Wednesday, 24th March 2010
IN THIS ISSUE
Sad News - Deceased Wildlife Officers/Zambia
AGM
African safaris: Bleak news from the bush
Ban aimed at reducing elephant and rhino poaching
Wildlife trade - A heavy price to pay
THAI CUSTOMS SEIZES 2 TONS OF IVORY
KZN WETLAND GETS INTERNATIONAL LISTING
ODE TO VICTIMS
OFFERING STATE OF AREA INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT...
Tree Identification - 3 short courses
POSITION(s) AVAILABLE
Ground Hornbill Research & Conservation Project
Hi again,
Herewith, some snippets from various sources.
I appeal to you to send me items to distribute to our members for the Cleft Stick, the Game Ranger magazine and to be posted on the web site. These are your magazines and website, so ensure it gets the news that you would like to see in it.
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Don Yunnie
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Sad News - Deceased Wildlife Officers/Zambia
Kindly be imformed that I was transfered to Kafue South National Park effective 1st January 2010. Find below a list of deceased Officers in the same area
Lisa Mwiinga [mailto:limwiinga@yahoo.com]
List of Field Officers who died whilst on duty in Kafue South National Park (Ngoma Area Management Unit) Zambia
In 2009 a Wildlife Police Officer by the Name of Fredrick Linje was assigned to go on an operation to control a Hippo which was terrorizing the communities around the Park. Unfortunately the Hippo killed the Officer. He is survived with a wife Mrs Gladys Takuli Linje aged 38 of National registration Number 162788/15/1 and 5 children aged 17, 15, 13, 7 and 3.
In the same area in 2008 another Officer by the name of Probby Hoyo was assigned to monitor a licensed hunting operation in Nkala Game Management Area when he was attacked by a buffalo and died. He is survived by a widow by the Name of Fennie Shamandande, 30 years old of National registration Number 176426/72/1 and 4 children aged 10, 7, 5 and 2.
AGM 2010
Those of you who attended or apologised will have got a copy of the minutes. If any one else would like a copy please let me know.
Have a look at our website, Ron has put up some pictures of some of the attendees and the address given by our Patron Dr. Ian Player is also available there.
From the Daily Telegraph African safaris: Bleak news from the bush
Brian Jackman, concluding our report into the perilous state of Africa's wildlife, hopes that responsible tourism is finally coming of age.
By Brian Jackman Published: 1:44PM GMT 18 Feb 2010
Down in Tanzania's Selous game reserve an age-old scourge has returned to haunt Africa's biggest wildlife stronghold. Poaching is back, big time, with an average of 50 elephants being killed every month to fuel the ivory trade
This latest surge has made Tanzania the leading source of illegally exported ivory, with Dar es Salaam as its major transit point. Yet even as the slaughter continues, sending black-market prices soaring to more than $1,000 (£636) a kilogram, Tanzania is urging CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to lift the worldwide ivory trade ban.
It beggars belief that a country whose tourist industry is so dependent on wildlife should sit back and watch this tragedy unfold like a rerun of the Eighties. That bloody chapter came to an end when the government of the day sent in the army and put the poachers out of business. Now, unless Tanzania shows the same determination to secure its wildlife heritage, the elephants could soon be gone and the Selous will drop off the tourist map. So where to go instead? At least Kenya is opposing Tanzania's proposals to reopen the ivory trade, but it has troubles too, after enduring what some tribal elders have described as the worst drought in living memory. On the edge of sub-Saharan Africa, global warming is now a fact of life, and Kenya is in the thick of it.
Last year even major rivers such as the Athi and the Uaso Nyiro dried up completely, and many pastoralists lost almost all their livestock, prompting fears that tribes such as the Maasai, those Rift Valley Romans with their blood-red robes and shining spears, could soon fade into history as their traditional way of life becomes unsustainable.
One of the worst-affected places was Amboseli, the game park in the shadow of Kilimanjaro. Although best known for its elephant herds, Amboseli is also home to large numbers of buffalo, wildebeest, zebra and hippo, all dependent for survival on the lush swamps at the foot of the mountain.
But a succession of dry years exacerbated by decades of mismanagement terminally weakened this once proud refuge and it only took last year's deadly drought to apply the coup de grace.
The result was inevitable. Without rain the swamps could no longer support such a mass of wildlife and the ecosystem collapsed. When the rains finally did fall in December they came too late to save the game and two thirds of Amboseli's wildlife population died, including all but two per cent of the park's 6,000 wildebeest. The rest perished, along with most of its zebras, 75 per cent of its buffaloes and every elephant under two years old.
At least there was better news elsewhere. Schemes in the Chyulu Hills, in which Maasai were compensated for attacks by predators on their cattle, were proving successful. A corridor linking Laikipia with Mount Kenya was opened for migrating elephants and last August the massive task of ring-fencing the Aberdare mountain range was completed by Rhino Ark, a Kenyan conservation charity.
But the overall picture was bleak. At the height of the drought, desperate herdsmen armed with guns drove emaciated herds into Shaba game reserve, leaving a trail of dead cows behind them, and even the Maasai Mara suffered as thousands of Maasai cattle invaded the reserve made famous by the BBC's Big Cat Diary programmes.
While drought grabbed the headlines, Kenya's lions quietly continued their slide to extinction. Their demise has been hastened by the use of Furadan, a pesticide withdrawn last year by its manufacturer, but still widely available in the south of the country. In the old days, the Maasai would spear any predator that attacked their livestock. But a dead cow laced with poison is far deadlier, killing not only lions but also any other creatures that consume it, from hyenas and jackals to eagles and vultures. No wonder Kenya has been losing lions at the rate of about 100 a year. Some conservationists predict they could all be gone in 20 years.
Even in the Maasai Mara lions are losing ground. In 20 years their numbers have shrunk from more than 250 to barely 150 resident adults and only last month one of the best-known pride males was speared to death.
At least they are doing better on the privately managed wildlife conservancies adjoining the reserve. Driven by the need of drought-stricken pastoralists to diversify into ecotourism, the conservancies are designed to benefit Maasai landowners and wildlife. Ol Kinyei, created five years ago by Jake Grieves-Cook, the Kenya Tourist Board chairman, was the first to be established, followed swiftly by Olare Orok. Now the idea has caught on and this year two areas have been added – the 30,000-hectare Mara North Conservancy and another 75,000 hectares at Naboisho.
"In the conservancies our lions are increasing," Grieves-Cook says. "According to the latest estimates more than 30 per cent of all adult lions in the Mara ecosystem are resident here."
Already, by limiting visitors, the new conservancy camps – Saruni, Porini, Mara Plains, Elephant Pepper and the rest – are offering their guests a better wildlife experience. "We now have 51 lions in three separate prides around Porini Lion Camp," Grieves-Cook says.
In contrast, the Mara national reserve continues to suffer from overcrowding, poor management and the threat of further uncontrolled development, as revealed in this paper last week by Graham Boynton.
For many conservationists the last straw was the construction of a new tourist camp at Olkeju Ronkai, a pristine stretch of riverine woodland critical to the survival of the reserve's black rhinos. On February 10, its British backers, Somak Holidays, agreed to withdraw their involvement with Olkeju Ronkai after pressure from Aito, the Association of Independent Tour Operators.
One of the most eloquent voices against the violation of Olkeju Ronkai is that of Samson Parsimei Lenjirr, formerly the warden in charge of rhino monitoring and now chief warden for the Mara Triangle sector of the reserve.
"Another camp is near completion and a critically endangered species has been displaced," he lamented. "The black rhino have moved out of this area to make way for foreign tourists, but what will those tourists see? We have been taught that Kenyans will only understand the value of wildlife when it is considered as a source of foreign revenue, but I believe we are wrong. We are wrong because Kenyans do understand the importance of wildlife without seeing it in shillings, and we are sad when we find that it is disappearing with such speed."
It will be interesting to see what happens. Will the camp be dismantled? Or will it be allowed to remain – and end up being shunned by every visitor who believes that rhinos should take precedence over tourist-camp shareholders?
When the dust has settled, this whole episode may well be seen as a tipping point in the history of conservation. The struggle for Olkeju Ronkai marks the moment when responsible tourism finally came of age and said that enough is enough.
Ban aimed at reducing elephant and rhino poaching Current UK position summarised in today`s (19/03/2010) "Guardian" newspaper as follows:
UK government 'shamefully' refuses to support Kenyan proposal for a ban aimed at reducing elephant and rhino poaching
"The Conservatives today criticised the Labour government for failing to support proposals from a number of African countries to impose a 20-year ban on any legal sales of ivory. The UK government had said it was initially "sympathetic" to the Kenyan proposals, subject to a review after 10 years of the scheme, but the EU, which votes as a bloc at Cites, decided not to back it. But on a Cites vote this week on whether to ban the international trade in bluefin tuna, the UK acted alone rather than as a bloc with Europe and chose to support the Monaco proposal of opposing the ban.
Shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert said the government had "shamefully" refused to support the Kenyan proposal for a ban on sales and continued to back stockpiling of legal ivory - for example from animals which had died naturally. "Instead of flooding the market with more ivory and legitimising the trade, these stockpiles should be destroyed. We should be choking demand for ivory, not stoking it," he said.
The UK opposes the bids by Tanzania and Zambia to have one-off sales of their ivory, but EU countries are still considering their requests to "downlist" their elephants from Appendix I to Appendix II of the convention. Such a move would not allow a trade in ivory, but could let other elephant body parts be traded internationally and the sale of live elephants, for example to safari parks elsewhere, could go ahead. It could pave the way for a potential ivory sale in the future.
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokeswoman said: "The EU has agreed with the UK's position to vote against the proposals from Tanzania and Zambia to sell ivory stocks in a one-off sale. The EU has decided not to support Kenya's proposal for a moratorium of ivory sales for 20 years." She said that, regardless, the UK would not consider other sales of ivory until the effects of the 2008 one-off sale of ivory, which was intended to reduce demand for illegal poached ivory, had been fully analysed. That would take at least another six years, she said.
The 20-year ban would extend an existing nine-year moratorium, agreed at the time the four African countries were given the go-ahead to sell their legal ivory stocks, on any further sales.
Efforts to increase protection of polar bears and Atlantic bluefin tuna were defeated at the international meeting."
The above taken from following link http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/19/kenya-20-year-ivory-ban
Their sheer size and strength have made them among the most celebrated of endangered species, yet they have all been betrayed — by vested interests at a UN meeting on wildlife protection.
Proposals to ban trade in bluefin tuna and polar bears were overwhelmingly rejected yesterday at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), meeting in Doha, Qatar.
A plan for a 20-year ban on ivory sales, to protect African elephants, is also likely to fail in the coming days — partly because Britain and other members of the EU are refusing to support it. Delegates are instead expected to approve a weak compromise, which would encourage poaching by allowing the sale of ivory being stored by several African nations.
Feelings were running high yesterday about the failure of measures to protect endangered tuna. Only 20 of the 120 countries at the meeting voted to ban trade in the bluefin. Intensive lobbying by Japan, which consumes 80 per cent of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin, meant that a snap vote was held before any debate on scientific reports that show a catastrophic decline in the largest of the tuna family.
Campaigners reacted with dismay. Oliver Knowles, of Greenpeace, said: "It is an own goal by Japan. By pushing for a few more years of this luxury product it has put the future of bluefin, and the future of its own supply, at serious risk. The abject failure of governments here at Cites to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna spells disaster for its future, and sets the species on a pathway to extinction."
France, Italy and Spain catch most of the tuna consumed by the global market. In 2009 a quota of 19,950 tonnes of tuna was set by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, but many fish are caught live in nets, transferred to farms and fattened before slaughter.
Susan Lieberman, director of international policy for the Pew Environment Group, said: "The market for this fish is just too lucrative and the pressure from fishing interests too great for enough governments to support a truly sustainable future for the fish."
The Cites process, which requires a two-thirds majority for a proposal to be adopted, is vulnerable to well-funded lobbying by countries and industries that depend on trade in a species. The vested interests exploit uncertainties in the estimates of population numbers, and strike backroom deals to secure the votes of developing countries where endangered species are far down the list of political priorities.
A US proposal to protect polar bears fell victim to arguments put forward by Inuit groups that their livelihoods depended on hunting the animals. The vote on protecting elephants is due on Monday, and is viewed by wildlife groups as the last opportunity to protect many of Africa’s most threatened herds.
The few remaining elephants in Sierra Leone were killed in October by poachers serving the thriving black market in ivory, which fetches up to $1,500 (£980) a kilo in the Far East. In the Zakouma National Park in Chad, poaching has cut the population from 3,885 in 2006 to only 617 last year. The number of elephants lost to poaching in Kenya has quadrupled in the past two years. Kenya is one of seven African nations proposing a 20-year moratorium on sales of stockpiled ivory.
International trade in ivory was banned in 1989, but since then Cites has agreed several "one-off sales" of stockpiled ivory on condition that the proceeds were spent on elephant conservation. Britain supported a one-off sale of 105 tonnes in 2008, arguing that it would reduce poaching by satisfying demand. But Kenya says that the one-off sales have expanded the market in China and Japan for ivory ornaments, and that this in turn has encouraged poaching.
Asian-run crime syndicates are able to pass off illegal ivory as coming from stockpiles sold with Cites approval.
Tanzania and Zambia want to sell 112 tonnes of ivory, and have submitted proposals that would allow the sale to take place by reducing their elephants` level of protection under Cites trade rules.
Britain will join the rest of the EU in voting against Kenya`s proposal. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was still considering whether to support a lowering of the Cites protection for Tanzanian and Zambian elephants.
Robbie Marsland, UK Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: "We are disappointed that the UK Government, and European Union member countries as a whole, have not gone into this meeting with a much stronger message against the ivory trade and in favour of elephant protection.
"This leaves the door open to future trade, which would result in further illegal poaching."
Nick Herbert, the Shadow Environment Secretary, said the Government should be pressing for the destruction of stockpiles of ivory. "No one proposes stockpiling seized drugs or weapons to sell for profit, and ivory should be treated in just the same way. Instead of flooding the market with more ivory and legitimising the trade these stockpiles should be destroyed. We should be choking demand for ivory, not stoking it."
A Defra spokesman said: "The UK will not consider other sales of ivory until the effects of last year`s one-off sale of ivory, intended to reduce demand for illegal poached ivory, have been fully analysed. This will take at least a further six years."
A report last week by an international team of 27 scientists and conservationists concluded that previous one-off sales had contributed to a rise in poaching and failed to deliver the promised conservation benefits, resulting in "only short-term profitability to the few individuals who ran the scheme".
--- http://www.deccanherald.com/content/56917/a-heavy-price-pay.html
Wildlife trade - A heavy price to pay
The Guardian
Experts have coined a new term – empty forest syndrome – to describe gaping holes in south-east Asia’s biodiversity. Seahorses, butterflies, turtles, lizards, snakes, macaques, birds and corals are among the most common species exported from Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, writes David Adam
Countries across south-east Asia are being systematically drained of wildlife to meet a booming demand for exotic pets in Europe and Japan and traditional medicine in China - posing a greater threat to many species than habitat loss or global warming.
More than 35 million animals were legally exported from the region over the past decade, official figures show, and hundreds of millions more could have been taken illegally. Almost half of those traded were seahorses and more than 17 million were reptiles. About one million birds and 400,000 mammals were traded, along with 18 million pieces of coral.
The situation is so serious that experts have invented a new term – empty forest syndrome – to describe the gaping holes in biodiversity left behind."There’s lots of forest where there are just no big animals left," says Chris Shepherd of Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network. "There are some forests where you don’t even hear birds."
Seahorses, butterflies, turtles, lizards, snakes, macaques, birds and corals are among the most common species exported from countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Much of the business is controlled by criminal gangs, Shepherd says, and many of the animals end up in Europe as pets. The rarer the species, the greater the demand and the higher the price. Collectors will happily pay several thousand pounds for a single live turtle.
Vincent Nijman, a researcher at Oxford Brookes University who has investigated the trade, said: "We see species that are in fashion traded in great numbers until they are wiped out and people can’t get them any more. So another one comes in, and then that is wiped out, and then another comes in."
He added, "In Asia, everybody knows the value of wildlife, so people go into the forest and, whatever they encounter, they know it has a value and that there is someone they can sell it to."
Rhino horn, ivory trade
Nijman’s research offers the first glimpse of the size of this widespread trade. While most people are aware of illegal sales of rhino horn and ivory, he says it is the scale of the movement of lesser-known species that is most disturbing.
He analysed 53,000 records of imports and exports from countries under Cites, the international convention that regulates the sale of wildlife. Most common species are not listed under Cites, so do not appear in the records. Trade in the most endangered, such as rhino and tiger, is banned. Nijman looked at species considered vulnerable enough that trade is allowed, but controlled. "I`m not against the wildlife trade at all. I think it is a very important economic driver for a large part of the region and a lot of people are dependent on it," he said. "But it has to be done in such a way that you don’t finish it all this year. It`s not like oil, where you drill it out and then it’s gone. If you organise and regulate it properly, it should go on for ever."
Cites records between 1998 and 2007 showed that of more than 35 million animals exported during that period, some 30 million were taken from the wild. The EU and Japan were among the most significant importers.
For some mammal species, the proportion sourced from the wild dropped significantly over the decade, and traders were forced to rely increasingly on captive-bred animals. Official trade in birds virtually disappeared by 2007, probably because of bird flu restrictions.
China challenge
The bulk of seahorses traded were in the form of dried specimens for Chinese medicine. "The moment you look into the wildlife trade in south-east Asia, China is the biggest challenge, because they can use everything and they will use everything." Trade in the Asian pangolin, a scaly anteater, illustrates the problem. Officially, countries do not allow their commercial sale and agreed a zero quota under Cites in 2000, though regular seizures show widespread trade, for medicine and meat. "The countries closest to China get emptied (of pangolin) first. Vietnam and Laos have been drained. Myanmar has been drained and they are working south, so now Indonesia is being emptied of pangolins," Shepherd says. "Prices are very high and in the next few years we will see pangolins being sucked out of Africa to supply the demand," he adds.
Nijman says his analysis of the Cites records, published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, inevitably underestimates the scale of the trade. "There is always an unknown quantity of Cites-listed species that are traded without being reported, and on top of that, probably much larger, is the trade in non-Cites species, which are the species that we think are still common enough to be traded without controls.”
Indonesia’s ubiquitous gecko
One of these is the tokay gecko. "Every-one who has been to Indonesia or Malaysia will know them because they are the ones that sit in your hotel room. You have them everywhere." Although not listed by Cites, Indonesia has set a limit of 45,000 of the lizards exported each year as pets. Nijman says the true number traded is much higher, perhaps into the millions. "We can’t say whether a million tokay geckos being traded a year, or two million, is too many. Perhaps there are so many it is OK. But you would think that if they set the quota at 45,000 then a million is too much."
Such geckos can be typically bought in rural villages for a few cents each, and sold for $10 - a profit margin that rivals the drugs trade.
"It’s a great business. No wonder organised crime gets involved and starts running things," Shepherd says. The situation is acute in south-east Asia, but the trade, both legal and illegal, is global, often using the internet and courier delivery.
Sarah Morgan
Communications Officer
TRAFFIC Southeast Asia - Greater Mekong Programme
Email: smorgan@traffic.netnam.vn , Web: www.traffic.org
Thai customs seizes 2 tons of ivory
By MICHAEL CASEY | AP Environmental Writer
Thailand has seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory seizure.
Thai Customs officials valued Wednesday night's haul at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport at 120 million baht ($3.6 million). It is further sign that Thailand is emerging as a hub for the illicit trade.
Poaching of elephants in central and eastern Africa has intensified in recent years, with much of the illegal ivory exported to Asia.
Seree Thaijongrak, the direct of investigation and suppression bureau for the Customs Department, said that acting on a tip, officials seized two pallets found to contain 239 tusks of African elephants.
The consignment, which originated in South Africa, was labeled as mobile phone parts in a consignment destined for Laos - apparently to confuse customs officials, as Laos has an agreement with neighboring Thailand not to check cargo in transit.
A Thai national, however, attempted to pick up the cargo and was detained, Seree said. Customs officials suspect the tusks would have been crafted into trinkets and jewelry in Thailand.
"This is the biggest seizure we have ever had," Seree said. "This is a real accomplishment for Thailand. Normally, this would have gone right through but we got the tip-off."
Seree said smuggling of ivory from Africa is on the rise in Thailand as in much of Southeast Asia.
Ivory shipped to Thailand typically goes to carvers who fashion it into Buddhist statues, bangles and jewelry for sale to tourists or sale in other countries. Thailand is also a transit point for ivory forwarded to other markets like China.
Last month, Thailand arrested two Thai women accused of dealing in illegal African ivory, a day after an American and a Thai national were indicted in California on charges of smuggling ivory into the United States. Police believe the women supplied ivory to the Thai national whom prosecutors say sold several pieces of ivory on eBay, disguising shipments as gifts and toys.
The U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species banned all international ivory trade in 1989. Traders in Thailand have thrived in part because the 1989 ban did not address domestic trade. That loophole allows them to deceive authorities by claiming their African ivory came from domestic sources - a tactic that is effective because it can be difficult without DNA testing to tell the difference between African and Asian ivory.
Authorities say 10 tons of African ivory was seized in Southeast Asia last year, including three seizures in Thailand.
KZN WETLAND GETS INTERNATIONAL LISTING
EZEMVELO KWAZULU-NATAL WILDLIFE, MEDIA RELEASE No: 2010 – 02
For Immediate release:
:
At a ceremony in Pretoria on 02 February 2010, Ms Vuyi Radebe received a certificate on behalf of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (Ezemvelo)which recognised the registration of the Ntsikeni Vlei as a Ramsar Convention Wetland of International Importance.
In presenting the certificate to Ezemvelo, the national Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, congratulated Ezemvelo for the strong conservation work being done in the province and praised the organisation for adding yet another Ramsar Site to those sites already listed in KZN.
“We are extremely proud to have been honoured in this way and I congratulate those members of staff who have worked hard to bring this honour to us,” said Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife C EO Dr Bandile Mkhize.
“Wetlands are an extremely valuable asset to our water-poor country and to have the Ntsikeni Vlei recognised as a Ramsar Site is a great honour and really does secure this wetland for the future,” he said.
The Ntsikeni Nature Reserve lies in the Umzimkhulu catchment of the Lubhukwini River about 50km north of Kokstad and is 9 200ha in extent with an altitude range from 1752m to 1795m.
The Ntsikeni Vlei itself covers an area of about 1 070ha, while a smaller wetland of about 100ha lies in the southern portion of the reserve.
The reserve carries 31 known species of birds and six species of mammals such as the grey rhebuck, oribi, black-backed jackal and aardvark.
The grassland bird species include (amongst others) secretary birds, southern ground hornbill and Montague’s harrier; and the vlei species include wattled cranes, purple heron and grass owls.
The mountain species include bearded vulture, black harrier and Verraux’s eagle.
The reserve boasts two lodges - the Ntsikeni Lodge and May Lodge - information and boookings are available through Button Birding on buttonbirding@futurenet.co.za or on 039 883 1029.
Road access is via a rough track, due to be upraded soon, and visitors are advised at present to be cautious in wet weather as this track becomes extremely slippery and on occasions impassable.
AJG/ Media Release No: 2010 - 02 02 March 2010
Media:
For further information contact the Media Manager on 033 845 1235; email jeff@kznwildlife.com or fax 033 845 1299.
ODE TO VICTIMS
Evening comes to hide the scene
All daunted by what has been
Never more aught to dream.
By Sean Phelan after hearing of a buffalo herd being killed by using Scoline.
St . Andrews Bloemfontein
OFFERING STATE OF AREA INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT RELATED TRAINING TO OTHER CONSERVATION AGENCIES IN SOUTH AFRICA; 3 May to 7 May 2010
State of Area Integrity Management (SoAIM) audits initiated by the SANParks Environmental Crime Investigation (ECI) have been conducted in all SANParks over the past five years have added much needed value to the Rangers Corps of this organisation in an effort to improve the standards of area integrity management.
It also generated interest from sister organisations and as such ECI has been involved with the Eastern Cape Parks Board (ECP) to develop a similar process for them since 2007 called Protected Area Integrity Management Effectiveness (PAIME). In the process their Rangers improved their skills and although the road is still long and hard, it can be stated as being very successful.
Other organisations that inquired about this process include most of the Provincial organisations as well as from Cape Town City Council and the Private Sector. Obviously ECI does not have the capacity to address all these needs individually.
One way to deal with this as SANParks would be to present a work session within the spirit of cooperation in Conservation and to share knowledge and expertise with other organisations so that they can then return home with the knowledge to apply this initiative within the context of their organisations.
Permission has been granted to develop such a work session from Mopane Rest Camp in the Kruger National Park (KNP).
PURPOSE OF SoAIM
Establish the Quality and Standard of Area Integrity Management Effectiveness of the Conservation Agency as assessed at Operational Levels with a strong emphasis on Protected Area Safety and Security within the context of a particular Protected Area.
It is important to understand that what happens at the coal face of Conservation is a reflection of management effectiveness and support from top down.
You are invited to nominate not more than two delegates from your organisation to attend this work session and the following will apply:
Delegates should be well experienced in issues related to Area Integrity Management background, Game Ranging, PA Management, Law Enforcement, DCA management, etc with at least 10-years experience over a large field of this topic, middle management, computer literate, have a laptop and know what they are talking about
For further information please contact:
Arrie Schreiber
Senior Manager Safety & Security
Environmental Crime Investigations
Conservation Services Division
South African National Parks (SANParks)
Tel/Fax: +27 (0) 13 735 3531
Fax2e-mail: 086 604 7932
Mobile No: +27 (0) 82 805 6163
E-mail: arries@sanparks.org
Tree Identification - 3 short courses
The Southern African Wildlife College (which is situated12km west of the Orpen Gate to Kruger) is running 3 Short Courses in Tree Identification in October 2010 facilitated by Eugene Moll. These courses will run back-to-back and are graded from BEGINNERS to ADVANCED. Anyone interested in these Courses can email Alice at amoll@telkomsa.net for further details.
POSITION(s) AVAILABLE
The Ground Hornbill Research & Conservation Project
Registration No: 016.783 NPO
Mabula Game Reserve, Private Bag X 1644, Bela Bela, 0480,
Limpopo Province, South Africa
Tel : +27(0)83.743.4270 Fax : +27(0)14.734.0013 Email : ann@ground-hornbill.org.za.
Website :www.mabulagroundhornbillconservationproject.org.za
PROJECT MANAGER
This Research & Conservation Project, which has been working to halt the decline of Southern Ground Hornbill (bucorvus leadbeateri) for the past 11 years, seeks to employ a PROJECT MANAGER, based on a Big Five Reserve in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.
The Project Manager will be appointed by and report to the Board of Directors of the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project and will liaise between the newly set up relationships with the research community, conservation agencies and various stakeholders. He/she will also be required to run the existing Ground Hornbill Action Group, as an informal and transparent agency to coordinate the many different facets of Ground Hornbill (SGH) work towards the common goal of an effective recovery of the national and international populations of SGH.
ASSISTANT TO THE PROJECT MANAGER
The Mabula Ground Hornbill Project is looking for a pro-active person with a passion for birds and conservation, to learn to work in the Project Office and live in Project accommodation the ‘Bush’ on the Mabula Game Reserve.
Full adverts available on request from me – ed
Tailpiece
THE OLD man and the gunslinger
Have You Ever Danced?
An old prospector shuffled into the town of El Indio, Texas leading an old tired mule. The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town, to clear his parched throat.
He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail. As he stood there, brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of "Old Kentucky" whiskey in the other.
The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, "Hey old man, have you ever danced?" The old man, surprised, looked up at the gunslinger and said, "No, I never did dance... guess never really wanted to."
A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger grinned and said, "Well, you old fool, you're going to' dance now," and started shooting at the old man's feet. The old prospector, not wanting to get a toe blown off, started hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet. Everybody was laughing, fit to be tied.
When his last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to swagger back into the saloon. The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled Purdy shotgun, and cocked both hammers.
The loud clicks carried clearly through the quiet desert air.
The crowd stopped laughing immediately. The young gunslinger heard the sounds too, and he turned around very very slowly. The silence was almost deafening. The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes -like twin train tunnels- of those twin barrels.
The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old man's hands, as he quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's arse?"
The gunslinger swallowed hard and said,”No sir!...but...I've always wanted to."...
There are two lessons for us all here:-
(1) Don't waste ammunition.
(2) Don't mess with old people.
I just love a story with a happy ending!
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.