Hi again
Herewith, some snippets from various sources.
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Don Yunnie
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Fly-fishing Challenge: 8 September 2007
An open competition in support of the Game Rangers Association of Africa
What to expect:
Contact for more information, entry and an accommodation list:
Marius Fuls: 015-793 3071 / 083-305 3104 / marius.fuls@gmail.com
Johann Botha: 013-282 6110 / (f) 086-608 7106 / estbotha@mweb.co.za.
Wildlife Experts Fear for African Elephants
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, February 26, 2007; 5:26 PM
An international effort to halt the illegal killing of elephants for their ivory tusks has all but collapsed in most of Africa, leaving officials and advocates alarmed about the survival of the species. A study being reported today estimates that as many as 23,000 animals were slaughtered last year alone.
A team of wildlife and law enforcement experts concluded that a widely hailed 1989 ban on international sales of ivory has been overwhelmed in the face of exploding demand for ivory in Japan and newly rich China and declining support for anti-poaching programs.
"Right now, things are really much worse than before the ban," said Samuel Wasser of the University of Washington, lead author of the report funded jointly by the United States government and several nonprofit groups.
"Almost half of Africa's elephants had been slaughtered in the eight years before the ban, but now the situation is even more extreme because the number of animals is so much lower to begin with," he said. "And unlike in the late '80s, the public has forgotten about this issue."
Wasser said poaching poses a renewed threat to the survival of regional herds in many countries and to the entire subspecies of forest elephants, which he said is now being "annihilated" in central Africa.
Wasser said reports of a rebound in elephant numbers had produced a distorted view of the situation. Of the roughly 400,000 elephants in the African wild, he said, about 130,000 are in Botswana, where they are well protected to the point that they have over bred. Of the 270,000 elephants elsewhere in Africa, more than 23,000 -- nearly one in 10 -- were killed last year alone, the researchers estimated.
The estimate is based on the 5,600 pounds of ivory confiscated in a dozen international seizures in the year ended August 2006, and an assumption by law enforcement officials that they seize only 10 percent of all smuggled contraband. Ivory is in demand for jewelry and, most commonly, for prized "hankos" used to stamp personal seals and signatures in parts of East Asia.
"This is a very complex situation because people read these days about elephant overpopulation in places like Botswana, and how elephants are coming more and more into deadly contact with people," Wasser said. "But that's one small piece of the story. Overwhelmingly, what we have across Africa is a widespread slaughter of elephants that is getting worse by the day."
The report said the ban on international ivory sales was effective at first, in large part because wealthy nations provided funds to police game parks and go after poachers. Elephant populations rebounded substantially -- especially in southern Africa -- but as more exceptions to the ban were allowed and money to the fight poachers was cut back, illegal killings resumed.
Compounding the problem, ivory smuggling has become increasingly the province of organized crime, with narcotics and other contraband often being shipped with the tusks. Ivory prices have skyrocketed, Wasser said, and the incentives for killing elephants for their tusks have never been higher.
Wasser's report, published in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also described a unique effort to determine the origins of 532 unusually large tusks confiscated in Singapore in 2002. Using DNA analysis, the group led by Wasser determined that the tusks came from African savannah elephants similar to those found in and around the nation of Zambia.
The seizure coincided with a request by the Zambian government for permission to sell tusks it had in storage. The United Nations treaty that banned international ivory sales in 1989, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), allows limited sales of tusks harvested from animals that die naturally if the home government can demonstrate it is doing a good job of controlling poaching.
In its request, Zambia said 135 elephants had been illegally killed in the country in the past decade, but the researchers estimated that between 3,000 and 6,500 Zambian elephants had been killed for their tusks in the short period before the Singapore shipment.
Much of the funding for the DNA analysis came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's African Elephant Conservation program, established by Congress in 1988. The study was funded primarily by the agency and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Wasser and other authors, who include a member of Interpol and officials at African conservation programs, said an aggressive and well-funded anti-poaching program could be highly effective now because the DNA testing can pinpoint where the animals are being killed. The report also said an education program in East Asia is essential to curb the demand for ivory.
"I don't think people in China and Japan fully understand the crisis that their ivory purchases have caused," Wasser said. As a model, he proposed something similar to a current Chinese campaign against eating shark-fin soup. In it, he said, a popular basketball player asks "What's wrong with us that we kill the sharks for the fin?"
While the 1989 ban forbids all unapproved sales of ivory between nations, illegal material that slips through can become legal once it turns up in a new country. Before the 1989 ban, most smuggled ivory was shipped to Europe, the United States and Japan. Now, the report found, most of it is going to China and Japan, although authorities say some is turning up again in the United States.
SUCCESSFUL MSINSI RHINO POACHING INVESTIGATION
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife donated three adult white rhinoceros to Msinsi Resorts and Game Reserves during 2005, destined for Nagle Dam & Game Reserve, once the perimeter fence had been completed. They appeared to settle down well and soon became a part of this new game reserve, joining populations of kudu, nyala, blue wildebeest, warthog, giraffe and impala, all monitored and guarded by management staff.
During October 2006, the field rangers posted in this game reserve reported that one of the rhinos had not been sighted for 3 days. This had happened once before with the bull rhino, which is unusual, as it is well known that rhino cows do become very secretive when about to give birth, but bulls generally are quite visible. Some major searches were immediately conducted by Msinsi staff, both within and outside of the game reserve, looking for the missing animal. It turned out that it was one of the cows that went missing, and she may well have been pregnant.
Sadly, on 21 November 2006, after an exhaustive search of the game reserve, using a large team, the remains of the rhino were discovered in a fairly remote part of the game reserve. The SAPS Organised Crime Investigation Unit, led by Detective Inspector Riaan Van Rooyen, revealed that the animal had been shot twice, dismembered, and the 2 horns, some body parts and some meat had been removed. After further investigation, a plan was put into motion in an attempt to arrest some suspects whom lived not too far from the game reserve.
In a massive swoop involving two helicopters (SANDF and SAPS Air Wing), armed SAPS (Special Task Force) officials (including a special sniffer dog and its handler from Pretoria, trained to root out explosives and rhino products), Msinsi and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife staff arrested 4 people, all linked to this heinous crime, affecting not only Msinsi and Umgeni Water assets, but also the neighbouring communities. Msinsi Resorts and Game Reserves, since the inception of this game reserve, has always said that this game reserve must play a role in community development. Some of the animals were introduced into this game reserve in the name of the local communities.
The arrest included the seizure of rhino parts like the anterior horn, and the skins and body parts of numerous species, like African rock python, nyala, bushbuck, blue wildebeest, reedbuck, tortoises and others.
Some of these animals do not occur at Nagle Dam and Game Reserve, so it seems that the suspects may have been poaching for sometime and not only in this game reserve. Firearms confiscated from the suspects included a 303 rifle, an AK47 and a .38 handgun.
In an interesting turn of events, the second (and until then missing) rhino horn taken from the shot animal was seized from an individual who had bought it from one of the original suspects. He was also arrested. Bail was set at about R7000.00, and it appears that they will remain behind bars until the finalisation of the court case, as they did not have the funds to raise the bail.
This success story is only in its first chapter, as it appears that an interesting court case lies ahead. The case is due to be heard sometime during 2007. Msinsi was extremely grateful for the professional approach provided by all the parties that assisted with this event.
This version of the successful rhino poaching investigation has largely been extracted from an official incident report written by Ms Thanda Zulu, the Reserve Manger, based at Nagle Dam and Game Reserve.
Rob Markham, Manager (Acting): Natural Resource Management Msinsi Resorts and Game Reserves.
Giant sable
This is the report from Pedro vaz Pinto on Canagadala , where there are about 20 giant sable.
2007 January report, ENGLISH VERSION
A new year... The stakes are set higher than ever, but the momentum gained over the past few months give us reason to be hopeful. Tackling the hybridization issue in Cangandala, is priority number one. A crisis plan has been devised and will start being implemented next month. First, I'm taking a training course on game immobilization at Malilangwe Zimbabwe. We're also ordering tracking equipment, so that some of the animals will be equipped with GPS and VHF collars. Then, in June, we will start darting the animals. The first animal to be darted will be released with a VHF (and/or GPS) collar, allowing us to keep track of the herd all the time from then on. This is expected to make much easier approaching and darting other individuals. Ideally, the hybrids should be sterilized and released again, but if this turns out to be considered unsafe, ineffective or too complicated, then we'll be forced to remove them. We simply can't risk having no-sterile hybrids around. This program will be mostly sponsored by the TUSK Trust, who has just joined our efforts. I have to thank Charles Mayhew for believing in the project!
The last trip to the park was somewhat atypical. I took along Eduardo Traguedo, who is finishing his degree at Tecnikom in Pretoria, on wildlife conservation. He dreams to do his final year research on lions in Bikuar NP, but in the end he might instead join us in June with the giant sable in Cangandala! The road Luanda – Malanje continues to improve, even through the rainy season and it took us a mere 7 hours. In Malanje we were joined by Bebeca. On the way to the park and inspite of the ongoing prohibition, we would still meet, as usual, dozens of bicycles carrying charcoal towards the city. This time we even bumped into a couple of bicycles loaded with charcoal, on the sand road less than 5 km from the park border, which Bebeca promptly confiscated.
We arrived in the evening in the Park, prepared for a very tough few days, with a lot of walking, tracking and maybe even some swimming… and fly camping in the process. Quite surprisingly however, it hadn't been raining in Cangandala for more than one consecutive month, and the shepherds had worked hard on the wooden bridges and draining the path through the floodplain. Miraculously, we were able to, just barely, drive across the Maubi River into the park (unheard of in January!). Once inside, we would be able to drive around for as long as the weather would keep dry…
First news received from the shepherds, regarded encounters with poachers. This was expected as they were now and for the first time, well equipped with guns and ammunition. Of course, the shepherds still lack some specialized training in anti-poaching operations and this will be priority for 2007, but one must not underestimate their skills to operate an AK-47. As testimony of the war days, most Angolans in rural areas have had at some stage war training and know how to use an AK-47s.
The last encounter had happened a just week before, when a shepherd patrol had bumped into a group of three poachers. The poachers were the first to open fire but they soon run out of ammunition and fled. They could not be captured, but left behind another weapon (the third apprehended over the past few months), one showing a nice handcraft job done on the stock. Eleven bullets were fired by the shepherds, but Bebeca wasn't at all happy about the failure in capturing at least one of the offenders. More worrying for me was the fact that the shooting took place not at all far from the salt licks…
We camped near the old administrative post and, blessing the dry weather, we drove easily to salt lick 1. As usual, this site showed no signs of big antelopes and I decided to remove all the equipment. Some of the units don't seem to be performing very well and they will be rested for maintenance. Better have them ready when a new opportunity comes by. At salt lick 2, the one that always produces results, it was a total failure this time. We had as always, the video camera operated by the movement/heat detector unit, and the later has to be previously triggered by an infrared beam set at convenient antelope chest height (thus preventing small mammals from setting the camera on). The camera this time hadn't recorded one single sequence, but the movement/heat detector seemed to be working fine. The infrared unit, on the other hand, had recorded thousands of events until it run out of battery. Something had gone wrong with this unit, and the answer didn't take long: serious infestation by ants! Again, the same problem we faced in 2004, but I guess its my fault as I neglected lately the regular insecticide treatment… Basically, what happened is that the ants nesting inside the unit kept triggering the infrared sensor every few minutes. Every time the sensor received a false message it would turn on the movement/heat detector but this later unit would detect nothing and the video camera would not record. After a couple of days, the first unit had burned out completely its batteries and ceased communication between units. Any antelope approaching the salt lick would not be breaking the infrared beam in the first place, so it wouldn't trigger the second unit as well. There were signs of Hippotragus presence around the salt lick, but not a lot and maybe a week old.
I had great expectations for salt lick 3b. Although we never obtained decent footage from this site, every time because of some irritating malfunction, for the past few months had proved to be right in the core of the herd's distribution. We had good reason to believe that the herd was visiting this salt lick several times a week at least since August. So much so, that this time I was prepared to leave a canvas tent nearby to work as a blind (close enough to be in the area but far enough so that it would be out of sight from the salt lick slowly accepted by the animals). Unfortunately we were shocked to realize that the animals seemed to have abandoned the area. At salt lick 3, the two stills cameras were operational but had only recorded a couple of events, in more than 45 days. At salt lick 3b, the video camera had recorded the whole tape. A promising sign until we reviewed it. 90% of the footage appeared to be the result of miscalls – the film showed no animal at all. At this site there was no infrared beam, so the heat/movement detector would not be subject to a prior filter; it was always on and operational, but for some reason most of the time it had been registering false events. The remaining footage showed a handful of warthog sequences. When we opened the detector unit we found the reason for the malfunction: yes, of course, another serious case of ant infestation! It seems that the ants nesting inside this unit also caused it to trigger, at least a couple of times a day, but didn't stop the unit to still be able to detect real heat/movement from the warthogs. At least, we didn't miss any sable, as they were simply not there.
The fact that the herd has abandoned this area is a setback, and not just because we missed some valuable data. Also, we lost a good opportunity to set a base where to get closer to the animals, important for the capture operations. But more worryingly is that it is hard to avoid the thought that the herd was chased away by the poachers. One could argue that this was a common seasonal movement, but it seems more than a coincidence that the animals had just left when the poachers were detected in the area, and the firing took place. We have nothing to suggest that a sable might have been shot, but the distress caused can be very detrimental to the animals, and it will force us to try again to locate the herd.
The weather kept mercifully dry, and we decided to take the chance and drive deeper into the park to camp on the Ombe River, under the shade of its magnificent muxitos (dense gallery forest along the dry river bed). The next morning was still dry and we walked south to rescue the units at salt lick 4b. The Cuque River was carrying a lot of water as expected, and the floodplain was muddy, but the past few dry weeks had at least allowed most of the water to drain. Finding a river crossing kept us busy for a while, but eventually we managed to cross, half inside the water and half hanging on branches monkey-style. On the other side we were pleased to see quite a lot of antelope spoor. Some of the tracks were clearly waterbuck, as expected (here is where the waterbuck herd is located…), but some spoor appeared to be Hippotragus. If this proves correct, maybe the sable herd decided to move south, responding to the human disturbance or as a seasonal movement. Anyways, I'm not sure they are safer there. True that most of the poachers come from the north and they won't be able to reach this region over the next few months, but on the other hand the shepherds won't also be able to patrol and protect these areas and we have witnessed some poaching here originated from the southwest.
The camera at salt lick 4b had run out of batteries for a long time, as expected (we hadn't been there since October), but unfortunately had taken all the photos but the event list recorded, suggests that there was some malfunction and I don't expect any worthwhile photos. And this time I couldn't blame the ants! It's just that some of these units have been working non-stop for over two years, and I guess they are reaching their limits… The salt lick showed recent signs of at least waterbuck presence. In the end I decided to leave the equipment again at the salt lick, although chances are that we won't be able to recover the next set of data before May, maybe June.
On the way back, and after visiting one of the seasonal pans, we discovered a new natural salt lick (we now call it nº5) by accident. It's another half-eroded ancient termite mound well framed under a few trees, and much like salt lick 1. More importantly, it showed a lot of animal signs, including waterbuck. I was carrying along some spare units just in case of something like this happening, but unfortunately I then realized that I was short of one cable, and reluctantly we had to leave without trapping this new site with a camera. This is too bad, especially because we can't even think of coming back until the end of the rainy season.
Before we left the park and during the usual debriefing meeting, we learned from shepherds arriving from the northern villages, that in the morning they came across human tracks, indicating that poachers had infiltrated the park from northwest, a well known route! We watched as Bebeca discussed and coordinated with the shepherds the course of action, choosing the shepherds who would head to the area to try and find the poachers over the next few days. Just another sad reminder of how much we still have to battle!
This trip was over but the month wouldn't end without more news from the park. A week later Bebeca informed us that the shepherds had intercepted a group of 4 poachers! Following a few rounds of shots being fired from both sides, the shepherds captured one of the poachers, while the remaining three managed to escape. In the process, they recovered another AK-47, one shotgun, ammunition, 4 bicycles, two spotlights, snares and diverse utensils. Also dry meat and remains from one bushbuck, one grey duiker and two vervet monkeys. The Governor was immediately informed of the incident and made it clear this had to be dealt strongly. The shepherd delivered the poacher to the police at Cangandala and the man was subsequently transferred to Malanje. As I write these lines the poacher was still arrested and the police was looking for his three mates, all by now identified.
It is rewarding, and a relief, to see that now that they are better equipped, the shepherds are finally making a stand against poaching, and hopefully stopping the trend and reverting what not so long ago seemed inevitable. The more I think of it, the more I wonder how the giant sable survived in Cangandala. I guess we just arrived at the very last moment. The war isn't won yet but we are finally getting on top!
Best wishes,
Pedro
Screaming and scare mongering about global warming does not help
BJ0RN LOMBORG, Cape Times, February 12, 2007
YOU would have had to be stuck in deepest Mongolia to avoid hearing that the United Nations' climate panel issued a new report earlier this month. Perhaps even in the depths of Mongolia, you would have heard the dire warnings emitted by journalists. You would have distilled from these agonised noises that the report concluded that global warming is worse than we had imagined, and that we need to take swift and strong action right now. You would have been misinformed.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced a good report - an attempt to summarise what the world's scientists know about global warming. Unlike the Bush administration, caught downplaying the science, the IPCC squarely tells us that mankind is largely responsible for the planet's recent warming. And, unlike AI Gore, who has traveled the world warning that our cities might soon be under the oceans, it refrains from scare mongering.
But lost among the hype is the unexciting fact that this report is actually no more dire than the IPCC's last report, issued in 2001. In two important ways, this year's effort was actually less dire.
The report reflected the fact that, since 2001, scientists have become more certain that humans are responsible for a large part of global warming. Otherwise, though, this report had a definite sense of deja vu. Estimates of temperature increases, heat waves and cold waves are all nearly identical to those produced six years ago.
The report did, however, contain two surprising facts. Both went unmentioned in most reports. First, the world's scientists have re-jigged their estimates about how much sea levels will rise. In the 1980s, America's Environmental Protection Agency expected oceans to rise by several metres by 2100. By the 1990s, the IPCC was expecting a 67cm rise. Six years ago, it anticipated ocean levels would be 48.5cm higher than they are at present. This year, the estimated rise is 38.5cm on average.
This is especially interesting since it fundamentally rejects one of the most harrowing scenes from AI Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. In graphic detail, Gore demonstrated how a 6m rise in the sea level would inundate much of Florida, Shanghai, and Holland. The IPCC report makes it clear that exaggerations of this magnitude have no basis in science - though clearly they frightened people and perhaps will win Gore an Academy Award.
The report also revealed the improbability of another Gore scenario: that global warming could make the Gulf Stream shut down turning Europe into a new Siberia. The IPCC simply and tersely tells us that this scenario - also vividly depicted in the Hollywood movie The Day After Tomorrow - is considered "very unlikely". Moreover, even if the Gulf Stream were to weaken over the century, this would be good, as there would be less net warming over land areas.
So why have we been left with a very different impression of the climate panel's report? The IPCC is by statute "politically neutral" - it is supposed to tell us just the facts and leave the rest to politicians and the people who elect them. This is why the report is a careful and sensible document.
But scientists and journalists acting as intermediaries between the report and the public have engaged in greenhouse activism.
Elsewhere calling for immediate and substantial cuts in carbon emissions, the IPCC's director even declared that he hoped the IPCC report would "shock people, governments into taking more serious action". It is inappropriate for somebody in such an important and apolitical role to engage in blatant activism. Imagine if the director of the CIA published a new assessment of Iran, saying: "I hope this report will shock people, governments into taking more serious action."
Climate change is a real and serious problem. But the problem with the recent media frenzy is that some seem to believe no new report or development is enough if it doesn't reveal more serious consequences and more terrifying calamities than humanity has ever considered before. Indeed, this media frenzy has little or no, scientific backing.
One of England's foremost climatologists, Mike Hulme, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, points out that green militancy and megaphone journalism use "catastrophe and chaos as unguided weapons with which forlornly to threaten society into behavioural change". In his words: "We need to take a deep breath and pause."
A 38.5cm rise in the ocean's levels is a problem, but by no means will it bring down civilisation. Last century sea levels rose by half that amount without most of us even noticing.
The UN tells us that there is virtually nothing we can do that would affect climate change before 2030. So we have to ask the hard question of whether we could do better by focusing on other issues first - helping real people improve their lives and resilience so they better deal with the world's challenges. When Nobel Laureate economists weighed up how to achieve the most good for the world in a recent project called the Copenhagen Consensus, they found that focusing on HIV / Aids, malaria, malnutrition, and trade barriers should all be tackled long before we commit to any dramatic action on climate change.
With the world in a fury about cutting greenhouse gases, it is easy to forget that there are other and better ways to do some good for the planet. Good decisions come from careful consideration. The IPCC report provides that. But the cacophony of screaming that has accompanied it does not help.
Lomborg is the organiser of Copenhagen Consensus, adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School, and editor of the book How to Spend $50bn' to Make tlu! World a Better Place.
The Climate Change Revolution
printed in The Namibian (Windhoek): February 23, 2007
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeffrey_sachs/2007/02/the_climate_change_revolution.html
Jeffrey D. Sachs
THE world is in the midst of a great political transformation, in which climate change has moved to the centre of national and global politics.
For politicians in persistent denial about the need act, including US President George W Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there is no longer any place to hide.
The science is clear, manmade changes in climate are being felt, and the electorate's demand for action is growing.
Though unlikely just a few months ago, a strong global agreement by 2010, one that will set a path for action for decades to come, now stands a good chance of being implemented.
Political leaders in countries that produce coal, oil, and gas – like the US, Australia, and Canada - have pretended that climate change is a mere hypothesis.
For several years, the Bush administration tried to hide the facts from the public, deleting references to manmade climate from government documents and even trying to suppress statements by leading government scientists.
Yet truth has triumphed over political manoeuvres.
The climate itself is sending a powerful and often devastating message.
Hurricane Katrina made the US public aware and Australia's great drought this past year similarly made a mockery of Howard's dismissive attitude toward climate change.
Scientists themselves have operated with great seriousness of purpose in educating the public.
We can thank the United Nations for that.
The UN sponsors the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a worldwide body of hundreds of climate scientists who report every few years to the public on the science of climate change.
This year, the IPCC is releasing its fourth round of reports, with the one issued early in February.
That report was unequivocal: there is a powerful scientific consensus that human activity, mainly the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), as well as deforestation and other land uses (such as growing paddy rice), leads to massive emissions of carbon dioxide into the air.
This is causing climate change, which is accelerating and poses serious risks to the planet.
The single biggest threat comes from the production and consumption of energy for electricity, transport, and heating and cooling buildings.
But the world's scientists and engineers, as well as global technology leaders such as General Electric, are also sending a clear message: we can solve the problem at modest cost if we put our best thinking and action into real solutions.
By shifting to alternative energy sources, economising on energy use, and capturing and safely storing the carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuels, global society can limit its emissions of carbon dioxide to prudent levels at an estimated cost of under one per cent of global income.
The process will take decades, but we must start now and act on a global basis, using carbon taxes and emission permits to create market-based incentives for companies and individuals to make the necessary changes.
Those incentives will come at modest cost and huge benefit, and they can be designed to protect the poor and shift the climate-change burden to those who can afford it.
A reasonable timetable is possible.
By the end of 2007, all of the world's governments should begin negotiations on a climate-change system for the years after 2012, when the current Kyoto Protocol expires.
Basic principles should be established during 2008, and by 2009, the world community, including the two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, the US and China, should be ready to make a serious deal, which should be concluded by 2010 and ratified in time to replace The Kyoto Protocol was the first attempt at such a system, but it applied only to rich countries and set only modest objectives.
The richest country and biggest contributor to global climate change, the US, didn't even sign. Neither did Australia.
Canada signed but has failed to act.
Nor did huge energy users like China and India, which must be part of any meaningful solution, face serious responsibilities under the Kyoto agreement.
All of that will have to change.
All countries will have to shoulder their responsibilities to the rest of the world and to future generations.
There is now a way for individuals and companies to make their own voices heard.
The Earth Institute at Columbia University, which I direct, hosted a Global Roundtable of leading businesses, environmental groups, and other international organisations to reach a consensus to help inform the upcoming negotiations.
The Roundtable produced an important Statement of Principles and a longer overall statement that has been signed by many of the world's largest businesses, including those based in the US, Europe, Canada, China, and India.
Many of the world's leading scientists signed, too.
Global climate change requires global decisions, and initiatives like the Roundtable Statement show that we can find areas of agreement for powerful action.
It's time for the world's political holdouts to join that effort.
* Jeffrey Sachs is Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Looking for two young boma trained elephant
Greetings Don !
Well A G M 2007 has come and gone and we are all back at work pushing pens, computers and some of us are even lucky enough to be working in the veld ,lekker ne !
I have a request that you could hopefully put out on the cleft stick Don. I have a " Game Lodge " in the area ( Albertinia ) that has ( had two elephants ) there is now only one , 15 year old bull . This game lodge is looking for two young boma trained elephant. Is there anybody out there that can supply?
Cheers
Rhett Hiseman
Western Cape Nature Conservation Board, Conservation Services Manager
De Hoop Conservation Services, Tel/Fax: (028) 713 2366, Cell: 082 771 9107
PO Box 503, Riversdale, 6670, E-mail - rhiseman@telkomsa.net
POSITION(s) AVAILABLE
VACANCY:
LODGE MANAGEMENY STAFF REQUIRED for a high end fly fishing/game lodge in development on the Bushman’s River area KZN.
The positions require significant relevant experience and may be well suited to a couple.
Please fax or e-mail CV’s of no more than 4 pages, including a photo, to 036-3520103 or daltontrust02@telkomsa.net, ATT: Sarah.
Tailpiece-
A STUNNING SENIOR MOMENT
A very self-important yuppie attending a recent football game, took it upon himself to explain to a senior citizen sitting next to him why it was impossible for the older generation to understand his generation.
“You grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one,” the yuppie said, loud enough for many of those nearby to hear.
“The young people of today grew up with television, jet planes, space travel, man walking on the moon, our spaceships have visited Mars. We have nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, computers with light-speed processing”
Pausing to take another drink of beer, the senior citizen took advantage of the break in the student’s litany and said,
“You’re right, son. We didn’t have those things when we were young……..so we invented them.
Now tell me you arrogant little smart ass, what are you doing for the next generation?”
The applause was resounding.
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