Baraza

Category: wildlife | Date: Oct 01 2008 | By: baraza

There are some conservation projects that really make you feel good. This month we’d like to congratulate and celebrate the Colobus Trust success in Diani Kenya where hundreds of monkeys have been saved by a simple innovation, arboreal rope bridges.

Before we talk monkeys, first come to Diani Beach, Kenya’s version the Florida keys. Driving down the highway you will notice about 20 rope bridges swinging over the highway. If you are there at the right time of the day, you’ll notice it swinging, look harder you’ll see a little bulge with a tail. Before you flash by, you might just recognize that it’s a monkey sitting up there. Yes it’s watching you! And then in a burst of action an entire troop of black and white might start galloping across the wildly swaying bridge!

Colobridges were built by the Colobus Trust to save the rare Angolan colobus monkeys from road traffic accidents

In the 1990’s it was predicted that this species could be driven to extinction within a decade. Faced with a crisis innovative solutions were sought - Lollipop stick men were deployed at major crossing points, roadsigns erected to slow down the speed, and education for taxis, stickers in matatus (local buses), and speeding tour operators were reported to the Residents Association. The idea of speed humps was rejected - in general it was tough to get any support, after all, who really cares about a bunch of thieving monkeys?

The bridges cost about 400 dollars each and are made of cable, rubber and PVC. The bridges straddles the Diani Beach highway between two of the monkeys favourite trees on either side of the highway.

Being naturally shy, the colobus stared at the bridges with disdain for a couple of months until the more inquisitive and daring Sykes monkey began to see the logic. Once the Sykes and even vervet monkeys started using the bridges, the colobus followed suit, and are now very comfortable with their arboreal walkways.

This is an Amazing video of Colobus crossing a “colobridge” (Warning this video is GREAT but the link take you to another site - so read on first or you”ll miss the Australian madness)

There are now 23 ‘Colobridges’ and it’s estimated that they are used 150,000 time a year by at least three different species of monkeys! Amazing because there are only 300 of these Angolan colobus monkeys left in Diani where road kills are now rare.

Not for everyone: Bridges have also been deployed in Zanzibar to save the crazy looking Kirks red colobus but it looks like they aren’t interested in using them. Check out the photos of a confused monkey here

Colobridges have been exported, three arboreal bridges have been built in Australia for possums, squirrel gliders and other arboreal species down there.

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Tags: Colobus Monkeys, Colobus Trust, Diani, Kenya, monkey bridges

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Category: Forests, Mau Forest Complex, National Parks and protected areas, tourism, wildlife | Date: Sep 24 2008 | By: Maina

The power struggles that have characterized the intended eviction of illegal - and perceived legal - squatters from the Mau Complex in Kenya are now degenerating into some really nasty verbal offensives between politicians. On Tuesday, 23 September the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, the Standard and other media reported that the Mau complex was threatening the unity of the ODM Party. The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is Kenya’s Prime Minister’s party and has a majority in parliament.

The Mau, one of Kenya’s most important water catchments has been invaded by up to 15,000 families whose eviction - even with the nationwide acceptance that they have to leave - has proved to be extremely challenging for the government. Some of them do indeed have genuine land title deeds. Notwithstanding how fraudulently they acquired them, these are legal government documents that cannot just be wished away. That is why the squatters have stayed put. They say they will only move out when they are compensated for the land they own inside the Mau. They don’t want money, they want land: alternative land.

Now the urgency of evicting these families is creeping in on every Kenyan, and the politicians know this. Politicians being politicians, they see an opportunity to score some career mileage. They are now using the Mau saga - or more so the poor who were sold the land that should not have been sold in the first place - to muscle up their political ambitions. If the event of this Tuesday are anything to go by, then we are in for a lengthy soap opera with a tragic end. Not the happily ever after kind.

Tuesday’s media reports of the emerging cracks in ODM are based on a chain of events that were set into motion by their leader, Prime Minister Raila Odinga when he announced that the squatters have to leave. The situation got worse when Raila, now increasingly getting frustrated by the politicisation of the Mau debacle publicly threatened to name and shame former Kenya African National Union (KANU) stalwarts who he purports are the main beneficiaries of the irregular allocations of land inside the Mau. Most of the remnants of this once powerful party - especially those who stuck with it towards the end of former President Daniel arap Moi’s regime in the late 1990s are now in ODM and they were not amused by the Prime Minister’s uttering.

KANU ruled this country since independence in 1963 until it was dislodged from power during the 2002 euphoric general elections by the then newly formed National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) party. Towards the end of its authoritarian rule, KANU was blamed for having dragged this country through murky decades of economic plunder and stifled democracy. They are said to have acquired colossal swathes of land and Raila believes that, in the same manner, they own most of the Mau land in question.

The situation is so bad such that the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chepalungu Constituency in the expansive Rift Valley Province (where the Mau is located), Honourable Isaac Ruto, is actively campaigning for a candidate from a rival party to ODM for the comming by-elections that were necessitated by the death of a couple of MPs. Isaac was elected to parliament on an ODM ticket. He accuses the Prime Minister of betraying the people who enabled him get to power. Isaac Ruto’s brother, Hounorable Willam Ruto, is credited for having delivered the Rift Valley voting block that sealed the ODM’s parliamentary majority at the end of the hotly contested 2007 general elections in Kenya. Both were former KANU men.

To say that anyone can fully understand the complicated politics that are eating the Mau would be too ambitious. One columnist in the Standard has tried to explain the problem here. I don’t seek to understand these shenanigans. I seek only to see the squatters relocated away from this vital water tower in the most humane manner. The genuine squatters, especially the poor farmers who were duped into buying the land, should be given land elsewhere and immediate forest restoration should start - today. I wonder what will happen to the traditional hunter gatherer minority - the Ogiek - who’ve lived in that forest for eons.

Without the Mau - for example - the Masai Mara will not be the same. The Mara River will not flow. Maybe the wildebeest will stop their annual migration to the Mara and back to Serengeti in Tanzania. Maybe northern Serengeti will die. Maybe.

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Tags: community, Forests, Kenya, Masai Mara, Mau Forest Complex, politics, tourism

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Category: Forests, tourism | Date: Aug 22 2008 | By: Maina

For years now, the controversy of whether or not to evict squatters in the Mau Forest Complex in southwestern Kenya has been played by politicians to their own gain. The problem at the Mau has survived four general (parliamentary and presidential) elections so far, and it doesn’t seem to be going away.

Allow me to introduce you to the largest, near-continuous montane forest block in East Africa before I tell you what the problem is (or is thought to be). The Mau is huge and critically important to the three East African states of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The forests cloak the western slopes, and part of the crest, of the Mau Escarpment, a block of raised land that forms the western wall of the Gregory Rift Valley, rising steeply from the floor and sloping away more gradually to the west. There are five main Forest Reserves: Eastern, Western and South-western Mau (c.66,000, 22,700 and 84,000 ha respectively), Trans-Mara (34,400 ha) and Ol Pusimoru (17,200 ha).

A sixth large block, the Maasai Mau (c.46,000 ha) is as yet ungazetted. In early 2001, a total of 59,134 ha (35,301 in Eastern Mau, 22,797 ha in South-western Mau, 713 ha in Western May and 1,030 ha in Western Mau) was designated for degazettement meaning it would be removed from protection status and left to the dogs.

Now here is the problem. Since the ill advised forest excisions of the late 1990s (to settle landless people), thousands of people have invaded the forest and laid waste to large swathes of especially the eastern Mau. The government led resettlement is said to have brought some 28,000 households into the eastern Mau. This settlement of agricultural communities also opened up the forest to a large racket of illegal logging that has contributed to the loss of about 28% of forest cover in the eastern sector (cumulative since 1967).

The 28,000 may not be removed since they are there “legally” and so the target for eviction is those considered “illegal squarters”. Attempts to remove these aliens have had casualties in government and politics. President Kibaki’s attempt to remove them during his first term - about three years ago - cost him the constitutional referendum that was seeking to usher in a new constitution for Kenyans. Then in December 2007 when Kenyans voted - in what was to turn into the bloodiest election ever - Kibaki’s opponents used the Mau again to make him unpopular. Lots of lesser politicians have fallen and others gained political favour because of the Mau.

The Mau problems are multifaceted. There is the obvious environmental degradation concern, there is also a community face whereby the Kipsigis (who are majority squarters) claim that they bought their land in the Mau and the Maasai who an ancestral claim to the Mau. The community card is the politicians pet and has been used to divide these two communities in an annoyingly predictable patterns. There is also the Ogiek, who are thought to be the indegenous people of the forest and are traditionally hunter-gatherers. The Ogiek are a minority and were evicted from the forest in the 1980s

Due to the immense importance of the Mau as a one the five most important “water towers” in Kenya, there are economical ramifications to consider. The Mau issue have never - in the public eye - been seen as an environmental issue, but recently, as it increasingly becomes clear that environmental degradation has economic repercussions, the environmental aspect has begun to get noticed.

Picture this: Numerous streams originate from the forests west of the scarp crest, forming part of the Sondu and Mara river systems, which flow into Lake Victoria, and the Southern Ewaso Ngiro system, which flows into Lake Natron. The Eastern Mau is the main watershed for Lake Nakuru, through the Njoro, Makalia and Enderit rivers. Take the out the Mara River alone and you don’t have the Masai Mara (as we know it) and parts of the Serengeti, northern Tanzania. That is bad for the multi-billion tourism industry in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Mau complex has complex problems and the political tug-of-wars are not helping. If we dont stop the destruction of the Mau, millions of people will suffer. Only several thousand people have invaded the Mau, but millions downstream will suffer the consequences.

Recently, the Kenya’s Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, announced the formation of a Task Force to chart a way forward in the removal of the squatters. It consists of some high profile conservationists together with the usual political puppets. We hope the environmentalists will prevail and a people-friendly and environmentally sound formula is found to remove the squatters.

One thing is clear, and the Mr Odinga said it: there are no two ways of saving the Mau. The only way to save the Mau is to remove those folk from the forest and protect it against illegal logging.

I will keep an eye open to see what the Task Force comes up with.

To learn more about the Mau there are several links:
1. A Birdlife Perspective
2. Mau in the News
3. More news on the Mau
There is also a community group that is trying to save the Mau and see also the story of the Ogiek
You can also download a report done by the UNEP about the destruction of the Mau here

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Tags: community, Forests, Kenya, Masai Mara, Mau Complex, tourism

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Category: Mara Triangle, tourism | Date: Aug 19 2008 | By: Maina

In a rather unusual event, Kenya’s top guy ‘migrated’ with a large portion of his clan into the Masai Mara this Sunday to see the the popular Wildebeest Migration from the Serengeti to the Mara. Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki - amusingly described by Tourism Minister, Najib Balala, as Tourist Number 1 - seemed to have had a ball down there. I hear that the migration is particularly thick this season and the accompanying wildlife is superb. Well you just need to look at Paula’s post to see the magnificent images she brought back just a few days before the country’s CEO pointed his family towards the Mara River.

In President Kibaki’s words “It is a wonderful world, wonderful indeed and of course it is wonderful for me to be here,”

President Kibaki is in blue floral shirt.

It was big news here in Kenya and most of us suspended (voluntarily) our evening activities either at 7pm (for the news in Kiswahili) or at 9pm (for the English version) to watch the not-so-often-in-the-news president and his grand children relaxed and watching game. And the man seems to be having lots of fun. Picture this: it is common knowledge that the President hardly ever gives a one-on-one interview with the press. He avoids the press like the plague. But the sight of tons of gnu spread out into the horizon must have softened his heart and he gave an uncharacteristically jovial interview with Linus Kaikai of Kenya’s premier private TV station, KTN. The migration can have this effect on people.

Its a good thing for Kenya’s tourism when the top mwananchi*is publicly seen visiting the Mara. It definitely will encourage us, middle-class Kenyans, to visit our country (we’re conspicuously absent in tourist spots - except as tour guides and hotel staff). His appeal to the international community to come visit the Country, and the Mara, is also welcome given that the tourism industry is yet to recover from the traumatic post-election violence that shocked the whole world early this year. According to reports however it seems that the recovery has been much faster than expected although we are not there yet.

The Mara remains the top wildlife tourism destination in East Africa and such high profile endorsement might be of help to such places as the Mara Triangle that have been struggling to get back on their feet after the crippling effects of the violence.

Read more about the Presidents visit to the Masai Mara here and here

*mwananchi is citizen in Kiswahili

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Tags: Kenya, Masai Mara, migration, Mwai Kibaki, President, Serengeti, tourism, wildebeest

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Category: Mara Triangle, Uncategorized | Date: Aug 17 2008 | By: baraza

I’m back from an amazing 3 days in the Masai Mara. Apart from a rather irritating spate of punctures that took us to some amusing experiences which I wrote about on a blog called Afrigadget, it was absolutely spectacular.

We drove in from Nairobi along a road that could be described as Africa’s worst, and into a camp run by JK Safaris. Since the election crisis tourists have not returned in full swing even to the Mara which meant we had the entire tented camp to ourselves, and the most relaxed wildlife viewing  that I’ve had in a long time in the Mara. Instead of hundreds of cars there were tens.

Arriving in the park had particular significance as we’d just overcome a puncture that nearly ruined the trip.

Spectacular wildlife viewing - the migration is in full swing and the landscape was saturated with herds of wildebeeste, zebra, gazelle and other species.

After much “hmming” and bleating the first wildebeest leaped into the water setting off a frenzy of excitement amongst the crocodiles. The flow of the river was stronger than I’d imagined, causing them to drift downstream while they swam like crazy to get across to a safe landing point.

Once the crocs had one animal in their clutches, the othere were safe to cross. The sacrifice of one wildebeest seemed worth it - hundreds if not thousands made it across safely, bleating excitedly as they emerged .

Hippos avoided busy crossing points and rested a bit further upstream.

Our guide Moses claimed that hippos mate for 3 hours. It certainly seemed like a slow process!

Not just migration - the Mara is exciting

Dung beetle - with a massive ball

Wildlife seems tame - this stunning lilac breasted roller let us get very close.

Topi guarding his leking spot

Lazy lions

….and an uncooperative leopard

The best moment came last for my son Josh - he received a Masai name and  spear for his 16th birthday.

The challenge of saving the Mara comes closer to home after a special trip like this. Losing the area due to political fall outs in Kenya would be the height of stupidity and short sightedness by our leaders. Thank you all for your support towards the Mara triangle through Kimojino’s blog.

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Tags: Kenya, Kimojino, Mara Conservancy, Masai, Masai Mara, Wildebeeste

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 13 2008 | By: baraza

I invited one of our volunteers Kimberley, a visiting student, to send us a guest post from Mombasa about the conservation activities down there. She went to Haller Park, a rehabilitated quarry that I used to run. Here is her news about Owen and Cleo amongst other interesting things!

  This past July, I have been lucky enough to spend the month studying Kiswahili in Mombasa, Kenya, and when taking a break in my studies, I have tried to learn more about local conservation efforts in the area. Haller Park, a wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitated quarry of the Bamburi Cement factory, just north of the city, is one interesting example of what’s going on here.  Just next to the factory, the park has achieved a small degree of fame in recent years as the home of Owen and Mzee – Owen, being a young hippo orphaned in the December 2004 tsunami that befriended an Aldabra giant tortoise called Mzee, inspiring the children’s book, “Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship”.  While visiting last week, I spoke with Stephen Tuei, the chief animal caretaker at Haller Park and Owen’s keeper, who reported both animals are doing well, though Owen now spends his time with a fellow hippo, Cleo(patra).  He kindly let us visit Owen and Cleo (who are kept in an enclosure not yet open to visitors though plans are underfoot to expand the park) and we were able to see the young hippo (now about 4-5 years old) and his new companion (a female hippo, about 15 years of age) ourselves and snap these photos.

Haller Park boasts a variety of animals and immediately upon entering the park we were greeted by several Rothschild’s giraffe (comically near signs asking visitors to stay clear of the wildlife).  Visitors are given the opportunity to feed the giraffe every day at 3PM at an enclosure set up nearby and the giraffe were clearly waiting for feeding time.  (As the hour approached, the park’s Vervet monkeys also gathered, to seize the opportunity for scraps.)  The park receives many school groups of all ages from all over Kenya and feeding times are also set for the hippos (Sally and Potty, another male and female pair) at 4PM.  Visitors from all over the world also visit the park when in Mombasa, though our guide, Samson, informed us that numbers had sharply dropped this year due to the political troubles associated with the election (a report on the decline in tourism I have heard echoed throughout Kenya).

Tours of Haller Park are available in several languages and Samson, our guide, was nice enough to accommodate us with a mix of Swahili and English.  Samson’s background was in environmental studies, though since being at the park, he told us he has become increasingly interested in ornithology.  Haller Parks hosts some 230 different bird species, such as the weavers and Pied Kingfisher we spotted over the crocodile pond.  The tour of the park covers the reptile park, crocodile farm, fishery, and general wildlife enclosure, where Sally and Potty reside along with other mammals such as Cape buffalo, eland, oryx, and bushbuck.  Though my guidebook warned of poisonous snakes, only non-poisonous snakes are now kept in the reptile park, along with several Leopard and Star tortoises.  There are approximately 30 adult Nile crocodiles, introduced to eat waste fish from the fishery and bred regularly, though it was a bit unclear what for – Samson implied the young crocodiles were sent to other parks throughout East Africa.  He also informed us that the fishery (primarily Nile Tilapia) is in the process of being scaled down from commercial purposes to only Educational use and a continued role in the park’s ecosystem. 

In addition to its tours, Haller park also clearly posts information about their resident wildlife and various activities for interested visitors.  For example, in front of the mangrove nursery, there is information postedf about the Biofiltration Project, a joint project with the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) and Coastscape Ltd., to treat the park’s water systems with Rhizophora and Avicennia mangroves.  There is also information regarding further quarry rehabilitation, and about an initiative to promote Biofuel – “Plantations for Carbon-Neutral Fuel”.  Targets for 2008 include planting 150 hectares of Biofuel trees in the Diani and Vipingo areas of Kenya and further involving local communities, for instance, by inviting schools to participate in planting trees and creating employment opportunities.  

 For more information about Haller Park, visit their extensive website: http://www.lafargeecosystems.com/

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Tags: Haller Park, Kenya, Mombasa, Owen and Cleo, owen and mzee

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Category: China, Ivory, elephants | Date: Jul 16 2008 | By: baraza

Within hours of China being approved as the legal traders for the southern African ivory, here’s the AP story about 3 Chinese nationals are caught smuggling ivory in Kenya!

NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenyan authorities on Wednesday detained three Chinese nationals at the country’s main airport on suspicion of smuggling ivory, an official said.

“The three Chinese nationals — two women and a man — were arrested at the airport in Nairobi while in possession of 2.2 kilogrammes (4.8 pounds) of ivory,” Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesman Gichuki Kabukuru told AFP.

Oddly,  different press were told different things..AP say

The trio, who had stayed in Kenya for four days, were en route to the Zimbabwean capital Harare, he added.

While IOL say” The women were stopped at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Wednesday morning, said Kentice Tikomo, a spokesperson for the Kenyan Wildlife Service. They were booked on a flight to China, she said”.

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Tags: China, CITES, ivory trade, Kenya

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 21 2008 | By: admin

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

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 18 2008 | By: admin

Those of you in USA must not don’t miss ON TV Gorilla Murders airs Tuesday, July 1, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel.

National Geographic are doing some amazing coverage on mountain gorillas and have a 12 page article called Virunga Gorillas by Mark Jenkins about it on their online magazine. We are so proud that the work that WildlifeDirect has contributed is getting recognition. We’re especially pleased that the guys on the ground, at the front lines of conservation, whose lives are at risk every day, are correctly given the hero’s status.

“….Over the last year, the rangers have focused their efforts on stopping charcoal traffickers and have become media-savvy bloggers, photographers, videographers, and educators who reach tens of thousands of people around the world through a Web site hosted by the nonprofit conservation program WildlifeDirect, a partner of the National Geographic Society.

National Geographic News interviewed Innocent and Diddy, as they are known familiarly on their blog, about their work and passion. Both men are from Congo. Diddy has worked as a ranger at Virunga for about 18 years, and Innocent has been there for 11 years.

A ranger’s life is difficult. You work in a war zone, at times without pay or food rations. How do you get by?

Diddy: There have been many moments when we worked without getting paid, without food.

When there aren’t problems associated with the war, some people, including some guards, maintain small farms near the park border. From the harvest we could borrow food and make ends meet as we waited for a paycheck.

Innocent: We are assigned to protect nature, and as such we cannot abandon this work.”

Doesn’t it make you want to hug them? Imagine if everyone was this dedicated? I love these guys and had an amazing time with them last year in Congo, and we brought them to Kenya … here are some recollections

A busy week in Nairobi included tours of parks and city, Diddy described the day he met orphaned baby elephants at the David Sheldrick Trust as the best in his life!

Innocent meets his first rhino, max - another orphan

I’m not going to be able to watch the show so please please please give us your reactions here or on their blog gorilla Protection.

My two weeks in the Congo included three days in the forest with Emmanuel, Diddy and Innocent - meeting their gorilla families -the best days in my life!

Wouldn’t it be amazing if the rebel Nkunda would leave the park and allow Congo to restart mountain gorilla tourism - enabling Diddy and Innocent to continue their work while bringing visitors to meet the amazing Mikeno gorilla families. For now enjoy them virtually on gorilla blog and you can support Diddy and Innocents work to enable them to protect these extraordinary animals and their habitats safe into the future.

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Tags: Diddy Mwanaki, DR Congo, elephants, Innocent Buranumwa, Kenya, mountain gorillas, National Geograhic, wildilfedirect

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 17 2008 | By: admin

I just came across an article that claimed a link between HIV and logging which really pissed me off because it talked mainly about how logging is leading to bushmeat trade and the spread of ebola!

We all know that the HIV AIDS Pandemic is debilitating every sector of African economies. In some countries the prevalence is astounding, it is said that 36% of the population of Botswana is infected. That’s more than one in every three.

The situation is critical. I read this article by a friend of mine, Sanjayan, a scientist with The Nature Conservancy who was visiting Zambia, which compelled me to write about AIDS and its impact on wildlife conservation in Africa

“In Zambia a few days prior, I had listened to a middle-aged park warden lament the woes of his job. This litany is usually the same worldwide: bad salaries, lousy vehicles and no radios. “We have a capacity problem,” he began.

I eagerly nodded, thinking I’d heard this all before. At The Nature Conservancy, we have whole groups of conservationists working on increasing the capacity of local partners. “More training and equipment?” I asked.

“No,” he replied. “My people are dying.”

Just as his wildlife populations had been rebounding from the lows of the 1980s (when poachers had devastated his parks), this warden’s staff was now being decimated by HIV/AIDS.”

These few words sent chills down my spine. It reminded me of the times I have been faced with the impacts of HIV. While in Government years ago I attended a particularly lively inter departmental meeting - the topic? Lack of availability of condoms in government bathrooms! The chair of the meeting was the Permanent Secretary, a woman who was much too full of her self and her new power. She brushed the concern aside and said “No matter”, she then informed us that condoms didn’t work against the HIV Virus anyway. How did she know this amazing fact? Because an American scientist had told the congregation in her church two days earlier, that her research had proved that the virus was smaller than the pores in condoms. The men in the room laughed nervously and one even announced proudly “well I don’t use condoms anyway”. I stared at my colleagues in disgust.

Attitudes have changed since then and all governments and companies have fallen into line and have formal policies and procedures to deal with HIV and AIDS. But do these strategies work?

In one company that I worked for I heard how our South Africa branch was hiring 3 people for every job in order to ensure continuity! The reason being absenteeism and deaths had been robbing the company of its expertise. Companies are worried because the cost of HIV goes beyond loss of people, it includes real costs of dealing with sick employees, recruiting, training, hospitalization and funeral costs. I know that the hospital cost of two individuals at my former company almost sent it to bankruptcy. To make it worse, many insurance companies will not include HIV in their policies.

Government departments are particularly vulnerable. But isn’t it obvious that if HIV is preventable, that prevention is the obvious first course of action?

How do you prevent HIV? Education? Awareness? Testing? Counseling? All of these things are already ongoing in Africa, in formal much publicized CSR policies. Yet the disease continues to claim more and more people.

HIV is a human, personal and individual thing. I don’t think it can be addressed through statements, and policies. For example, in Uganda the government promote ABC – Abstain, Be careful, use Condoms - posters are in every single classroom, notice board, office and company….this message is going out to children as young as 6. I felt sad that they had been robbed of their innocence of youth - yet there are impressive signs that its working and prevalence is declining in Uganda (though some believe that the change is in large part due to different methods used in testing).

I’ll tell you what I found while in Uganda working on a story about womens rights. I met a very educated woman who defended the virtues of polygamy which is very common there. We had a heated argument, I questioned how any of the wives of a polygamous man could protect herself from getting HIV if her husband had multiple legal and informal ‘wives’. She asked me what the big deal was, afterall, one could just take ARV’s. It terrified me that she was resigned to the fact that she will probably get HIV and did not feel that she had any power to prevent it from happening. What has this got to do with conservation? She was one of Uganda’s most highly qualified environmental scientists. HIV is claiming some of Africa’s most valuable human assets. And, the Uganda parliament voted against the bill that would have given women the rights I’m talking about

In Malawi HIV infects 16% of the population and deforestation is being driven in part by HIV, …trees are being harvested for the production of coffins! Families suffering from HIV fail to maintain farms properly and this leads to soil erosion. HIV is deepening poverty and this leads to greater dependence on natural resources by people who cannot afford manufactured goods. This includes food (poaching), firewood and charcoal for cooking.

So, why aren’t people taking the messages on expensive adverts, posters and billboards seriously and changing their behavior? In my last work place the staff avoided the Volunteer Counseling and Testing (VCT) unit like the plague – going there was like wearing a badge announcing you had HIV! In my experience the stigma associated with HIV prevents any form of discussion – and yet this is a critical part of starting the necessary conversations that lead to greater awareness and behaviour change. The stigma – it’s something I’ve come across a lot but fail to really understand it. Why is there such a great stigma against AIDS but not Malaria – an equally preventable disease? I think it’s because of sex and religion. The way to smash the stigma is to go to the people and not just broadcast radio messages and leaflets.

A couple of years ago I spent a day in a slum in Johannesburg with IFAWs Cora Bailey, an amazing woman who works for better lives for pets in the townships. But the truth is that before she can help a single pet, she has to address human suffering. In the 8 hour day we visited numerous families with a social worker, we fed 300 children at one home with donated food, we treated a 13 year old girl who had infections on her legs, delivered clothes and food to a 17 year old who had adopted 9 children from families devastated by HIV, we rescued a 6 year old – sole survivor of a family that had all died of HIV, we went to Sparrows a home for families infected with HIV AIDS to check up on HIV patients and to deliver toys to orphans,… oh yes, I must not forget, and we also washed some dogs and cats.

On that day I heard about why young people can’t get condoms and I understood the stigma, because buying or getting free condoms is an admission that you are having sex, and this is frowned upon. Of all the amazing things I have done in my life, that day has been tattooed into my mind. Nobody said it at the time, but I know that the 17 year old girl was a prostitute, she had no other way to get money to raise these 9 children. The 13 year old had a venereal disease that probably took her life. The situation looked hopeless, I didn’t see the point of Cora’s work - 7 hours dealing with sick people, feeding hungry people, in order to deal with a handful of dogs and cats. I felt drained and shattered. This was a normal day for her.

Over the years I’ve learned that its not all hopeless folks. I think that education, awareness and ARV’s are worthless unless they go along with empowerment of women and children, and behavior change of men future.

In conservation there are some really great examples of proactive approaches. For example, The Mpala Research Center in Kenya has a Mobile Clinic, a clinic on wheels, visits 25 different rural sites in Laikipia, Kenya each month. Staffed by two nurses and a driver, the bright yellow Land Rover is a well known sight throughout the area, as it travels over 25,000km annually, serving communities with no access to any professional healthcare. It offers family planning, reproductive health education, childhood immunizations, HIV/AIDS awareness training, and basic health care to thousands of rural Kenyans. Some 45,000 people are treated and 91% of children in the area are now inoculated. Over 2,000 women are benefiting from family planning It is a dream come true for the people of Laikipia to receive health services and as one person puts it “Without the mobile clinic we are dead”. Why is this such a big deal? Because there is only one nurse to every 30,000 people in this part of Kenya.

But we are going backwards in some places - I think that Uganda’s ABC policy and Kenya’s AIDS Kills statements only deepen the stigma and prevent people from talking about its main mode of transmission, sex, by making it an immoral disease. Personally I think we should celebrate sex and healthy relationships if we are to be normal balanced human beings.

What do you think?

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Tags: , AIDS and conservation, HIV in Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Mpala Research center, Zambia

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