also has bloggers in Asia and South America.

But as all conservationists—and environmentalists know—the path is never easy. Late 2008 brought new and sudden difficulties as the global economic crisis rippled through WildlifeDirect and many of its partners.

“Times are very tough for conservation organizations anywhere. Many major donors are scaling back to protect their cores, which means letting go of small projects. Many of them will I fear, will go bust…Even small donors have scaled back. Conservation groups are making tough decisions, but many are sticking it out and weathering the storm by working hard even for nothing,” Kahumbu says, adding that WildlifeDirect itself has suffered under the crisis, stalling developments and leaving the organization wondering, at times, about its future.

WildlifeDirect’s first field office in Congo - blogging was done from a tent inside Virunga National Park. Photo Courtesy of WildlifeDirect.

For wildlife, Kahumbu argues the crisis has been “a disaster”.

“There is far less money for conservation in general. This means there is less monitoring so we will not even notice when some species go extinct. Fewer people care about species anymore, governments are not investing in conservation,” she says, yet adds that any crisis may bring new opportunities. “I’m hoping that the crisis will force us to be more strategic in how we spend limited resources on conservation and instead of pouring vast amounts on single species, we can start looking afresh at priorities. For example making decisions based on cost-benefit analysis of saving entire ecosystems, and creating eco friendly livelihoods for communities in wildlife rich areas.”

Kahumbu says that large-scale changes need to happen in order for the world to start tackling the environmental crisis, including mass extinction and climate change.

“I think that to engage the world we will need a paradigm shift in what we communicate. Today’s global headlines are monopolized by scandals, Enron, Financial crisis, Iraq, the British MP’s allowances, Swine flu, Kenyan elections, Wii, Britney Spears baby…you name it. We are inundated with unimportant information every single day [… ] I think we need to be snapped out of our stupor to realize what’s really happening. We need to take action. We must change those headlines. I think we could create a global culture of caring for the planet by having headlines on the health of Planet Earth everyday. We should be making these issues important, and we should be frowning deeply on those who destroy, emit and waste. We could drive a new social agenda that is informed about and cares about things that matter: our future, and our planet. Perhaps then everyone will be able to believe in a future that is fair for all, clean and healthy, rich in biodiversity and able to sustain us into perpetuity.”

Mongabay.com spoke to Paula Kahumbu in August 2009 about conservation, climate change, and the economic crisis.

Introducing WildlifeDirect

Mongabay: What is your background? How did you end up as Executive Director of the new and innovative conservation organization, Wildlife Direct?

WildlifeDirect training current conservationists, future bloggers. Photo Courtesy of WildlifeDirect.

Paula Kahumbu: Like most Kenyans of my generation, I grew up surrounded by wildlife, birds, snakes and mammals. I spent my childhood exploring swamps and forests and in those days it was safe and clean. I was inspired by this to dedicate my life to saving the wilderness and wild species. I started off with a deep interest in primates and worked in a remote protected areas with two endangered primates. For my PhD I studied elephants to understand how they manage forests. I fell in love with them and ended up getting deeply involved in the ivory crisis in 1989 and 2000. Offering advice to KWS (Kenyan Wildlife Service) Director Richard Leakey about the issues arising in the ivory debate landed me in a job at the government agency. I loved the wilderness and field work but I hated the people politics. Over the years I’ve witnessed how our wilderness and wild species are going fast due to political, social and economic short sightedness. I was about to emigrate to South Africa and go back to teaching in a university when Richard Leakey stopped me, told me off for giving up on Kenya, and invited me to join WildlifeDirect, the organization he founded and believes strongly in. I’ve been here ever since.

Mongabay: Wildlife Direct is unique in terms of conservation organizations—what is your approach?

Paula Kahumbu: It’s simple, rangers and conservationists write blogs on wildlifedirect.org about their daily lives at the conservation front line. Anyone can interact, participate, and donate from anywhere in the world. By networking people at the conservation frontline with others all over the world, we have created what we call a virtual endowment. It is a vast community of people ready to respond when called upon in a time of need or during a crisis to help solve wildlife conservation challenges. To us, a million small donations are much more valuable than one big donation, so we aim for micro donations from a large network of friends. We believe that virtually anyone anywhere can give a little to something they care about, and people give to us because we provide real time transparency and accountability through blogs so that donors can see their money at work. Donors can also donate time to help bloggers with networking, uploading photos, doing research, or even visiting the project. The size and responsiveness of our online community is how we measure our success. To date we have over 100 bloggers and over 70,000 unique visitors per month. Last year this community donated to over 70 projects raising nearly $500,000 which went directly to the field.

Mongabay: What challenges has the organization faced since its creation in 2004?

WildlifeDirect training bloggers. Photo Courtesy of WildlifeDirect.

Paula Kahumbu: Three things. First challenge was technological, how do we develop and support a technology solution that aims to a global audience, but is built in Africa? The original concept was built in Italy, it looked great but mending glitches was difficult due to the language barrier. We are now using developers in Kenya. Secondly finding funding for our core costs has always been tough; traditional donors want to give money to field projects not to organizations like ours. We don’t charge a fee to our bloggers so we need to finance our core costs support, development and hosting from other sources. This year we won a MacArthur grant without which we might have collapsed. We’re not out of the woods yet but we’re clinging on and our partners are grateful, this is an extremely difficult time for fund raising for conservation so they are really busy telling their stories. Finally, many organizations we have spoken to and tried to bring on board have simply copied the concept. They don’t see the value of keeping the online community together and this is a bit disappointing.

Mongabay: I have to ask, Richard Leakey is a conservation legend both in Africa and across the world. What’s it like to work with a man who has given so much into saving Africa’s wildlife?

Paula Kahumbu: Working for Leakey is always inspiring. He is passionate and super-smart. He expects a lot which can be challenging, and yet exhilarating knowing that he believes in us. He has the memory of an elephant which is useful when we need help and have hit a brick wall – there is usually someone that he knows can help us. He’s also extremely compassionate and indeed rather fatherly. Although running the Turkana Basin Institute is his main job, he often wanders around our open plan office, visiting our desks, chatting to us and introduces us to any important visitors. It doesn’t really feel like we’re working for one of the most famous people on this planet; he’s very down to earth and human. It’s great working for him; I love it.

Many of WildlifeDirect’s participating organizations work directly with the world’s great apes, including mountain gorillas. Photo Courtesy of WildlifeDirect.

Mongabay: Wildlife Direct currently carries 80 blogs from Africa, Asia, and South America, are there plans to add more? Any plans to extend geographically beyond those three continents?

Paula Kahumbu: We are always expanding and we receive about 4 applications for new blogs per week. If they meet our criteria we do accept them. Our goal is to be global but our focus is to help those organizations in developing countries that need the support most.

Economic Crisis and Conservation

Mongabay: You work with a lot of very small, but extremely effective and important, conservation groups every day—how has the global economic crisis affected them and their work?

Paula Kahumbu: Times are very tough for conservation organizations anywhere. Many major donors are scaling back to protect their cores, which means letting go of small projects. Many of them will I fear, will go bust. We thought that WildlifeDirect’s model was perfectly suited for a recession environment, after all, who can’t afford to give 10 dollars during good times or bad? Well, even small donors have scaled back. Conservation groups are making tough decisions, but many are sticking it out and weathering the storm by working hard even for nothing. We have noticed a surge in interest by organizations to join WildlifeDirect, some of them large organizations that have lost major donors.

Mongabay: Has the economic crisis affected Wildlife Direct itself—if so, how?

Paula Kahumbu: The economic crisis couldn’t have come at a worse time. A potential major donor pulled out at the last moment last year jut as we were about to implement our strategic plan. That was devastating. We had to scale back and take our developments much more slowly. We have been badly hit because our core funds are raised through grants and many large donors are scaling back. We still have a $100,000 hole in our operational budget for this year so we’re looking for donors, partners, or supporters who believe in what we are doing and will be willing to help us over this hump.

Group of bloggers. Photo Courtesy of WildlifeDirect.

Mongabay: Some have argued that the economic crisis may actually have some positive environmental impact—i.e. lessening global consumption—what is your view?

Paula Kahumbu: Yes and No. Perhaps there will be less consumption in the West. In developing nations where the recession means that more people are on the brink of starvation, the opposite happens. Desperate people can’t afford to make long term decisions. In Kenya for example we have seen an explosion of bushmeat hunting – why? Because people are hungry. In some places the wildlife is almost completely gone, and they are now eating baboons. It is tragic that governments found the means to bail out those responsible for this economic crisis but have been unable to find the resources to save our environments, to alleviate poverty and to protect our wildlife heritage. It makes me mad that we have such backward global priorities.

I can only think of one place where the global crisis has been good, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Before the crisis high global prices for their minerals was leading to the destruction of the forests in the east, and the illegal mining that was financing the militias that were destroying the parks. The collapse of commodity prices last year led to the collapse of these militias, and now Rwanda and Congo are cooperating. This means that the parks can now be managed effectively, and some donors are taking advantage of this opportunity. So, yes, in this case, there’s at least one conservation area that we can thank the greedy bankers for.

Infamous massacre of gorillas in Virunga National Paark. Photo Courtesy of WildlifeDirect.

Mongabay: Is it possible to balance economic development in poorer nations without plundering, and thereby devastating, the environment for goods?

Paula Kahumbu: Of course it is possible to develop without destroying but it takes good thoughtful leadership, excellent planning and enforcement of plans. Theses things are in short supply in Africa. What we have in Africa, and many other places, is a greed that seems limitless, and sadly is the consequence of aping the West. The West is addicted to consuming, and developing nations think that they will get rich by supplying the consumers. Our political systems aggravate this because it drives short term and mind-bogglingly short-sighted ventures. Few countries have national targets that that the public know about and can measure the performance of their elected officials against.

Mongabay: What do you think the economic crisis has meant for endangered species worldwide?

Paula Kahumbu: It’s a disaster. There is far less money for conservation in general. This means there is less monitoring so we will not even notice when some species go extinct. Fewer people care about species anymore, governments are not investing in conservation. But yet they seem to have funds to address climate change adaptation, it seems more immediate. But, I’m hoping that the crisis will force us to be more strategic in how we spend limited resources on conservation and instead of pouring vast amounts on single species, we can start looking afresh at priorities. For example making decisions based on cost-benefit analysis of saving entire ecosystems, and creating eco friendly livelihoods for communities in wildlife rich areas.

The Effect of Climate Change on Africa’s Wildlife

Mongabay: For wildlife climate change is seen as an unpredictable threat, since no one really knows how well already-imperiled species will be able to adapt to a warmer globe. What is your view? Does climate change keep you up at night?

Paula Kahumbu: Yes, climate change does keep me awake at night. I climbed Mt. Kenya last year and could not believe how much the glaciers have shrunk. I’ve witnessed rivers drying up, and I’ve seen how our coral reefs are bleaching. I feel angry and deeply sad at the same time because it’s not our fault, and there is little we can do in poorer countries to have a smaller carbon footprint. I feel angry that communities in Africa that are doing so much to save forests are not rewarded – in fact we expect conservationists to accept and tolerate the costs to their own development, and we frown on anyone who cuts down a tree, or kills an animal for food. But we do reward those who exploit these resources, we give most of the carbon funding to big business. It’s insane! At present there is no incentive for land owners to return to environmentally friendly practices that will help us to survive in the climate changed world.

Mount Kenya. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Mongabay: How do you see climate change particularly affecting ecosystems in Africa?

Paula Kahumbu: Most of Africa will be hotter and drier, streams will dry up, forests will not recover from degradation, fisheries will disappear. We will see extreme climate events will be more extreme and more common, like floods and droughts. More of our land will be ‘marginal’ and farming these landscapes will push ecosystems over a threshold and point of no return. Once we’ve lost soil and seeds no amount of rain will bring them back. The main impact we will notice will be deepening poverty which will be extreme and bushmeat hunting will exterminate wildlife from large tracts of land outside of the best protected areas. I expect we’ll see more incursions in the protected areas. Today our parks in Kenya are full of cattle due to a prolonged drought. Not only do the livestock compete with wildlife, introduce diseases and damage the environment, but they also put people in direct conflict with wildlife and predators will be exterminated, and antelopes killed by the herds by people who have to eat. I think we will see governments make more environmentally unfriendly decisions to address poverty and we will lose much of our wild lands.

Mongabay: Working with people across the globe, including in some of the world’s poorest countries, how do you think climate change should be tackled? Is it everyone’s problem or should the bulk of the responsibility be on developed nations?

Boy from the Turkana tribe in Northern Kenya. Poor and marginalized peoples will be hit the hardest by climate change. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Paula Kahumbu: I think climate change will be tackled badly! There’s a meeting of African environmental ministers taking place in Nairobi this week. I am amazed that the public are not aware, and have not had an opportunity to present views. The climate problem has been caused by the West but now India and China are amongst the largest polluters. We cannot ignore the fact that developing nations need to take responsibility, but how do you divert attention and funds away from the pressing crises like poverty and disease in Africa? They are far more immediate and, frankly, these issues influence voters so our policy makers will give lip service to climate change unless there is a short term benefit that can be translated into votes.

Regardless of who created the climate change problem, the world’s poor people will pay and they are paying already. We are kind of helpless and it’s shocking. Don’t you think it is amazing that the world’s most powerful nations are those that we consider to be the richest? They are the biggest producers and greatest contributors to the global economic and environmental crisis. The environmental debt outstrips their measurable wealth, doesn’t it? The countries richest in natural resources (forests, biodiversity, fish, clean water) have the smallest voice on the global platform because they haven’t converted these riches into gold bullion. Why don’t we measure the wealth of a nation realistically? I think that if intelligent aliens visited the earth today they would report back that we are a backward species that is destroying its own habitat even though we have the means to save planet Earth.

Mongabay: What are your ideas in engaging the public to supply adequate funding for large-scale environmental issues, such as climate change and the extinction crisis?

Paula Kahumbu: I think that to engage the world we will need a paradigm shift in what we communicate. Today’s global headlines are monopolized by scandals, Enron, Financial crisis, Iraq, the British MP’s allowances, Swine flu, Kenyan elections, Wii, Britney Spears baby…you name it. We are inundated with unimportant information every single day, we inhale and are addicted to irrelevant facts and, we have created a culture that cares more about gossip and other people than our own survival. These are all diversions that keep us busy and prevent us from seeing what’s really happening. I think we need to be snapped out of our stupor to realize what’s really happening. We need to take action. We must change those headlines. I think we could create a global culture of caring for the planet by having headlines on the health of Planet Earth everyday. We should be making these issues important, and we should be frowning deeply on those who destroy, emit and waste. We could drive a new social agenda that is informed about and cares about things that matter: our future, and our planet. Perhaps then everyone will be able to believe in a future that is fair for all, clean and healthy, rich in biodiversity and able to sustain us into perpetuity.

Screenshot of WildlifeDirect homepage, showcasing a variety of conservation blogs. Photo courtesty of WildlifeDirect.

Tags: Africa, conservation, economic crisis, Mongabay, richard leakey, wildlife, wildlifedirect

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