Hi again
Herewith, some snippets from various sources.
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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.
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We don't want your millions activist told (Zimbabwe)
Peta Thornycroft, Independent Online, January 21, 2006
Harare - Zimbabwe government wildlife officials have blacklisted a conservation group that has raised millions of rands to save animals in the Hwange National Park, one of Africa's great game reserves.
The Zimbabwean government has accused Rodrigues of making false reports about the management of its wildlife areas.
Rodrigues runs the Conservation Task Force and raised an international alert 18 months ago when he revealed that thousands of animals would die in the 14 000-square-kilometre park in western Zimbabwe unless new pumps were installed at watering holes.
Readers of the The Sunday Independent and of the The Daily Telegraph in the UK responded swiftly and donations poured in, most of them from the UK, South Africa and Australia.
The Friends of Hwange Conservation Society was formed to handle donations totalling about $1 million at a time when the Zimbabwe government had no funds to maintain the park.
Pumps were sent from South Africa for dozens of water pans, fuel and vehicles were taken north for the game rangers, and there was financial support for underpaid government staff at the park.
"About 1 000 animals had died, most of them of thirst, in the previous year," Rodrigues said on Friday. "Not one has died in the dry months since because most of the pumps are now working and we had good rain last summer."
But this week Rodrigues was told in a letter from the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, signed by its director-general, Morris Mtsambiwa: "Due to continuous negative and false reports emanating from your organisation about conservation in Zimbabwe, the authority can no longer afford to associate with you, as this association is now a liability to the nation … with immediate effect the authority will no longer accept any donations that will come through your organisation."
Rodrigues has been energetic in raising funds with which to preserve Zimbabwe's dwindling wildlife heritage and regularly criticises both the government and some private sector safari operators for corruption or destructive practices.
His last alert to the international media went out three months ago, when he accused Zimbabwe's largest safari company, Shearwater Adventures - which operates from Victoria Falls, a World Heritage site - of capturing, and separating from their mothers, about a dozen young elephants in Hwange.
The young elephants will be trained and used to give rides to tourists.
He condemned both Zimbabwe's National Parks and Wildlife Authority, and Shearwater Adventures. He said that attempting to domesticate wild animals was "in contravention of accepted policy worldwide".
One of the young elephants died shortly after it was captured and the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ZNSCPA) has laid a charge of cruelty against Shearwater Adventures.
Shearwater's publicity material claims that the elephants it uses to give rides to tourists are orphans that it rescued from drought-stricken areas several years ago. But the company doesn't dispute that the youngsters it captured last November were taken from their mothers.
A tourist watched some of the young elephants being shot with anaesthetic darts and loaded into a large container that, she said, had little ventilation. She said they were left for 24 hours, in extreme distress, on a "terribly hot" day.
"I am not an expert but I was with a couple of people who are, and they were upset. The distress of the young elephants was dreadful," she said.
Linda Cook, a lawyer for Shearwater Adventures, said on Friday: "We have vets' reports that confirm that the capture was properly and professionally carried out, that there is no cruelty and that the charges instigated by the ZNSPCA cannot be sustained and should be withdrawn."
Rodrigues has slammed hunters, most of them from South Africa and the United States, for decimating the lions of southern Zimbabwe, where they are, if only in theory, a protected species.
When Hwange National Park was critically short of funds, Rodrigues exposed the wildlife authority's purchase of a fleet of top-of-the-range four-wheel-drive vehicles - for top officials in Harare.
Rodrigues yesterday said he would take legal advice on how to respond to the wildlife authority's decision to refuse to accept money that he had helped to raise.
Shortly before Christmas, British members of Friends of Hwange Conservation Society gave money for the schooling of the children of park employees.
Many South African wildlife enthusiasts have trekked to Hwange over the past 18 months to help to repair pumps and vehicles.
Friends of Hwange in Harare, which depends on Rodrigues's energy and ability to raise funds - and on his ability to grab the attention of the international media - on Friday failed to return phone calls.
National parks officials failed to answer telephones at their Harare headquarters, or their cellphones.
News from AFRICAN INDABA
9 News From Africa courtesy African Indaba
Liberia
The country’s 11.3 million acres of forest represent 45% of its landmass and half of the remaining forest cover in West Africa. The forests in Liberia are home to 2,000 flowering plants, 150 species of mammals, 620 species of birds, 125 known reptiles and amphibians, and more than 1,000 described insect species. Western chimpanzee, forest elephant and the pygmy hippo live there. In October 2006 the Liberian president signed a forestry reform measure that protects certain forests and regulates others for both community benefit and commercial logging. Balancing these multiple uses is the result of the Liberia Forest Initiative.
Namibia
Six more communal conservancies were recently proclaimed, bringing the number of communal conservancies in the country to 50 covering 14 per cent of Namibia's land mass. The six new conservancies are the Kunene River Conservancy in the Kunene Region, Audi Conservancy (Kunene), Sobe Conservancy (Caprivi), Balyerwa Conservancy (Caprivi), Ohungu Conservancy (Erongo) and Ondjou Conservancy in the Otjozondjupa Region.
Conservancies are being created under the Ministry's Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) program, which gives rural people rights to benefit from the natural resources in their areas. The Kunene Region has the largest number of conservancies in the country (18), followed by Caprivi with 9 and Otjozondjupa with 7. The biggest communal conservancy is the N#Jaqna Conservancy in the Otjozondjupa Region, which covers 9 120 square kilometers.
Namibia
The Kyaramacan Association of the San people living inside the Caprivi National Park, which will in future form part of the Bwabwata National Park, gave N$1.2 million to the Government's Game Products Trust Fund (GPTF). The fund finances conservation projects and compensates the families of people killed by wild animals in communal conservancies. According to the agreement signed between the Government and the association, 50 per cent of the income generated from trophy hunting should be handed to the GPTF. The N$1.2 million check was handed over to Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila and Environment and Tourism Minister Konjore by the Chairperson of the Kyaramacan Association, Bosta Mautu.
The minister said MET was finalizing the memorandum of understanding with the association to ensure the co-operative management of the park and the deputy prime minister called on communities living inside State parks to emulate the good example set by the San people of the Caprivi National Park. "Lodges and national parks should open their doors for the benefit of our people," she said.
South Africa/China
Following the international workshop hosted by the State Forestry Administration (SFA) in Beijing in December 2005 on the Chinese Tiger Reintroduction Project, SFA formally issued the announcement of the Chinese tiger reintroduction project in March 2006. The pilot reintroductions sites in Zixi of Jiangxi Province and Liuyang of Hunan provinces have been approved. This project has also been listed in China’s 11th five-year plan (2006-2010). An initial investment of an estimated US$20 million is needed for each pilot reserve for habitat restoration, reintroduction of prey and predators historically found in the areas, fencing, infrastructure set up and tiger reintroductions. Save China’s Tigers team is working in conjunction with the Chinese government to raise funds for the establishment of the reserves and manages a Chinese Tiger Breeding Center at Laohu Valley Reserve in the Freestate/Northern Provinces of South Africa (see also “Aardwolf” article in this issue), presently hosting three Chinese Tigers (one male and two females), with a further male expected to arrive from China soon. The tigers live in highly secured camps on the reserve. For more detailed information on Save China’s Tigers, the projects, progress reports and events, please log on: www.savechinastigers.org
South Africa
In November business people and conservationists gathered in the Waterberg in memory of Paul van Vlissingen, who had died in October. He left SA and five other African countries a rich legacy. Van Vlissingen poured millions of euros into transforming cattle farms in the Waterberg into game reserves in cooperation with SANParks. Van Vlissingen’s cooperation with SANParks inspired the establishment of African Game Parks. African Parks operates: the Liuwa National Park in Zambia, the Majete National Park in Malawi, the Nech Sar and Omo parks in Ethiopia, the Dungonab and Sanganeb Marine National Parks in Sudan and the Garamba National Park in the DRC. An important success factor in all African Parks reserves has been to ensure that local communities benefit from conservation.
Uganda
The EU has cut funding to a Ugandan sugar company because it plans to destroy 7,000 ha of scarce natural forest to expand its sugar estate. President Museveni ordered an feasibility assessment in August of giving away a quarter of the protected Mabira forest reserve to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda for clearing. The plan has proved hugely controversial, critics saying the deal threatens hundreds of unique species confined to dwindling patches of rainforest.
Uganda
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) called the private sector, local governments and individuals to invest in wildlife ranches. UWA has identified Sango Bay as wildlife reserve. The area is rich in buffalo, sitatunga, bushbuck, giant forest hog and many primate species. A UWA spokesperson said that the move would increase animal populations and bring wildlife closer to the people. "The majority of Ugandans consider wildlife as a nuisance because they don't see any usefulness in it. We want them to get revenue from wildlife”, she said.
Zambia
The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) has arrested 3 businessmen for being in possession of fraudulent safari hunting licenses. The men were nabbed in Lundazi by ZAWA officers.
Words from the Wise
Humans beings have always been storytellers: Where they have not had books, people entertained each other by recounting folktales. In addition to their entertainment value, these tales had many functions, serving as a means of spreading news from one village to the next and of communicating the customs and beliefs of the group to children. Another way of guiding people’s thoughts and actions was through proverbs – short sayings that contain an element of truth and reflect the traditional values of a group. The many cultures and languages of Africa are rich in these sayings and they provide a key to understanding the African way of life, both in the past and in the present. As the Yoruba from Nigeria say, “a proverb is the horse that can carry one swiftly to the discovery of an idea” However, a proverb is never explained to the listener and if he cannot understand it, perhaps he needs to spend some time listening to the elders of his village. If he has forgotten where his village is, he should remember what the Benin, also from Nigerail, has to say: “The disobedient fowl obeys in a pot of soup”.
The proverbs:
Mali – No matter how long a log stays in the water, it does not become a crocodile
Senegal – If a centipede loses a leg, it does not prevent it from walking.
Guinea – A toad likes water, but not when it is boiling.
Sierra Leone – An okra tree does not grow taller than its master
Liberia – Smoke does not affect honeybees alone; honey gatherers are also affected.
Ghana – One should never rub bottoms with a porcupine.
Democratic Rep. Of Congo – You do not teach the paths of the forest to an old gorilla.
South Africa – When the man is away, the monkey eats up the maize and enters the hut.
Sudan – A termite can do nothing to a stone but lick it.
Ethiopia – The cattle is as good as the pasture in which it grazes.
Rwanda – In a court of fowls, the cockroach never wins his case.
Uganda – When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
Kenya – Those who get to the river early drink the cleanest water.
Tanzania – a sheep cannot bleat in two places at once.
Zimbabwe – An elephant’s tusks are never too heavy for it.
Madagascar – An eel that was not caught is as big as your thigh
Sources: African Proverbs, www.afriprov.org; www.lifeinafrica.com
Taken from Africa-Geographic magazine (www.africa-geographic.com)
Global Warming
Below is a nice International Press Service report which describes the major findings - a removal of uncertainty at the bottom end. We can now be pretty sure that we should be planning for a minimum of 2 degrees average temperature increase and the associated ecosystem changes.
International Press Service: Endless Summer Not As Nice As It Sounds, by Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada, Jan 25 (IPS) - Warmer, wetter and stormier – the largest ever scientific review of climate change will say there is virtually no doubt that emissions from burning fossil fuels are causing the documented rise in global temperatures.
Average temperatures are set to rise between two and 4.5 degrees C sometime between 2030 and 2050, bringing with them massive ecological impacts, according to media reports of leaked documents from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an umbrella organisation of scientists from around the world and the pre-eminent authority on climate change.
Part one of the IPCC's massive Fourth Assessment Report will be officially made public in Paris on Feb. 2.
"It's the same message that the IPCC has been saying for 20 years but with much better scientific understanding and certainty," said Andrew Weaver, a climatologist at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences in University of Victoria, Canada.
"The bottom line is that the temperature rise is not going to be any lower than two degrees C," Weaver, one of the lead authors of the forthcoming IPCC report, told IPS.
Nearly 30 years ago, climate scientists began to calculate the impacts of the burning of fossil fuels on global temperatures. If the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere doubled from the pre-industrial average of 280 parts per million (ppm), it would raise global temperatures from 1.5 to 4.5 degrees C, they found.
Currently CO2 is at roughly 380 ppm and rising at three ppm per year and that rate is accelerating as China, India and other countries industrialise. Many climate experts say it will be extremely difficult to avoid reaching 560 ppm -- or a doubling -- sometime between 2030 and 2050.
Six years of study and analysis by more than 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries involved in the IPCC process will conclude that doubling CO2 will result in a global temperature rise on average of two and 4.5 degrees C. The temperature increase will not be evenly distributed, and temperatures in Arctic regions will go much higher -- four to eight degrees C.
The bottom end of the range is virtually guaranteed, but the upper could go much higher depending on complex, and poorly understood, positive feedback mechanisms.
A meltdown of the Northern hemisphere's permafrost or a massive die-out of the Amazon rainforest, as projected in some models, could push global temperatures well above this range.
"This is not good news," Weaver said with considerable understatement. A two-degree C rise -- unprecedented since the age of the dinosaurs -- is hardly good news either.
"At two degrees C we will experience massive changes to the Earth's ecosystems," he said.
Heat waves and droughts will be more intense and last longer, while floods will be more frequent and more damaging. The rate of change will be too fast for most species to adapt, Weaver says.
While human societies in rich countries may be able to buffer themselves from most of the worst impacts, the world's poor will not have that luxury.
"There will be massive displacements of people which will create major instability in the world," said Weaver.
At 2.7 degrees C, the entire Greenland ice sheet will melt, eventually raising sea levels six to seven metres worldwide, he said. The IPCC estimation of the impacts of climate change will be released in part two of the Fourth Assessment Report in early April. Part three will look at how to mitigate climate change and will be released in early May.
"The only real scientific question regarding climate change over the past two decades has been how bad and how fast," said Naomi Oreskes, a professor of history and science studies, at University of California, San Diego.
"The only remaining issue is whether we will take appropriate action, soon enough," Oreskes said in a press conference.
The IPCC process has become the "gold standard" for global scientific collaboration and has been copied by others, she says.
The IPCC operates under the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and does not fund any research itself. It collects, evaluates and synthesises scientific data. Any U.N. country can be a member of the IPCC and can challenge the findings in its reports. And consensus is required for every word in the "Summary for Policy Makers" section included in each report.
It's an inherently conservative process, with oil-rich countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia always trying to tone down the conclusions and emphasise uncertainties and unknowns, said Weaver.
In other words, the IPCC report will be sober, factual and as un-dramatic as possible. However, it will conclude that the scientific evidence on human-induced climate change is overwhelming.
"It is time for the climate scientists to step aside and let the engineers of the world begin to develop solutions," Weaver said.
Major new technologies and changes are going to be needed and quickly to prevent a doubling of CO2.
Many experts believe it is ironic that in era of rapid scientific development, cars and trucks still use an internal combustion engine developed 100 years ago and much of the world's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants first developed in the 17th century.
"Only switching to energy-saving light bulbs is not going to cut it," Weaver concluded.
An international treaty does exist to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. Under the Kyoto Protocol, 36 highly industrialised nations must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Parties have agreed that even tougher actions will be needed after that deadline, but many are already having trouble meeting the 2012 targets.
And the George W. Bush administration has rejected the treaty as too costly to enforce, even though the United States is by far the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and consumes a quarter of global energy resources. (END/2007)
Magazine book -the Pondoland centre of endemism
NOTICE
PONDOLAND CENTRE OF PLANT ENDEMISM (PCE)
BOOKLET AVAILABLE
Dear All
The Kwazulu Natal Branch of the Botanical society of South Africa, under the auspices of their magazine Plantlife, have published a magazine book (soft cover) 'The Story of the Pondoland Centre'.
The book is written by the renown botanist and Pondoland specialist Tony Abbott and contains a fascinating insight into the botanical riches of the PCE.
It contains photographs of many of South Africa's rarest plants, geographical, botanical and geo -historical explanations as to why the botany of the area is so unique, as well as interesting anecdotes about the discovery of many of the plants.
The booklet is a must for anyone with an interest in plants or in Pondoland, and helps to highlight why it is absolutely essential the PCE is given serious conservation status.
The Story of the Pondoland centre is available from Sandra Dell at botsoc-kzn.mweb.co.za.
Tel 031 -2015111
It costs R72 for members of the public or R60 for members of Botsoc
POSITION(s) AVAILABLE
JOB position announcement, (24 January 2007)
----------------------------- Please send CV to :
David BRUGIERE
Biodiversity & Protected Areas Project officer
SECA-BRLi Consulting Company, BP 4001 - 1105 avenue Pierre Mendes-France
30001 Nimes – FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0)4 66 87 52 71, Fax : +33 (0)4 66 87 51 03, E-mail: david.brugiere@seca.brl.fr
Web: www.seca.brl.fr
www.brl.fr/brli
Position(s) sought
Student looking for work experience:
My name is Antonia Bezuidenhout and I would like to take this opportunity and thank you for taking this time to view my curriculum vitae.
I completed my experiential training in Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site for my National Diploma in Nature Conservation.
I am an extremely dedicated and a hard-working person with good written and verbal communication skills. I love to work with people, seeing that they are very eager to learn about nature and their surrounding environment.
I was accepted to do my B. Tech in Nature Conservation at T.U.T. During the course of my studies I need to do a research proposal, which will be used to further my studies. I need to be at T.U.T. every third month for 6 days. I am planning to specialise in the following field: Environmental Education.
Given the chance to prove my worth, I am positive that I will not only meet your expectations but also go the extra mile. I am a fun and sociable individual. You will see that I am open to any challenge and hardly ever fail in my endeavours, being a very meticulous person I'm willing and able to work on a voluntary basis but the only thing I require is lodging
I would like to inform you that I am waiting for my PDP in this month.
Yours truly
,
Antonia Bezuidenhout
bezuihood@absamail.co.za
Tailpiece-
A really touching story
In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.
Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Mbemb was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.
The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe's legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn't the same elephant.
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