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 magazine and website, so ensure it gets the news that you would like to see in it.
Please let me have any changes to your physical address, phone no. or e-mail address to keep the database up to date.
Thanks to all of you who have made the effort. Please will any of you who know of members who do not get this “electric” Cleft~Stick, & have access to e-mail, pass their address along to me.
Don Yunnie
7 Chalet Drive, Hilton, 3245, South Africa Local Tel & Fax (033) 343 1534 Int. Tel & Fax (+2733) 343 1534 cell 082 377 7562 E-mail dyunnie@xsinet.co.za.
If you do not wish to receive this e-mail newsletter please send a blank e-mail to me at the above address with the word “unsubscribe C~S ” as the message heading.
Awards
Yes it‘s that time of the year again! It’s your opportunity to nominate someone who is deserving of a GRAA award for their conservation work. Please let your regional chair person have your motivation to forward to the Africa Committee – preferably before the end of this month, to be discussed at the next A.C. meeting at the end of November.
The categories are:-
Norman Dean Award - Gold medal:
The highest award and honour that the Association can bestow upon anyone.
This award can only be given to one person in any one year.
Silver medal:
An award made to an Honorary Member, Professional Member or Member of the Association for outstanding achievement and excellence in the profession of Game Ranger, or in furthering the profession of Game Ranger and/or the Association.
Bronze medal:
An award to any person or grouping of persons, member/s or non-member/s, for outstanding achievement and excellence towards furthering conservation, the profession of Game Ranger and/or the Association.
Honorary Membership:
An award made to a Professional Member or Member who has made a significant contribution towards conservation, the profession of Game Ranger and/or the Association, and who, at the discretion of the Committee, is deserving of Honorary Membership.
Life-Time Achievement Award (“Spirit of Africa” Award):
An award made to any person for an acclaimed significant and enduring legacy towards conservation in Africa and/or the Association and/or the profession of Game Ranger
Certificates
CRITERIA FOR AWARDS:
The awards of the Association are for made for outstanding achievement and excellence in the profession of Game Ranger, or in furthering the profession of Game Ranger and/or the Association.
All awards, except for Honorary Membership, are made for performance or action/s by the recipient, which took place during the twelve months prior to being nominated for the award.
Obituary Douw Swanepoel
To those of you who knew Swannie, he passed away on 11 September 2007. We would like to extend our condolences to his family, he will be sorely missed.
Douw Swanepoel, better known as Swannie to most, joined the KNP during 1982. His tracking skills as well as other expertise which he had acquired in the SADF, made him an ideal candidate for the newly announced Anti Poaching Unit at the time. For the next four years he was heavily involved in the training of all new and already-employed Field Rangers whenever the need arose.
He became a Wilderness Trails Ranger in the beginning of 1983 until he was promoted as Section Ranger to Mooiplaas during December of the same year. In 1987 he was transferred to Kingfisherspruit until 1994 when he was sent to Olifants where his career in SANParks ended in 2001 when he was declared redundant as result of Operation Prevail.
During his time in Kruger, he attained the National Diploma: Nature Conservation in 1986 by part time studies. In 1995 he completed the Higher Diploma. He received his MSc in 1999. His thesis was: The Ecology of the Nile crocodile in the Olifants River, KNP.
Because of this unique study and subsequent intense knowledge on crocodiles, Swannie was invited to address the International Crocodile Specialist Group in Australia during 1996. In 1997 he and the late Tony Pooley, the only South Africans ever, were invited to join the IUCN Species Survival Group on Crocodiles. He also appeared in four TV documentaries based on the Nile crocodile.
Swannie was by far the most knowledgeable Ranger with the use of computers. When the Honorary Rangers kindly donated a PC to each KNP Ranger during 2000, Swannie introduced all Rangers at the time to the necessary and basic PC skills, which are still used by them to this day.
However, the biggest legacy which Swannie had left KNP Conservation Services is called Cyber Tracker. He recognised the value of the palmtop computer way ahead of anybody else in the organisation at the time. He strongly motivated for them, acquired the hardware and subsequently trained the Rangers in its use. His worthwhile effort has put and kept the KNP way ahead of any similar organisation worldwide.
After leaving SANParks, Swannie became instrumental in the translocation of the first elephants into Limpopo National Park. The successful occasion was attended by dignitaries such as former State President Nelson Mandela and the late Mr. Anton Rupert.
At a gala function towards the end of 2005 he received the Phalaborwa Chamber of Commerce’s Award as Newsmaker of the Year. A week later he entered Polokwane Private Hospital for major surgery from which he was currently still recovering.
Swannie was loyally supported by Louisa ever since they married on 3 October 1981. They have two children, Jirah-Marì and Wessel.
Africa: Game Parks Offering Protection in Name Only?
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg), 8 September 2007, Posted to the web 9 September 2007 Stephen Leahy, Brooklin, Canada
The sharp decline of Africa's abundant wildlife is now happening inside the continent's protected areas, a new analysis indicates.
Africa's world renowned parks are destined to become isolated pockets of wilderness with few large animals left, as is the case in Europe, conclude the authors of an article in the current edition of the 'African Journal of Ecology'.
"It is not a pleasant conclusion," said Paul Scholte, co-author of the article, and a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
"Where we have good data, there are dramatic declines in wildlife inside parks and protected areas," he told IPS. "It was a shock. The declines are far worse than we expected."
The steep population decrease for large numbers of mammals outside of parks and game reserves in the past 15 years has been well documented. Illegal hunting, the bushmeat trade, and expansion of agriculture and urban settlements are the main causes of this trend.
However, a continent-wide overview of the status of wildlife in Africa's vast protected areas didn't exist until the analysis done by Scholte and co-author Tim Caro of the University of California and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute in Arusha, northern Tanzania.
According to the official declaration of the 2003 World Parks Congress, held in the South African port city of Durban, Africa is home to more than 1,200 protected areas which cover upwards of two million square kilometres, some nine percent of the continent's total land area.
Scholte and Caro combined the available data from all parks and reserves, and were able to use new statistical methods that can help make sense of information from disparate sources. These included a 40-year collection of monthly wildlife census reports by park guards in six Ghanaian national parks, and decade long collections of aerial censuses done over huge wildlife areas in Kenya and Tanzania.
Details on antelope populations turned out to be the most measured and consistent sets of data throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
"What new data shows, however, is even relatively well-organised protected areas cannot be relied on as long-lasting conservation tools, at least for antelopes and their predators," Scholte and Caro conclude in their paper.
While he has called for studies on other mammal populations, Scholte believes these findings are indicative of what is happening to most mammals in Africa's parks. The rise in elephant numbers in Eastern and Southern African reserves is one of the few exceptions to this trend.
Rampant bushmeat hunting is largely behind declines in Katavi National Park in Tanzania, the Ipassa Man and Biosphere Reserve in Gabon, and Comoe'National Park of Coàte d'Ivoire. In West and Central Africa, this form of hunting is often the most common factor in the pressure being brought to bear on antelope populations, the study notes.
Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve has seen populations of herbivores ranging from buffalo to giraffe to wildebeest crash. Drought, poaching and increased wheat farm acreage in surrounding areas account for this decline: since Kenya established its world famous parks, the country's human population has increased four times.
Every 20 years, Africa's human population doubles, Scholte said. That puts enormous pressure on wildlife in terms of competition for land, water and food resources.
In South Africa's Kruger National Park, the situation is somewhat different. Here, dry weather, not human activity, is behind the decline in antelopes and other herbivores.
Unforeseen consequences of management interventions within parks constitute another factor in the declines, says Norman Owen-Smith of the Centre for African Ecology at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa's commercial hub -- Johannesburg.
"This does not mean that parks cannot succeed, but rather that they need to be made larger to buffer against human influences and climatic variability," he observed in an e-mail interview.
Conservation successes in parks like South Africa's Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park are largely due to high intensity patrolling against illegal hunting, Owen-Smith added.
Although many of Africa's parks are in fairly dire straits, there are a few that give cause for optimism, said Grant Hopcraft: a researcher for the Frankfurt Zoological Society of Germany who is based in Arusha.
"(There) are shining examples of good conservation, Serengeti being one, that perhaps could be used as models," he wrote in an e-mail message. "Undoubtedly the continent wide situation is very serious, but I dread to think it is irreversible."
Notes James Deutsch, director of the Africa Programme at the Wildlife Conservation Society, a U.S-based group working in 54 countries, "There are substantial conservation successes in East and Southern Africa, although major threats and challenges remain."
The most successful parks are those with the strongest tourism business and where the local community directly benefits from the tourism, he adds. "It's disastrous (for wildlife) outside of the protected areas."
With little industrialisation, many of Africa's 700 plus million people live off the land, where much of the soil is poor and water scarce, Deutsch explains: "Successful and sustainable development is the key to long-term conservation of Africa's wildlife."
However, African parks have a tiny fraction of the budget of their European counterparts, according to Scholte, and the continent as a whole less than 10 per cent of what it needs to operate and protect its parks.
"If the international community increased funding by 10 times then there is hope. But I don't think that's realistic," he said.
Land claims could see parts of Kruger go
Tony Carnie , September 07 2007
A storm is brewing over proposals to de-proclaim more than 50 percent of the world-famous Kruger National Park as part of a land claim settlement with surrounding communities.
South African National Parks spokesperson Wanda Mkutshulwa said on Thursday night she was not aware that any settlement was imminent, but sources have told the Cape Times that the SANParks board is scheduled to meet on September 19 to discuss the issue.
It is believed that several claims have been lodged against the two million hectare park, from the Olifants River to the northern tip of the park, along with most of the southern section, from the main Skukuza camp downwards to the Crocodile River.
Conservationist Frank Raimondo warned on Thursday that the deal was fraught with legal and financial uncertainties.
"The Kruger is the jewel in the crown of South African conservation. If Kruger goes, everything else will go as well," said Raimondo, who is a board member of the Peace Parks Foundation, a trustee of the World Wildlife Fund South Africa and patron of the Wilderness Leadership School.
"I believe that this decision, which is fraught with legal difficulties, is the wrong route to follow."
But internationally-respected South African conservationist Ian Player said he doubted that South Africa would risk harming its tourist industry.
"There are a lot of rumours about, and one cannot go on rumours. I think it would be premature to rush to any conclusions until both SANParks and the minister of environmental affairs and tourism make an official statement.
"I really cannot imagine that the government would do anything to jeopardise the tourist industry of South Africa. It is just too important for South Africa."
Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk could not be reached for comment, but it is believed that he held a meeting with Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza early in 2005 and signed an agreement to facilitate a co-operative approach to the resolution of land claims in all conservation areas.
The agreement is believed to be based on a cabinet memorandum drafted in October 2002.
Raimondo believes a much better option would be to not touch the legal status of Kruger as a national park and for government to compensate the land claimants instead.
"By choosing this option, Kruger National Park's status as a global conservation icon would remain intact, as would South Africa's standing in the conservation world."
Mkutshulwa said that as far as she was aware the land claims were still being investigated by the Land Claims Commission
CONGO MOUNTAIN GORILLA SECTOR SEIZED BY REBEL TROOPS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3rd September 2007, More information on www.wildlifedirect.org/gorillaprotection
The Mountain Gorilla sector in eastern DR Congo was seized and occupied by forces loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda following attacks on patrol posts in Virunga National Park early today that forced Rangers to flee. Two key patrol posts – Jomba and Bikenge – were looted of weapons, ammunition and communication equipment. Bukima evacuation is underway pending imminent attack.
These are the 3 strategic patrol posts for the monitoring and protection of Mountain Gorillas and the evacuation involves the upheaval of some 300 individuals, including rangers and their families.
Norbert Mushenzi, Director of the Southern Sector of Virunga National Park for the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) said, “If anything happens to the Mountain Gorillas now there is nothing we can do. As of today the sector is no longer under my control and we have been rendered powerless by these actions.”
The Mountain Gorilla sector, also known as the Mikeno Sector, was attacked in January 2007, when two Silverbacks were also killed. Another gorilla was executed in June and in July 5 were massacred causing an international outcry. The area continues to see heightened political instability (reported widely in the international media) and Rangers have been struggling to protect the Mountain Gorillas amid the threat of poachers and armed militia groups. On Thursday a Ranger was shot and killed north of Rutshuru, in another patrol post attack.
“It is vital that as conservation NGOs, we maintain our neutral position while politically charged conflict rages around us. Only by remaining apolitical will we have a chance of pushing the conservation agenda and the desperate need to protect the mountain gorillas onto the table of warring factions,” said Robert Muir, Project Leader for Frankfurt Zoological Society.
ICCN and conservation NGOs including WildlifeDirect, Frankfurt Zoological Society, ZSL, DFGF and IGCP are currently funding a $100,000 3-month crisis management program. The program aims to increase the number of rangers patrolling the sector and the frequency of these patrols, but it is now under threat following today’s attacks.
Dr Emmanuel de Merode, Director of WildlifeDirect said “Mountain Gorillas in Congo face enormous perils, as do the Rangers. They need our support even more now. We do not believe the rebels are specifically targeting the gorillas. The gorillas happen to live in one of the areas of the worst areas of the world for conflict that is strategically important for armed groups. But we fear for the safety of these endangered creatures.”
A census of the remaining gorilla families has been completed and initial results are reported on www.wildlifedirect.org/gorillaprotection. Additional information on this situation can also be found on this blog.
Some 1,100 Wildlife Rangers protect the National Parks of Eastern Congo, a region affected by a 10-year civil war. These parks are home to mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants and rhinos. The Rangers have remained active in protecting these parks, four of which have been classified as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
Congo Rangers work throughout the country to protect the National Parks of Congo and their wildlife from poachers, rebel groups, illegal miners and land invasions. Over 150 Rangers have been killed in the last 10 years protecting the 5 parks of eastern DRC, and Rangers worked throughout the civil war without receiving a salary. Rangers continue to struggle to fund patrols and many are directly supported by donations received through Wildlifedirect.org.
Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park (established in 1925) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, is home to half the world’s mountain gorillas. Formerly known as Albert National Park, Virunga lies in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and covers 7,800 square kilometers. The park is managed by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).
For additional information please contact:
Norbert Mushenzi, Director, Southern Sector of Virunga National Park, ICCN –
mushelusenge@yahoo.fr
Robert Muir, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Goma – robertmuir@fzs.org or +243 (0)99725 1960
Dr Emmanuel de Merode, WildlifeDirect, Goma – edemerode@wildlifedirect.org
Samantha Newport, Communications Director, WildlifeDirect – snewport@wildlifedirect.org or +243 99 433 4645. 3-4th Sep please call int’l code +8821621974901
Lucy Fauveau, Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Goma – zsl_drc@yahoo.fr or +254 99 7702894
Linda Nunn, Gearing Up 4 Gorillas, UK – linda@g4g.co.uk or +44 7801 531205
Also visit www.wildlifedirect.org/gorillaprotection for additional information and photos.
POSITION(s) AVAILABLE
EWT - Birds of Prey Working Group – Lowveld / Kruger Park Large Bird Projects Coordinator
The Endangered Wildlife Trust, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, has grown over the past thirty-four years into one of the major non-governmental conservation organisations operating throughout southern Africa.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust seeks to appoint a Lowveld/Kruger Park Large Bird Projects Coordinator; which forms part of the activities of the Birds of Prey Working Group, which is currently one of the EWT’s largest working groups.
The successful candidate is expected to oversee and implement raptor and other large bird-focused research and conservation projects, producing peer-reviewed publications on such projects and ensuring timely delivery of effective conservation outcomes.
The successful candidate will have a minimum of a BSc (Honours) or BTech degree in the environmental field, or a related, relevant field and a proven track record in applied conservation, research and field work as well as in producing peer-reviewed publications. The candidate will be highly motivated, self-driven and able to work alone but be a team player and have exemplary administrative and organisational skills. The candidate will have exceptional extension skills and experience in interacting with SANParks, landowners and different communities. Strong communication and negotiation abilities are required to develop and nurture effective partnerships with the private sector, conservation/environmental organisations, tertiary institutions and governmental agencies.
Strong fundraising skills/abilities are required to ensure financial stability and effective administration skills to ensure the smooth running of the project.
Proficiency in the use of e-mail, computer literacy and good report writing skills are required. Knowledge of databases, Geographic Information Management Systems and the ability to speak at least one other language used in the Project area will be an advantage.
This post requires a limited amount of travel throughout South Africa and will be based in the Lowveld/KNP Region.
The Projects Coordinator will work within an established Working Group and be a team player, reporting to the Birds of Prey Working Group Manager.
This is a contract appointment. The Endangered Wildlife Trust is an equal opportunity employer.
Successful applicants will be required to attend interviews.
Applicants are to submit a comprehensive CV, as well as a motivation as to how they would see their role in this post.
All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Candidates who have not been contacted within 14 days of the closing date, must please assume that their applications were not successful. The EWT reserves the right not to make an appointment.
Closing date: Friday, 21st of September 2007
To apply please e-mail your CV to alisond@ewt.org.za
Or post to “Human Resource Manager”, Private Bag X11, Parkview, 2122. Or fax to +27 (11) 486 1506
Tailpiece-
At the end of the tax year the Tax Office sent an inspector to audit the books of a synagogue. While he was checking the books he turned to the Rabbi and said, "I notice you buy a lot of candles. What do you do with the candle drippings?"
"Good question," noted the Rabbi. "We save them up and send them back to the candle makers, and every now and then they send us a free box of candles." "Oh," replied the auditor, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer. But on he went, in his obnoxious way "What about all these matzo purchases? What do you do with the crumbs?" "Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi, realising that the inspector was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question. "We collect them and send them back to the manufacturers, and every now and then they send a free box of matzo balls." "I see," replied the auditor, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all Rabbi. "Well, Rabbi," he went on, "what do you do with all the leftover foreskins from the circumcisions you perform?" "Here, too, we do not waste," answered the Rabbi. "What we do is save up all the foreskins and send them to the Tax Office, and about once a year they send us a complete prick."
Matter of Fact
This is an electronic newsletter of the Game Rangers' Association of Africa. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Association, nor of the Editor. This is intended to be an exchange of news snips, ideas and communication between members. Newsletter content may be copied and re-distributed without authorisation. Correspondence should be addressed to the Editor at dyunnie@xsinet.co.za