PRESS RELEASE Issued by the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA)

Contact Details: Tel 012-667-2048; info@phasa.co.za / ceo@phasa.co.za; www.phasa.co.za

Pretoria -
Professional Hunters raise another R2m for conservation. The Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) raised over R2million at a black tie evening held at the Sandton Sun on Friday night. The funds will all go towards the training of black students in Wildlife Management at the SA Wildlife College at Hoedspruit.

It was the 4th "Wildlife Heritage Gala Dinner" held and was endorsed by Dr Ian Player as well as the Peace Parks Foundation. Funds were raised by selling exclusive donations of unique hunting opportunities, wildlife art, luxury weekend retreats, donated for auction by donors from the SADC region. Each donor’s funds will be used for bursaries for their respective students at the Wildlife College. Thus far, PHASA has funded training of over 200 students, many of whom are now in managerial positions in their respective countries.

The largest donations came from the North West Province this year. Other donations were received from the Northern Cape Provincial Government, Southern African countries, members of PHASA and private donors.

"The biggest contribution we can make to conservation is to see that there are adequately trained wildlife managers in our country and those around us, and through our actions PHASA is leading the way in conserving our wildlife heritage" said Mr Paul Stones, an executive member of PHASA who convened the event this year.

The evening was attended by numerous dignitaries including His Majesty the King of Zululand and her Royal Highness the Queen, the Premier of the Northern-Cape Province Ms Hazel Jenkins and three provincial MEC`s from the Northern Cape as well as professional hunters, conservation authorities and invited members of the public. The guest speaker was Mr Coenraad Vermaak, one of the founding members of PHASA, who gave an entertaining talk on how hunting has transformed land use and wildlife populations in South Africa over the past 40 years and whereas all the areas where hunting has ceased, so have the wild life populations declined or disappeared. He then entertained everyone by recounting some of his amusing experiences in the field.

Theresa Sowry of the SA Wildlife College thanked PHASA and bidders for the success of the evening and stated that the Wildlife College simply could not do its training programs without the funding support of PHASA.

PHASA is the largest professional hunting association in the world. It actively participates in the formulation of conservation policy in South Africa in partnership with government and non-governmental organizations and in consultation with an international network of affiliated bodies.

Sustainable use of wildlife, as an important and effective conservation tool, unfolded as a monumental success story in South Africa over the last five decades! Population numbers of most species, in particular those considered huntable game, increased significantly during this period. PHASA is proud to be a part of this success story. This achievement is now being studied and introduced in other parts of Africa. To ensure the continuation of past successes and to build on these proud results in the 21st century, PHASA recognizes the requirement for further pro-active involvement by encouraging and promoting broad acceptance of three proven principles that will safeguard and sustain our wildlife and its habitat for this and future generations.

Firstly by giving wild animals a value and allowing private ownership and trade in them. This enables wildlife to successfully compete economically with other conventional land uses and farming. There are today more privately owned conservation areas than state owned reserves.

Secondly by educating our people about the direct economic benefits and value of well managed eco-systems and wildlife populations.

And, thirdly, to have well trained wildlife managers – both in the field and, very importantly, also in all levels of government. It is these future conservationists and managers that will serve and give sound advice to the private sector and be responsible for the running of our prized national parks and wildlife areas. PHASA wants to ensure that our country has the expertise in wildlife management to continue with the high standards set in this field.

If our conservation education system cannot deliver these conservationists and managers, all conservation in South Africa will suffer.

Our wildlife and wilderness areas are valued assets and the heritage of all citizens of the Rainbow Nation. We need to put the perception to rest that our natural treasures are only for the rich or for foreign tourists.

PHASA is proud of its role in our national conservation effort. We would like to thank all who support this fundraiser. We invite all who share our vision to join our future efforts.

For more information please contact Marianna Louwrens – details below

Kind regards,
Marianna Louwrens
PHASA
Tel: (012) 667 2048, Fax: (012) 667 2049
Email: info@phasa.co.za , www.phasa.co.za

EZEMVELO GROUP ATTENDS CITES MEETING

EZEMVELO KWAZULU-NATAL WILDLIFE
MEDIA RELEASE No: 2009 – 03
26 April 2010

For Immediate release:

The CEO of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Dr Bandile Mkhize, supported by other staff of Ezemvelo, recently attended the 15th world gathering of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which took place from 13 - 25 March 2010 in Doha, Qatar. This gathering of member parties takes place every two years and is hosted by different countries throughout the world on a rotational basis.
Decisions taken at the various CITES gatherings affect the conservation status of many species of wildlife throughout the world through an internationally accepted system of ratings.
Dr Mkhize and other Ezemvelo staff, were part of the South African delegation which included members of the national Department of Environment Affairs and staff of other South African biodiversity conservation agencies.
The South African delegation was primarily concerned with matters relating to African elephants as well as black- and white rhinos.
Delegates heard that although the numbers of both black- and white rhinos were generally increasing in most range states in Africa, there had been an unprecedented rise in illegal trade in rhino products - mostly rhino horn - that had placed the rhino populations in several smaller range states in jeopardy and which had also shown up certain defiencies in the security and control of live rhinos as well as the management of hunting trophies in South Africa.
Delegates also heard that Far-Eastern countries such as China, South Korea, Viet Nam and Thailand were implicated in this illegal trade.
It appeared that powdered rhino horn was being successfully touted in these and other neighbouring countries as a preventative for various life-threatening cancers and also a means of halting such cancers, a belief that is spreading rapidly.
This was recognised as a major factor in the rise in the illegal trade in rhino horn
It was also significant that as the rhino stocks of countries to the north of South Africa and Zimbabwe were depleted, so the focus of rhino poaching had moved south.
It should be noted that a great deal of research has been done to examine any possible medical benefit of rhino horn and that to date no sigficant medicinal effect has been recorded.
"It was most rewarding and enlightening to be part of the CITES discussions on both rhino and elephant conservation, and to be able to report on the situation in our own protected areas in KZN," said Dr Mkhize.
"We are indeed fortunate that we do not have an elephant poaching problem in KZN," he noted, "but we we had to acknowledge that we had lost an unacceptable number of rhinos."
"Our staff were able to assist the national delegation in many ways and seeing as Ezemvelo is a member of the national task team on rhino security, we were able to contribute meaninfully to various discussions," he said.
"CITES has again upheld the international ban on trade in rhino and elephant products and although we in KZN have long been advocates of a tightly regulated and limited trade in these product we will nevertheless, uphold the CITES decision," he added.
"The CITES Secretariat reported that since 2006 some 95% of 470 known, illegal rhino deaths occurred in either Zimbabwe or South Africa and it noted too that for the first time rhino poaching had overflowed onto private landholdings," he said.
"It was also noted that intensity of law-enforcement and anti-poaching operations had a significant effect on depressing poaching success, and it was very satisfying to note that our efforts in KZN fell into this category," said Dr Mkhize.
"“Of great interest to us all was the fact that the Secretariat visited Viet Nam in August of 2009 and it has become apparent that this visit and the attendant discussions with Vietnamese officials has resulted in a tightening of import loopholes with regard to rhino horn," he said.
" We are hoping for similar successes in other so-called "consumer-states" as it is apparent that there are unscrupulous operators in this country who are colluding with the illegal traders in making rhino horns available through rigged hunts," he said.
"This collusion extends to the re-use of hunting- and trophy export permits, and it is gratifying to know that at a national level South Africa is addressing this issue very aggressively," said Dr Mkhize.
"We in Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife are examining our role in this whole saga, for although our permit system is very good, we are acknowledged to be a major supplier of white rhino through our annual game auctions," he added.
"In many ways we are the victim of our own success for the simple reason that our aggressive and innovative approach to rhino conservation has resulted in a boom in rhino numbers," he said.
"As far as elephants are concerned we are perhaps fortunate in that we have not experienced any elephant poaching in any of our protected areas to date - and I for one am thankful for that!" said Dr Mkhize.
The 15th meeting of CITES rejected a Tanzanian request to downlist their elephant population to Appendix 2 (allowing limited exploitation), but agreed to combat (through its member states) the ongoing illegal trade in tiger and rhino products.
It also did not support the proposal submitted by Tanzania and Zambia seeking authorization to trade in stockpiled ivory.
Detailed information on the proceedings of the 15th meeting of CITES can be obtained at www.cites.org

AJG/ Media Release No: 2009 - 03 26 April 2010
Media:
For further information contact the Media Manager on 033 845 1235; email jeff@kznwildlife.com or fax 033 845 1299.

--- Opinionator – exclusive Online Commentary from the (New York) Times Friends - - The following opinion piece was published today by Olivia Judson in NYTimes on-line edition. I responded Concerning Nature Needs Half. I imbed it below, but if you want to go to her article/blog, click on her name.

Divide and Diminish By OLIVIA JUDSON MARCH 16, 2010, 7:00 PM

Olivia Judson on the influence of science and biology on modern life.

Tags: animals, biodiveristy, environment, islands

Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC In Indonesia, the smallest islands are home to many fewer species than the largest.

This week, I want to dust off my crystal ball and make a prediction: in the future, the biggest land animals will be smaller than they are now.

Here`s why I think so. As a rule of thumb, larger animals need more food than smaller animals; they also need more space. Obviously, it takes more land to grow 100 rhinoceroses than it does to grow 100 rabbits. One hundred tigers require more land than 100 foxes. Indeed, meat-eaters, being higher in the food chain, need even more space than plant-eaters. For land mammals, every kilogram of prey supports just 9 grams of carnivore. So to feed one tiger of 180 kilos, you need 20 tonnes of prey. To support a breeding population of tigers, you need rather more. (For non-metric types, 2.2 pounds of prey feeds one third of an ounce of carnivore; a tiger weighs about 400 pounds and needs 22 tons of prey.)

When we break up rainforests or steppes, or build roads through pristine landscapes, we start to fray the fabric of nature.
Which has the following consequences. On islands, there’s a relationship between the size of the island and the size of the largest animals that live there. Enormous animals don’t live on tiny, or even medium-sized islands — they can’t. Moreover, an island of a given size will be home to more large herbivores than large carnivores. The pattern even extends to continents: the biggest animals on big continents outsize the biggest animals on small continents. (In general, large animals that find themselves on islands either go extinct — or shrink. For example, continental tigers are bigger than those on large island of Sumatra, which are, in turn, bigger than those on the small island of Bali.)

As a corollary of this, smaller islands are also home to fewer species than larger islands; hence, the ecosystems tend to be simpler. There are fewer niches for organisms to occupy, and fewer organisms of other species to interact with. Predators may be few, or entirely absent, for example.

O.K., fine. But what does this have to do with the future of large animals?

A lot. Although “island” tends to conjure images of small bodies of land surrounded by water, such as Bermuda, or the Falkland Islands, this is not the only kind of island out there. Lakes are islands of water surrounded by land. Caves are islands of darkness surrounded by light. Oases are islands of fertility surrounded by sand. In short, an island is any self-contained patch of habitat within some larger sea. Looked at this way, the garden outside my window is an island of parkland in an ocean of bricks and concrete.

For we humans are island makers. We routinely fragment former “oceans”— be they tracts of forest or prairie, or some other vast ecosystem — leaving remnants here and there. These remnants are, from a biological point of view, islands.

Before humans began building roads and cities, damming rivers, and hacking down forests, islands formed in one of two ways. The first is exemplified by Hawaii. Here, volcanic activity in the middle of the ocean has created islands where, before, there was nothing but water. On islands like this — call them Clean Slates — the ecosystem gets assembled from scratch by the various organisms that arrive there.

Alternatively, islands form when, say, sea levels rise so that pieces of land that were previously connected become separated. For example, as recently as 12,000 years ago, much of what is now Indonesia was part of the Asian mainland. Then, the glaciers retreated, sea levels rose, and what had been one large landmass became an archipelago of separate islands. Human-made islands tend to be of this second type — let’s call them Splinters.

Islands of both kinds are famous for being home to weird and wonderful organisms found nowhere else: isolation on an island allows the evolution of new and distinct forms — such as the marine iguanas of the Galápagos. But three things are worth pointing out. The first is that the evolution of new forms takes time — the island needs to remain isolated for thousands of years.

Second, the relative simplicity of island ecosystems means that they are vulnerable to disruption by competitors that have evolved in the more intense environments of the mainland. Third, many of the most spectacular episodes of island evolution — finches on the Galápagos, cichlid fishes in the Great Lakes of central Africa, bees and snails in Hawaii, and so on — occur on the Clean Slate type of island. This makes sense: the combination of few competitors plus empty niches presents massive evolutionary opportunities.

More by Olivia Judson

• Breezy Love, or the Sacking of the Bees, March 9, 2010
• Evolution by the Grassroots, March 2, 2010
• All previous columns »

A different process goes on when an island forms by splintering. Here, the ecosystem is pre-existing: the island is created with a set of residents already in place. But it is now too small to support them all.

What happens next is a kind of unraveling, a fraying, a disassembling such that the ecosystem becomes simpler, so as to fit the space that is now available. On those recently-created islands of Indonesia, for example, the smallest islands are home to many fewer species than the largest islands. And, as you’d expect, you don’t find big animals on the smallest islands either.

When we humans burn tracts of forest, or make islands in some similar way, the immediate impacts depend on a suite of factors, including how many islands there are, how big they are, and how close they are together. It also matters what is between them. Fields may be more hospitable to wildlife than roads or water; under some circumstances, life forms may be able to flit from one fragment to another, and the “island” nature of the fragments will be reduced. Perhaps we can use such patterns to shape how we use land, to try and minimize the impact we have.

Perhaps.

Or perhaps we should stop getting mired in details, and reflect on what we know: small islands are simpler, less ecologically interesting places than big islands. When we break up rainforests or steppes, or build roads through pristine landscapes, we start to fray the fabric of nature. We may not see the full impact today, tomorrow, or next year. But we know what the long-term effects will be. By fraying nature we make the planet a simpler, duller, diminished place.

Courses offered

Subject: [Canids-L]: WildCRU's diploma in conservation practice, 2011 - deadline 16th July 2010

Dear colleagues,
Please note that we have brought forward our registration date for next year's Diploma course.

We invite applications for the WildCRU's 2011 Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice, managed jointly by Oxford University's Dept of Zoology and Dept for Continuing Education. This eight month full-time course is designed to enhance the skills of conservation practitioners, teaching the field, analytical, planning and reporting techniques necessary for effective conservation research and action.

Developed through a donation by the Kaplan family and supported by the Panthera Foundation, the course focuses on survey and analysis methods commonly used in the study of felids and other mammals in the developing world. Students will take modules on wildlife ecology and behaviour;
monitoring skills including camera-trapping, radio-tracking and line transect surveys; GIS analysis, and population management. Unifying threads running through the course are the global and human dimensions of biodiversity conservation. Students will learn how to plan field surveys and understand the theory behind the techniques, allowing them to adapt these to their own situation, and to critically appraise their own and others' work.

Teaching methods are geared towards on problem-solving, case-studies and hands-on practice, and students will complete two small research projects, for which they can use their own data if available. The transferable skills section of the course includes giving verbal presentations, reporting to scientists, donors and the public, and writing proposals and grant applications.

Students benefit from the world-class conservation expertise of the WildCRU and its networks of collaborators. The diverse mix of nationalities, cultures and experience, of both the diploma candidates themselves and the WildCRU as a whole, enhances peer-learning and broadens understanding of the roots of conservation issues, and potential solutions.

The course will run from February to September 2011. Students will take a one month online preparatory course from their home countries, followed by seven months of residential training at the WildCRU's Recanati-Kaplan Centre in Tubney. These custom-built facilities just outside Oxford allow access to departmental and university resources in the city. Students will be accommodated on site, and will have associate membership of Lady Margaret Hall, an Oxford college with which WildCRU has a long history.

We will accept up to 10 students in 2011, and applications are particularly welcomed from candidates working in developing nations. Suitable candidates are early-career field conservationists, working with government agencies or NGOs, who will return to their home countries after the course to implement and disseminate their new knowledge. Candidates without a degree are considered, but must demonstrate an equivalent amount of experience gained in the field. It is important that applicants are competent in English in order to gain the most benefit from the training; please see the diploma website for details of the level of fluency required. Varying levels of sponsorship are available to cover the course fees, living expenses and international travel, and are awarded on the basis of the applicant's geographical origin and financial need.

The formal application deadline is 16th July 2010 - please note this is much earlier than in previous years! We advise candidates in April/May, to ensure that all documents and recommendation letters are received before the deadline.

For more information on the course, including the curriculum and how to apply, please see the diploma website (www.wildcru.org/diploma). If you have difficulties accessing the internet, you can contact the course coordinator and request the information to be sent to you by email or post.

Please encourage your colleagues to apply, and forward this email to anyone who might be interested. We at the WildCRU wish to maximise access to the vital skills taught on this course, and need your help to reach those working on the front-line of conservation, who will benefit the most from this training and have potentially the greatest impact on biodiversity conservation.
Thank you.

Best wishes,

Dr Lucy Tallents
Coordinator, PG Dip in International Wildlife Conservation Practice
WildCRU, Zoology Dept, University of Oxford
Recanati-Kaplan Centre
Tubney House, Abingdon Road
Tubney, Abingdon OX13 5QL, UK
T +44 (0) 1865 393125, +44 (0) 1865 393101, +44 (0) 7763 378147
www.wildcru.org/diploma

Tailpiece

Some Priceless Observations

Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself, 'Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.'

- Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)

<><> I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: - 'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.'

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- Mark Twain

<><> The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible

- George Burns

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<><> Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.

- Mark Twain

<><> By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

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<><> I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

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<><> Money can't buy you happiness .... But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.

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<><> Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP.

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<><> I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.

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<><> I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.

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<><> We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.

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<><> Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.

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<><> Maybe it's true that life begins at fifty. But everything else starts to wear out, fall out, or spread out.

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<><> By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.

- Billy Crystal

<><> And the cardiologist' s diet: - If it tastes good spit it out

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