tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88475297016686853602024-03-04T22:06:27.059-08:00Conserve Botswana BlogConserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-12541886483148204292019-07-10T02:06:00.001-07:002019-07-10T02:06:29.964-07:00To hunt or to poach? That is the question<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There is a man called ≠Xoa* from a small village in the heart of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, one of the wildest places on earth. ≠Xoa hails from the Bugakhwe – one of the San tribes in northern Botswana – and his people do not keep any livestock or plant any crops. In this area, teeming with predators and visited by elephants on an almost daily basis, what would be the use of trying to keep domestic animals alive, or trying to protect a few maize plants?</div>
<br />≠Xoa is a well-known figure in his village; he has a good job that includes distributing meat among his people, which is always a popular task. Some are even hinting at electing him to the committee of their local Community Trust – he is honest and respected. In his work with the nearby hunting concessionaire, ≠Xoa uses one of the ancient skills of his people – tracking animals through the bush.<br /><br />≠Xoa’s tracking skills are renowned, but this is not all that is on his CV. He can skin and butcher an animal with few tools and great efficiency. Besides speaking Khwedam, his own complex language that includes four different types of clicks, he speaks Setswana, Sembukushu, Seyei and Afrikaans fluently. Unfortunately, his exceptional tracking skills are not officially certified, and his CV is unwritten because he never learned to write. His employer nonetheless values his tracking abilities highly and can attest that he is hardworking and reliable.<br /><br />One day in 2013 ≠Xoa hears of a consultative meeting held by government officials in his village. The meeting is about hunting, but that is all he knows. He attends, thinking that maybe they want to adjust the quotas for next year. Soon he finds out that despite the meeting’s stated purpose, no one actually wanted to consult him or any of the other villagers. <br /><br />They came merely to inform the villagers: from next season, hunting would be banned. ≠Xoa is stunned for a moment, but soon raises his hand, “Sirs, what shall I do for work when this ban is enforced?” His question is echoed around the room as other villagers take it up. The government official says that this ban is only a temporary moratorium that will probably be lifted again after a year. One of the prospective photographic concessionaires stands up and declares magnanimously, “Do not fear about losing your jobs, my tourism company will employ everyone from the hunting industry!”<br /><br />With the promise of a new job ringing in his ears, yet nagging concerns about no longer having a reliable source of meat, he returns home. His wife, Gyai, is even more concerned. ≠Xoa is the breadwinner for the household, and what will the children eat? With his last salary from the hunter, ≠Xoa buys a few bags of maize meal, a staple diet in Africa. He knows, though, that maize fills the belly but leaves the body weak. Without a meal containing some meat at least a few times a month, he is concerned that his children will not grow strong and healthy.<br /><br />≠Xoa loses no time trying to find a new job at the end of the hunting season. If he could only earn a steady wage, he might be able to buy some canned meat or fish to supplement his family’s diet. He cannot write, but he can describe and demonstrate all of his key skills. Surely one of these new lodges would find a use for his incredible bush and language skills? With this optimistic thought, he hitches a ride with one of the lodge’s game vehicles that is bringing supplies from town. <br /><br />On this day, and many others like it, he is disappointed. To apply for a job, you need a written CV and relevant certificates that prove you have the skills you claim to have. Even if he could overcome those barriers, he is told that the lodges do not actually need a specialist tracker. They all employ guides that multi-task – they drive, chat to guests, and look for game all at the same time. The guides may not be as good at tracking as he is, but they don’t really need to be – their guests want to see animals, not just their tracks! <br /><br />What does it take to be a guide? Perhaps I could get work if I qualified for that job, he thinks. But ≠Xoa’s face falls at the list of requirements: 1) Valid driver’s license with special permit to carry people (he can drive a car, but has never sat a test), 2) Fluent in English (of the five languages he speaks, this is not one of them), and 3) Can read and write. With a heavy heart, he turns away from the last lodge he enquired at, and returns home.<br /><br />His youngest child is screaming, while his older child nags his haggard mother for more food. “There is nothing more, the maize ran out yesterday. Maybe the Community Trust will help us, as they have done in the past, and food will come tomorrow” she replies, “You can go hungry for a night, okay?” Gyai puts on a brave face for the children, but she knows that the Trust is running out of money since much of their income came from the hunting industry. She cries softly all night lying next to her husband who is no longer able to provide for them.<br /><br />The next morning, having heard his child’s screams and felt his wife’s tears, ≠Xoa makes a decision. He knows where the animals are in the hunting concession where he used to work. Their movement patterns and favourite hideouts are well known to him, who has spent innumerable hours tracking them. One of his friends in the village has a small-calibre rifle, which he borrows. ≠Xoa walks out of his village, heading towards his former hunting grounds. With his skills, ≠Xoa can survive in the wild for days on end, although he has never starred in a TV show to demonstrate it. <br /><br />≠Xoa comes back at the dead of night, sneaking in to the village with a small steenbok carried over one shoulder. He dare not hunt during the day, for fear of the anti-poaching units. The smell of the steenbok had attracted some hungry looking spotted hyaenas on his way home, and they followed him for a while. He had to jog for miles to get away from them. Safely home, ≠Xoa presents his prize to his hungry family. Pride wells up in ≠Xoa’s chest as he sees their faces light up – he is a provider once more!<br /><br />≠Xoa’s new line of work is not as safe as his old one; there is something he fears much more than hyaenas. The government released a statement recently saying they were clamping down on what they termed “poaching”. The Botswana Defence Force (BDF) was ramping up its anti-poaching efforts in northern Botswana, and declared that they would “shoot to kill” any suspected poachers. Besides fearing for his safety, ≠Xoa is also concerned about his lack of cash income. Although he now supplies his family with nutritious meat, their many other needs – clothes, transport money, soap and other basic household materials – go unmet. Gyai asks him for these things regularly, but he is ashamed to say that he cannot afford even the first item.<br /><br />By 2017, the promised job in photographic tourism has yet to materialise, and the local Trust is still struggling to help its members. It is now a few years since ≠Xoa left formal hunting to take up it up in an informal capacity. One day, he sees a stranger in the village. A tall, dark man with a strange accent speaks a form of Sembukushu he has never heard before. They manage to understand each other, however, and he discovers that the stranger is from Zambia. Zambia! That is a long way to come just to visit our village, he thinks. But this stranger has an interesting proposition for him.<br /><br />The Zambian man needs a tracker who knows the local concession, understands the animal movements, and has experience dodging the BDF anti-poaching patrols. This set of requirements fits ≠Xoa’s CV perfectly! Better yet, he doesn’t have to write it down or produce any certificates. The Zambian came with a large-calibre rifle and an impressive-looking axe. His target: elephants.<br /><br />In his dealings with the Zambian, he also discovers that this hunt comes with an impressive price tag. The tusks will be sold in Lusaka to an Asian man with lots of money, he is told. Although it is far more dangerous (“shoot to kill”, he thinks with a shudder) than his old job, the payment for this one hunt is worth an entire year’s salary! <br /><br />The offer is almost too good to be true. ≠Xoa knows that the penalties for being caught with ivory (provided you aren’t shot first) are much higher than being caught with a steenbok, so he discusses it with Gyai. Their household needs are mounting, but they still weigh up the pros and cons of this hunt carefully. On the one hand, ≠Xoa has tracked many elephants in his time, so this job should be relatively easy; on the other, the same authorities that announced the hunting ban would show no mercy if they found him carting an elephant tusk through the bush.<br /><br />With all these thoughts weighing on him, ≠Xoa makes up his mind. He kisses away Gyai’s fearful tears, and holds his youngest for what could be the last time. ≠Xoa then takes a deep breath, and heads out.<br /><br /><div>
<i>Gail C. Potgieter</i><br /><br /><i>Note: This story is based on the real situation faced by all those who lost their jobs when hunting was banned in Botswana. All characters in this story are entirely fictional. ≠Xoa means elephant and Gyai means steenbok in Khwedam. I would like to thank Satau Gakemotho, who hails from the Okavango Delta, for his input in this article and for providing suitable names for my fictional characters.</i><br /><br />* The ≠ is pronounced as a click <br /><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
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Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-25905957977130428842018-08-13T01:55:00.003-07:002018-08-13T22:31:11.021-07:00Kalahari Trackers vs. Aircraft – The Ultimate Wildlife Counting Challenge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A team of Kalahari trackers (© Julia Burger), and an aerial survey team (© Christiaan Winterbach).</td></tr>
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It doesn’t seem like a fair match. A couple of illiterate guys sitting on the front of a vehicle as it churns its way through Kalahari sand vs. a qualified team of experienced wildlife counters flying overhead in a fixed-wing aircraft. Whilst the first team spend hours staring fixedly at the ground whilst bumping along sandy tracks, the other team count animals directly just by looking out the window from their aerial vantage point. The challenge: who can count wildlife with the greatest precision and efficiency? <br />
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This challenge sounds a little like the incredibly uneven match-up between Russia and Spain in the recent Soccer World Cup – whoever bet on Russia taking that one? Yet one conservation researcher was crazy enough to both create the challenge between Kalahari trackers and aerial survey observers, and bet on the trackers winning the contest. Derek Keeping has good reason for his faith in the tracking team, because he knows their secret weapon. Although the guys balancing on the front of his vehicle may be illiterate when it comes to lines of ink on paper, they are among the best in world when it comes to reading animal tracks in the sand. <br />
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Let me digress. Why is the challenge of counting wildlife in the Kalahari important in the first place? The location for this particular challenge is not even inside a National Park or Game Reserve. Instead, it is a Wildlife Management Area outside the northern border of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, and people still live there in a small village called Zutshwa. Whilst this area might not seem all that important to those driving through to get to one of Botswana’s renowned protected areas, conservation researchers acquainted with the region know that it is part of the Kalahari Schwelle – a critical part of the overall ecosystem (as mentioned in a <a href="https://conserve-botswana.blogspot.com/2018/06/blue-wildebeest-in-kalahari-moses.html">previous post</a>). <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of the Kalahari Scwhelle and the study area chosen for the wildlife counting challenge. Situated between the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, this region is a critical part of the Kalahari ecosystem. Map provided by Derek Keeping.</td></tr>
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Knowing how many animals live in an area is a crucial first step in conservation, especially if some of the resident species are endangered or threatened by manmade causes. Underestimating the number and diversity of animals living in non-protected areas could lead to land-use planners deciding that an area currently designated for wildlife-related uses (including tourism) could be used for livestock instead. The scene of our wildlife-counting challenge is a Wildlife Management Area that is the traditional territory of families now settled in Zutshwa. Until recently, jobs, meat and cash for the community were generated from this Area by allowing guests to hunt some animals. <br />
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Since the nationwide ban on hunting in all forms (subsistence and commercial) on government land, the Zutshwa community have encountered some hard times. Besides no longer being able to hunt for their own meat, those who were employed as trackers in hunting safari operations are now out of a job. It is against this background that Keeping set about finding ways to employ trackers that would benefit both them and the wildlife they live with. <br />
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As Keeping points out, “Most people in Zutshwa, and other Kalahari settlements in the region, are now destitute. Being so close to the past as they are, they have remarkably positive attitudes towards wildlife and conservation compared with most rural areas of Botswana, and many of them want jobs in wildlife and tourism rather than ranching and agriculture. Unfortunately, current development policies in these remote areas favour a future of livestock husbandry.” <br />
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Wildlife counting in Botswana has relied on aerial surveys for over three decades, and the method has become the standard way to estimate wildlife numbers and trends over time. However, the cost of an aerial survey is substantial, leading the government to reduce the frequency of these surveys and focus on the northern parts of the country, where wildlife are more abundant. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Wildebeest and zebra being counted from the air. Is this the best method for monitoring wildlife populations long-term? © Christiaan Winterbach.</span></td></tr>
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When asked why he thought that using trackers to count animal tracks on the ground would be preferable to observers counting animals from airplanes, Keeping explains: “There is a vast discrepancy between the numbers of observations accumulated by observers in an airplane compared to trackers on the ground. Aerial observers fatigue quickly bumping along at 170 kph in an uncomfortable airplane seat, especially when there’s not much to see in a monotonous semi-arid savanna landscape with naturally low numbers of large wildlife. By contrast, the sheer numbers of tracks that appear after a single night of animal movement in the Kalahari is astonishing. It was this observation that convinced me that an apples-to-apples comparison of aerial counts and track counts was a worthwhile pursuit.” </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">From his seat at the front of the vehicle, the tracker scans the ground for spoor. All the information is then relayed to a recorder in the vehicle. © Julia Burger 2018.<!--EndFragment--></td></tr>
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The notion of using an ancient skill to conduct modern research is a romantic one, but will it produce the same quality of information as more sophisticated, expensive methods? If using trackers to count animals is merely a quaint idea that doesn’t produce reliable results, then one cannot justify such a method. So Keeping set up the ecological research version of a penalty shoot out, if you will. </div>
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The tracking vs. aerial survey challenge was set up during the late dry season (Oct-Nov) in 2015. Both teams traversed the 6,425 sq. km area using the same straight line routes across it, covering a total of 648 km. To ensure that one method of counting animals was not influencing the other (e.g. animals being scared off by the airplane and/or the vehicle), they avoided counting the same route twice in one day wherever possible.<br />
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In the track survey, the trackers counted the tracks of anything larger than a steenbok for herbivores, and all the large carnivores (i.e. hyenas, big cats, and wild dogs). Ironically, the tracking team was actually given a handicap for this contest by limiting the tracks they recorded to the bigger animals. Trackers can easily count the tracks of animals as small as pangolins, mongoose, and African wildcat, but the aerial survey team would have no chance of seeing these species. Although good trackers can differentiate the tracks of individual animals, the statistical method used in this study simply requires them to count an animal track every time it crosses the road they are driving on.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">Lions and other carnivores are almost impossible to count from the air, as illustrated by this one relaxing under a bush during the heat of the day (© Julia Burger 2018). Their tracks, however, are easily counted during a tracking survey (© Gail Potgieter).</td></tr>
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To judge the ‘winner’ of the wildlife counting contest, Keeping and his research colleagues used a few criteria: 1) the precision of the population estimates calculated from each method; 2) the ability of each method to determine where the animals occur in the area (i.e. their distribution); and 3) the efficiency of each method in terms of the time and money spent to collect enough data for accurate population assessments. <br />
<br />
For the population estimate test, counting by air or tracking by vehicle produced very similar results for six large grazing herbivores – gemsbok, hartebeest, wildebeest, eland, springbok and ostrich. However, the tracking team estimated more kudu than the aerial survey team. Aerial surveys in other areas of Africa consistently under-count kudu, because these browsers spend most of their time bushy habitat, which makes seeing them during aerial surveys rather difficult. Finally, only the tracking team could count enough large carnivores to make population estimates. Carnivores are rarely counted during flights, as most of them are sleeping off the night’s activities under bushes or in dens when the aerial survey team is flying overhead. The beauty of using tracks is that the sand records nocturnal animals’ activities, which are easily read by trackers the next morning. <br />
<br />
The second test – determining animal distribution – was convincingly won by the tracking team. Where the aerial surveys showed patchy animal distributions for several herbivore species in the survey areas, the tracking survey revealed more uniform distributions. The latter result makes more sense ecologically, as animals are unlikely to occur only in certain blocks of land, when the whole area provides good habitat for them. The tracking team thus provided a more accurate picture of animal distribution for this Wildlife Management Area than the aerial survey team. <br />
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A herd of eland and a lone gemsbok are among the diverse animal species that inhabit the Kalahari Schwelle. © Julia Burger 2018.
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The final test, relating to time and money, showed that whilst aerial surveys take less time (1.5 days compared to 15 days of effort for multiple tracking teams), they are more expensive. The aerial survey cost US$ 7,793.79 in total (or $12.02 per km), whereas the tracking survey cost only US$ 4,652.17 ($7.17 per km). <br />
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Keeping points out: “Vehicles are by far the most expensive component of the ground track survey, but most Kalahari trackers are also expert horsemen, and with a little logistical creativity I see no practical reason why motor vehicles would be necessary for future track surveys. Even better than horses would be camels; these desert-adapted animals have an advantage over horses, as they need less water and food, and are less likely to be attacked by lions.”<br />
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If the trackers did this survey on horses or camels, without vehicles or drivers, then the cost of the survey would be further reduced to US$ 1,399.54, or $2.16 per km. Animal-back surveys have the additional benefit of reducing the pace of the survey, allowing the trackers to record smaller, yet extremely important, species such as pangolins and black-footed cats. <a href="https://www.traffic.org/news/nearly-6-000-pangolins-in-illegal-wildlife-trade-in-india-since-2009/" target="_blank">Pangolins are threatened by wildlife trafficking</a>, whilst the <a href="https://wildcatconservation.org/black-footed-cat-project/" target="_blank">black-footed cat</a> is endemic to the Kalahari region, yet receives little scientific attention. <br />
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If this wildlife counting challenge were a soccer match, the score line would read 3-1 to the tracking team! Although the aerial survey produced reasonable population estimates for large, grazing herbivores (their solitary ‘goal’), the tracking survey did that and much more, at a lower cost. But the benefits of using trackers to conduct wildlife surveys do not end there. This task could be funded, and even generate income for the community, by inviting tourists to join the trackers on wildlife monitoring animal-back safaris. <br />
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This would be a unique tourism offering for wildlife-loving, adventure-seeking safari goers, whilst simultaneously helping local people realise the benefits of their own traditional tracking culture and their wildlife. With a bit of technical support from Keeping, the data collected from these surveys will be used to inform population estimates and distribution data, which can be used to highlight the importance of this part of the Kalahari ecosystem. At first it could compliment, but may eventually even replace, the increasingly cost-prohibitive aerial surveys, especially if track surveys are funded through community tourism rather than limited government budgets.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">Trackers discuss some of the signs they can read in the bush. © Julia Burger 2018.<!--EndFragment--></td></tr>
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According to Keeping, “Facilitating a new track-based wildlife monitoring programme throughout Botswana’s Kalahari that is led by expert citizen trackers would firstly yield volumes of new data and insights far in excess of what is currently attainable through the aerial survey, secondly create numerous meaningful and well-paying jobs in one of the country’s most poverty-stricken regions, and thirdly be an incentive to keep exceptional track interpretation skills – our shared intangible cultural heritage – alive in the future. Two of these three outcomes are top goals on Botswana’s national agenda, and all would enhance conservation in the long-term. I can hardly think of another single intervention that would check so many priority boxes, and do so much good.” <br />
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This tantalising idea could be a triple-win scenario, combining an authentic and unique eco- and cultural tourism experience, local sustainable development in a way that maintains traditional skillsets, and long-term wildlife monitoring and conservation. For a conservationist, the result of this wildlife counting ‘competition’ is more exciting than the Soccer World Cup! <br />
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<i><br />By Gail C. Potgieter</i><style>
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If you are interested in making this idea a reality, please write to Derek Keeping (<a href="mailto:dkeeping@ualberta.ca">dkeeping@ualberta.ca</a>) and consider a donation to the <a href="http://www.comanis.ch/" target="_blank">Comanis Foundation</a>, which is a sister organisation to <a href="http://www.zutshwa.com/" target="_blank">Tanate Wilderness</a> that works with the community of Zutshwa to develop viable ecotourism within their Wildlife Management Area. Together they are committed to moving the vision of track-based wildlife monitoring forward in collaboration with Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks, first initiating a pilot program in Zutshwa which can then be propagated to other remote communities throughout the Kalahari Schwelle. <br />
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Reference: <br />
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.04.027" target="_blank">Keeping et al. (2018). </a>Can trackers count free-ranging wildlife as effectively and efficiently as conventional aerial survey and distance sampling? Implications for citizen science in the Kalahari, Botswana. Biological Conservation 223:156-169. <br />
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Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-43532880652404451752018-06-04T06:12:00.001-07:002018-08-11T04:53:05.266-07:00The Precarious Life of Blue Wildebeest in the Kalahari<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIyFs3c0XH8hIpL606JHYNNkTXnWYmJ-dseXOyfq3GB_gNjUFSjHt5mGyVfoR41JSbF0P41LomdgxYIOx1ZJVA-BChfLYS5tIWvLiXOXPSnapKDzbNvaJsCua9Ul0s-89qLs2GklSzO0A/s1600/Collared+Wildebeest+DSCN9806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfIyFs3c0XH8hIpL606JHYNNkTXnWYmJ-dseXOyfq3GB_gNjUFSjHt5mGyVfoR41JSbF0P41LomdgxYIOx1ZJVA-BChfLYS5tIWvLiXOXPSnapKDzbNvaJsCua9Ul0s-89qLs2GklSzO0A/s1600/Collared+Wildebeest+DSCN9806.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue wildebeest in the Kalahari © Moses Selebatso</td></tr>
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For blue wildebeest in the Kalahari, life is tough. As a water-dependent grazer, survival is all about finding enough grass and access to water during drier years, whilst avoiding predation. Before the 1970’s, this species of antelope survived in the harsh semi-desert Kalahari environs by doing what wildebeest do best – migrating to find water and greener pastures. Today, migration to permanent water sources north of the Kalahari is no longer possible, and wildebeest have had to adapt quickly to modern conditions to survive. <br />
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Despite the impressive size of protected areas in Botswana, wildebeest in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) today are all but cut-off from their historical migratory routes. Extensive fences meant to reduce disease transmission from wildlife to livestock, and to control livestock movement were erected since the late 50's, <a href="http://rogerannis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Wildlife-interrupted.pdf" target="_blank">with dire consequences for wildebeest</a>. The wildebeest population in the Kalahari ecosystem (extending West and South of the CKGR, see map) crashed from over 250,000 in the late 70’s to just over 20,000 in 2015 (figures from reports for and by the government of Botswana in 1980 and 2015, respectively). Conserving the remaining Kalahari wildebeest, and allowing their numbers to recover, requires in-depth understanding of their current situation. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1BbpAqzs6n2JxKY8QEwmTDgYySj5zydBZZl_ZkheyQJ_AGQF-xjqpbPxM2UswXJ3Fr7UbP718g9lc3E0V-Xi5LvWwD6w-hFT4Dl_SDaUtGEAAN2FwIt7LSVuyEfQfPR-NCQLuTR6kYgi8/s1600/Map+of+Kalahari+Ecosystem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1BbpAqzs6n2JxKY8QEwmTDgYySj5zydBZZl_ZkheyQJ_AGQF-xjqpbPxM2UswXJ3Fr7UbP718g9lc3E0V-Xi5LvWwD6w-hFT4Dl_SDaUtGEAAN2FwIt7LSVuyEfQfPR-NCQLuTR6kYgi8/s640/Map+of+Kalahari+Ecosystem.jpg" width="592" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The greater Kalahari ecosystem includes the Central Kalahari and Khutse Game Reserves (CKGR and KGR), the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), and the wildlife management areas (WMAs) between them. The area known as the Schwelle (shown in cross-hatchings) covers several WMAs and is a critical resource for Kalahari Wildebeest. © Moses Selebatso</td></tr>
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To develop this understanding, Kalahari Research and Conservation conducted an in-depth wildebeest research project in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Dr. Moses Selebatso, the project leader, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aje.12439" target="_blank">tracked wildebeest movement in the CKGR</a> using satellite collars on females from several different herds. The movement patterns were examined in conjunction with grassland studies to find out more about where these survivors go and what they eat. This work produced three scientific journal articles, and practical recommendations for conserving Botswana’s remaining wildebeest, both in the CKGR and throughout the greater Kalahari ecosystem. <br />
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Dr. Selebatso and his colleagues discovered that most of the wildebeest in the CKGR now stay around artificially pumped waterholes, ‘hanging tough’ during the long dry season as the grass around them slowly disappears. The permanent waterholes were created in 1984, in response to the mass die-off of wildebeest and other water-dependent animals due to the then newly erected fences. As the CKGR has no natural water sources that last throughout the dry season, the artificially pumped pans are a lifeline for wildebeest. However, his studies found that this human intervention can be a double-edged sword for wildebeest. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTK2bgeOihs9Ild-0_d9xcXizQbjpUrE02pH7KXNd0rQKQLnabdDdJWfIMUtSuZWOfy7GIFfgeui2kre5wcHOS6WSySpBmuPCq9kTVcXEgKK73ukwjQGSn4hL59Q-Gw9gdoYqg87aGj67c/s1600/Radio+tracking_IMG_3256.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTK2bgeOihs9Ild-0_d9xcXizQbjpUrE02pH7KXNd0rQKQLnabdDdJWfIMUtSuZWOfy7GIFfgeui2kre5wcHOS6WSySpBmuPCq9kTVcXEgKK73ukwjQGSn4hL59Q-Gw9gdoYqg87aGj67c/s1600/Radio+tracking_IMG_3256.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Selebatso (standing) and a research assistant track the collared wildebeest using radio telemetry equipment. © Niti B. Mishra</td></tr>
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Waterholes in the CKGR are located in pans and valleys, and the soil around these pans is mineral rich, which means that the grass growing here is highly nutritious. As an added bonus, these grasslands have few trees and shrubs, which means that herbivores can spot predators coming from a good distance. The combination of water, high-quality food, and limited predation risk makes these pans highly attractive for wildebeest. <br />
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However, during the dry season (when the pans would have dried up, historically), the wildebeest have little choice but to stay close to the pans, as water is pumped into them from boreholes. As the grass around the pans dries up, the amount of food available for the wildebeest dwindles. In the late dry season, daytime temperatures soar to over 40 degrees Celsius, making it too hot for wildebeest to graze in the middle of the day.<br />
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The research team wanted to know what these herds would do in the face of declining food, and they predicted that they would start to feed at night during the hottest, driest time of the year. This would make them extremely vulnerable to nocturnal predators, but it could be their only option. Contrary to predictions, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140196316301768" target="_blank">wildebeest chose rather to hunker down</a> near their favoured water points day and night. They moved much less in the hot dry season than they did at other times of the year, most likely a strategy to conserve energy while they wait for the first rains. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8pPW0XWCHoLEYKq4mIL2J409d1qCkyx4RUbRWBBhf506byS0HgdOTFZdwsEavWFVVXaAJCyrvSYpeVcCaZE_sSN-jAA2Tb9QovvwTViHYms0yYYeCqZKSz5uUtaAF-CbYWjHGW964Elbt/s1600/Wildebeest+at+waterhole_+DSCN4231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8pPW0XWCHoLEYKq4mIL2J409d1qCkyx4RUbRWBBhf506byS0HgdOTFZdwsEavWFVVXaAJCyrvSYpeVcCaZE_sSN-jAA2Tb9QovvwTViHYms0yYYeCqZKSz5uUtaAF-CbYWjHGW964Elbt/s1600/Wildebeest+at+waterhole_+DSCN4231.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue wildebeest are a water-dependent species, and waterholes such as this one in the CKGR are kept full year-round by pumping water from underground. © Moses Selebatso</td></tr>
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The researchers found yet another reason to worry about the effect of pumped waterholes on wildebeest and other wildlife in the Kalahari. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474706517300864" target="_blank">They tested the water quality</a> in 12 waterholes throughout the CKGR and Khutse GR. Coming from deep ground water, rather than rainfall, eight of these water points failed the overall water quality test developed for livestock (similar standards for wildlife are unavailable). Even more disconcerting, three of the water points had toxic levels of lead, and four had toxic levels of arsenic. To what extent the wildebeest herds that rely on these waterholes are affected by the poor water quality remains unknown, but it is likely to hamper their ability to survive and reproduce. <br />
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Interestingly, one herd of wildebeest monitored during this study behaved entirely differently to the others. At the onset of the dry season they started to move south, away from the pans in the north. Southern CKGR has no pumped waterholes, yet this herd spent the early (cold) dry season in this area. Towards the latter part of the dry season, as temperatures increased, with associated increases in heat and water stress levels, the wildebeest headed even further south, entering the Khutse Game Reserve and neighbouring Wildlife Management Areas. The herd did not visit any known source of water, and the researchers explained this herd’s survival by showing that they eat water bearing plants such as tsamma melons and gemsbok cucumber. These plants are well known as a source of moisture for a host of other desert-dwelling animals (e.g. gemsbok), and this study further confirms the value of these plants to wildebeest in the Kalahari. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXUGlj5I9gNvD8FjWC5k8cT6FC7Sl-oPxc2mMDKH_swE4eSKhOdwUn7ca5rVpelrLSO0F90d_vUdEpn6IoJtaHMG3PcNkYK07wDCLMZXMZkOiyZ_QEiX31P193Dy5cCjBRYPuZJ7hBor8i/s1600/Wildebeest+and+Gemsbok+Cucumber+combined.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXUGlj5I9gNvD8FjWC5k8cT6FC7Sl-oPxc2mMDKH_swE4eSKhOdwUn7ca5rVpelrLSO0F90d_vUdEpn6IoJtaHMG3PcNkYK07wDCLMZXMZkOiyZ_QEiX31P193Dy5cCjBRYPuZJ7hBor8i/s1600/Wildebeest+and+Gemsbok+Cucumber+combined.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some wildebeest in the Kalahari use water-bearing plants like gemsbok cucumber (inset) to survive the dry season, rather than staying around pumped waterholes. © Moses Selebatso</td></tr>
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This fascinating finding poses a number of questions about artificially maintaining water points. Does the provision of water through the dry season discourage wildebeest migration, to their detriment? Are the migrating wildebeest maintaining better body condition by migrating, even though they are not conserving their energy? Are the sedentary wildebeest damaging the grasslands they rely on by grazing them throughout the year, rather than migrating? Are the wildebeest that do not use waterholes in the dry season healthier than the others, which may be affected by poor water quality? What is the future of wildebeest in this continually changing landscape, with its associated human interventions? Dr. Selebatso and his team will no doubt seek answers to these questions through further research. <br />
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One potentially critical problem with artificial water points was clearly demonstrated during their 2011-2014 study. “Four of the water pumps broke down in different times during our study period, causing the water in these pans to dry up,” explains Dr. Selebatso, “this led to seven of our ten study animals walking long distances to find water, five of which died in the process.” Meanwhile, the wildebeest herd that adapted by migrating were not affected by water pump failures. This is an important lesson for managing protected areas: once humans have intervened, animals adapt to the new conditions, and any changes in those interventions could have negative repercussions. Maintaining artificial water points has now become essential for wildebeest that have lost their ability to migrate. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaaMqOYGzy_3jVyBNFCKt3i7_clJsLNGWH65T3Voht6zLFV6YrXVfRIHDUMLvrx3LsVkla1kI9Y3eqK90yePzDSePsHRqz9QZqYXUa4P_4w1FlWxKKU_jLwsjB3copLCDoPApanpt5OyBD/s1600/Moses+and+Dead+Wildebeest_DSCN7644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaaMqOYGzy_3jVyBNFCKt3i7_clJsLNGWH65T3Voht6zLFV6YrXVfRIHDUMLvrx3LsVkla1kI9Y3eqK90yePzDSePsHRqz9QZqYXUa4P_4w1FlWxKKU_jLwsjB3copLCDoPApanpt5OyBD/s1600/Moses+and+Dead+Wildebeest_DSCN7644.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lead researcher Dr. Moses Selebatso inspects the carcass of a blue wildebeest; his research shows that water holes drying up in the Kalahari can lead to increased mortalities of this species. © Thandi David</td></tr>
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Taking a step back from the CKGR, the researchers considered how wildebeest survive in other parts of the Kalahari. Considering the importance of natural pans and the nutrient-rich grasses surrounding these pans, another region has been earmarked as vitally important for wildebeest. This area, known as the Kalahari Schwelle, is located just to the north of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Dr. Selebatso explains: “The mineral-rich grasslands are extremely important for wildebeest, especially lactating or pregnant females, yet this area lies outside the Park. We know from game counts that more wildebeest occur here than anywhere else in the drylands of the Kalahari. Keeping this particular region free of fencing, and limiting livestock numbers is therefore critical for the wildebeest in this area.” <br />
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The land-use management strategies of the past were implemented without knowing the full negative repercussions they would have on wildebeest and other water-dependent herbivores. Furthermore, livestock-based land uses were more lucrative than wildlife-based uses at that time. Today, with the rise of high-end ecotourism ventures, Botswana’s wildlife-based tourism sector <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-great-migrations-are-failing-but-there-is-a-solution-and-you-can-eat-it-too-93749" target="_blank">brings more money into the economy</a> than the livestock sector. Furthermore, according to Dr. Selebatso, “Wildlife conservation is comparatively cheaper than livestock management in these fragile ecosystems.” <br />
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The future of the Kalahari ecosystem can be positive, both in terms of economic return and biodiversity conservation, if land use plans make full use of the knowledge gained from important studies such as these done by Dr. Selebatso and his colleagues. Wildebeest, like many other Kalahari residents, are tough and adaptable, yet still vulnerable to human decision-making. Their future is in our hands. <br />
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<i>By Gail Potgieter</i> <br />
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To find out more about Kalahari Research and Conservation, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/krcbotswana/" target="_blank">click here</a>. Dr. Moses Selebatso provided valuable input for this article. This important study was funded by Denver Zoo Foundation, SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund, Comanis Foundation, Kanabo Conservation Link, Wilderness Wildlife Trust, and Office of Research and Development (University of Botswana).</div>
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Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-5094403234477650002018-02-23T04:53:00.002-08:002018-03-21T13:30:08.781-07:00How to Balance Biodiversity Conservation and Large Elephant Numbers in Botswana: No Extra Water for Elephants!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><i>Botswana's researchers contribute to the debate surrounding large elephant populations and their impact on the environment in southern Africa.</i></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_P2173PpgMDGCj1PeQ6MCgzVne4GsjjmkjvKBHmZw1QNntH5ejjorxJENo9ALtGAMZuqXsaciPUudFH5XUXdkB_maSwFnXrp5Cl1czEjYzzBxbLqrICy6HIEcdkEaZALXgkYTQJn1DoAd/s1600/EleCharge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="944" data-original-width="1600" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_P2173PpgMDGCj1PeQ6MCgzVne4GsjjmkjvKBHmZw1QNntH5ejjorxJENo9ALtGAMZuqXsaciPUudFH5XUXdkB_maSwFnXrp5Cl1czEjYzzBxbLqrICy6HIEcdkEaZALXgkYTQJn1DoAd/s640/EleCharge.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An elephant in the Mababe floodplains in northern Botswana. Photo By Gail C. Potgieter.</td></tr>
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Elephants: the majestic gentle giants of the African savannah. Their enormous intelligence and close family bonds fascinate safari goers and scientists alike. Whilst strolling through the bush, they shovel masses of grass into their mouths, and occasionally bump into the odd tree – effortlessly breaking large branches and even pushing the whole thing over. Elephants are awesome creatures, and even lions keep a respectful distance from these megaherbivores.<br />
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All of the unique characteristics that put elephants at the top of the must-see list for many international visitors also serve to create controversy and management headaches among conservationists. These giants need gigantic amounts of space and natural resources – at one point in history this was not a problem, as <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/african_elephants/">all of Africa except the Sahara </a>was available to them. Today’s remnant populations have been constricted to relatively small areas, which are often fenced and managed by humans. Their food requirements, however, have not changed – they need to eat anywhere between <a href="http://www.elephantsforafrica.org/elephant-facts/">140 and 490 kg</a> of plant matter every single day! Additionally, they are highly dependent on water, and each bull elephant will drink up to 120 litres per day. <br />
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In short, the impact of elephants does not go unnoticed in the African savannah. Certainly, the effects of <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/elephants-botswana-poaching-refugees/">Botswana’s 130,000</a> pachyderms are easy to see from just a cursory glance at the landscape. Broken and uprooted trees are the most obvious signs of elephants, but they also eat huge amounts of grass and other small plants (called forbs). Whilst elephants mainly eat grass and forbs in the wet summer season, they rely on trees (leaves, bark, roots) to get them through the dry winter season. Trees are therefore most vulnerable to being de-barked and uprooted in the late dry season.<br />
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These facts leave us in no doubt about the enormous impacts that elephants have in any ecosystem where they occur. Although Botswana’s elephant population is not overly restricted by fences (as are those in many of southern Africa’s protected areas), they seem to <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/elephants-botswana-poaching-refugees/">concentrate in northern Botswana.</a> In particular, huge herds of elephants congregate by the Chobe River during the dry season – a spectacular sight for tourists, but a cause for concern among ecologists.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyAID_RybDcZ-GDxaTW2QxCx0QT4eq6bcEK7es0xSu1Eys-XeFUE9iUL2OhGQqxBZEJAulJMW5eKMMF7uVed-FEEf_CCcXJsx5FWc27uhhYvqu1j28CrBKFkBgU8eTBeSVhMz8YnZYjMJ/s1600/Veg+Before+Ele+Macatoo+Oct2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="1600" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyAID_RybDcZ-GDxaTW2QxCx0QT4eq6bcEK7es0xSu1Eys-XeFUE9iUL2OhGQqxBZEJAulJMW5eKMMF7uVed-FEEf_CCcXJsx5FWc27uhhYvqu1j28CrBKFkBgU8eTBeSVhMz8YnZYjMJ/s640/Veg+Before+Ele+Macatoo+Oct2010.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Mopane woodland in October 2010 at a location in northern Botswana. Photo by Christiaan Winterbach.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmhNYS1iuNOyPErckgussvoSIlILhXC2bRNrYYtzTb8oSvhno-o-zDy81Fl-BE_Fs9SHUZMj_-6a75c7mL0ngjCfkUyiE-Y7t-M4vkj27Lm1JFMThjrNowpGsWXz8FOwXDdjwQOTNxOEi/s1600/Veg+after+Ele+Macatoo+Oct2013.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="414" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrmhNYS1iuNOyPErckgussvoSIlILhXC2bRNrYYtzTb8oSvhno-o-zDy81Fl-BE_Fs9SHUZMj_-6a75c7mL0ngjCfkUyiE-Y7t-M4vkj27Lm1JFMThjrNowpGsWXz8FOwXDdjwQOTNxOEi/s640/Veg+after+Ele+Macatoo+Oct2013.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The same Mopane woodland in October 2013 showing large-scale elephant damage. Photo by Christiaan Winterbach.</td></tr>
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<h3>
The Elephant Debate</h3>
The question that many ask is: Are there too many elephants in Botswana? This question, however, begs another more critical question – how do we know how many is too many? This latter question is <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/2013416113911163191.html">subject to enormous debate</a> within southern Africa, which focuses on the ecological carrying capacity of certain National Parks for elephants. <a href="http://www.krugerpark.co.za/krugerpark-times-23-elephant-numbers-18006.html">Carrying capacity</a> is often seen as a ‘golden number’ of elephants, beyond which they begin to overuse the local ecosystem, thus damaging it and negatively affecting other species. On the other side of the debate, some point out that whilst elephants seem to cause enormous destruction in the immediate vicinity of waterholes, this <a href="https://africageographic.com/blog/opinion-elephants-damage-1-of-hwanges-vegetation/">does not necessarily mean</a> that they are destroying the entire ecosystem.<br />
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These debates are far from merely academic. If those warning that there are too many elephants for ecosystems to support are right, then something needs to be done before the damage becomes irreparable. What that ‘something’ entails, however, is often too terrible for most elephant-loving people to consider. The large-scale elephant culling operations suggested by some are not a popular solution, unsurprisingly. Other options, like translocation and <a href="https://conservationaction.co.za/recent-news/hot-debate-elephant-culling-vs-contraception-vs-exports-continues/">contraception</a> are more palatable, but too expensive to be used on large elephant populations. In particular, the sheer size of Botswana’s elephant population means that none of these solutions is currently practical – including culling. However, some commentators warn of <a href="https://commonwealth-opinion.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2013/botswanas-jumbo-dilemma-the-expanding-elephant-population-and-the-environment-by-keith-somerville/">catastrophic consequences</a> for all species if nothing is done, and soon.<br />
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<h3>
A Local Scientific Contribution</h3>
Avoiding emotionally charged debates based on little more than informed opinion, researchers from Botswana decided to tackle the critical elephant question head-on. Dr. Keoikantse Sianga and Dr. Richard Fynn of the Okavango Research Institute (a specialized department of the University of Botswana) joined forces with three Dutch researchers from Wageningen University in a <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0075-64582017000200004&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt">vegetation study</a> focusing on a large natural area called the Savuti-Mababe-Linyanti Ecosystem. This enormous area of nearly 30,000 square kilometres lies between the Okavango Delta, the Mababe Depression and the Linyanti Swamps, and therefore hosts a healthy proportion of Botswana’s elephants.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The researchers doing field work. Note the elephants in the background! Photo by Jip Vrooman.</td></tr>
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They chose this particular area as it is almost untouched by human management efforts, unlike most other locations in southern Africa. Only one pan is artificially pumped to maintain water throughout the dry season in their entire study area, and there are no fences within the area to inhibit elephant movement. They could therefore ask: in the virtual absence of human interference, are there too many elephants for this ecosystem to support? Additionally, this important work reveals how elephants naturally affect their habitat, thus providing a baseline to compare with other areas that are heavily managed. Whilst not resolving the elephant debate, this scientific knowledge can help wildlife managers in southern Africa to better understand the problem and consequently make better decisions to resolve it.<br />
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Rather than trying to calculate the ‘golden number’ of elephants that can be supported by the ecosystem, the research team sought to answer the underlying question – is the current elephant population is actually damaging the ecosystem? They viewed ecosystem health as its ‘heterogeneity’, which is an indication of how many different habitats are available for different species (known as ecological niches). A heterogeneous ecosystem has many different species of trees and grass, all growing to different heights. Some grazing herbivores prefer tall grass, whereas others prefer short grass; some bird species prefer dense shrubs to live and nest in, whereas others prefer tall trees. Consequently, to support a large variety of animals, you need a variety of different habitats, which can be measured directly by looking at the plants.<br />
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If the plants in the Savuti-Mababe-Linyanti ecosystem were all the same species, or all the same height, it would indicate a serious problem. Something (e.g. elephants) would be ‘homogenising’ the ecosystem; i.e. reducing the number of habitats available for other species. If, however, the system is still heterogeneous (i.e. containing many plant species of different heights), then it can still harbour a good diversity of species. <br />
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Understanding elephant behaviour and biology helped the team develop a suitable way to test how elephants are influencing the ecosystem. Although elephants can traverse great distances if they want to, they are highly dependent on water and must drink daily. During the wet season, water dependence is not an issue, as temporary natural pans fill up with water, thus allowing many elephants to move away from permanent water sources and use most of the ecosystem. However, in the dry season these pans dry up, and elephants have to stay close enough to rivers and permanent lakes to return to them on a daily basis. The average distance that bull elephants will stray from water in a day in search of food is around 15 kilometres, whereas herds of females and their young ones will only go as far as 5 kilometres. Consequently, the largest elephant impact will be found less than 5 km from permanent water, with less impact in the 5-15 km zone, and minimal impact over 20 km from water (only accessible to elephants during the wet season). <br />
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The research team investigated the species diversity and plant height of trees, grasses, and forbs in each of these three zones on four different routes through their study area. They also counted the dung of elephants and other herbivores to find out how much these places were visited by herbivores. Finally, they obtained fire records for the last 15 years to ensure that the effects of fire could be separated from the effects of elephants and other herbivores.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the researchers measuring tree height. Photo by Jip Vrooman.</td></tr>
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Their results revealed that, rather than irreparably damaging the ecosystem, elephants actually help maintain heterogeneity by improving grass and forb species richness in the zone closest to permanent water. These grasses were kept short through year-round grazing by elephants and other herbivores. In contrast, the zone furthest from water was dominated by high-quality long grasses, which are preferred by species such as sable and roan antelope. These results were found in the vegetation type known as sandveld, which is especially important for grazers, as it supports a rich diversity of grass species. <br />
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Similarly, trees were taller in the zones far from water than in the zone less than 5 km from water. During the dry season, elephants use trees more heavily and it is therefore not surprising that the trees closest to permanent water are frequently broken and thus kept in a shortened state. They found this trend for the two most common tree species in the ecosystem – Mopane and Terminalia sericea (silver cluster leaf). Although short, stumpy shrubs look less attractive to us than tall trees, it is important that ecosystems contain both shrubs and trees.<br />
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<h3>
Managing Ecosystem Health in Botswana – Recommendations</h3>
The researchers concluded that the large population of elephants in northern Botswana perform a key ecological role by maintaining heterogeneity in the ecosystem. There is, however, one important caveat to this conclusion: this system can continue to sustain large elephant numbers only as long as there are large distances (at least 50 km) between permanent water sources.<br />
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The fact that young elephants cannot walk as far as adults between food and water is one of the key natural ways of preventing elephant populations from growing too large. In long dry seasons, adult females are forced to move further away from water to find food, and this may mean that some calves do not survive the dry season. They therefore warn against developing new waterholes in this ecosystem for two reasons. Firstly, the impacts of large elephant herds all year every year would soon turn the whole area into short grass and shrubs with little species diversity, to the detriment of other animals that prefer long grass and trees. Secondly, providing permanent waterholes would remove one of the few natural mechanisms for limiting elephant numbers.<br />
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These warnings are not idle, as they build on harsh lessons learned in other places. It is also about more than just elephants. Studies in the Kruger National Park show that when waterholes were developed throughout the park (such that the average distance to water in the dry season was a mere 6 km), the habitat for sable and roan shrank, as water-dependent grazers (e.g. zebra and buffalo) moved in to previously waterless regions. The ultimate result was a tragic <a href="http://www.krugerpark.co.za/krugerpark-times-3-3-rare-antelope-22090.html">population crash of both species,</a> and very few can be found in the Kruger today. Predators like lions are also favoured by increasing waterholes, as many of their preferred prey species are water dependent. Although this sounds great for tourism, larger lion populations may have contributed to the crash of roan and sable, and are likely to <a href="https://gizmodo.com/lions-and-cheetahs-are-dancers-in-africas-carnivorous-1565760608">reduce the number of African wild dogs</a>. These are just two examples of the unintended negative consequences of artificial waterholes. Northern Botswana currently hosts healthy populations of roan, sable, and African wild dogs. Lessons learned from the Kruger should therefore provide major pause for thought before developing waterholes in this region.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A family of sable antelope in the wild in northern Botswana. Photo by Rob Thomson.</td></tr>
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Similarly, the researchers warn that the waterholes in the Chobe region are the primary cause for large-scale elephant damage seen far beyond the Chobe River. However, the tall trees growing along the Chobe River (a vegetation type known as ‘riparian woodland’) are a special cause for concern, as elephants gather in high numbers along the riverfront in the dry season. This area lacks the tall grass and sedges that can be found year round on the floodplains in the Okavango Delta, which means that the elephants along the Chobe River rely almost entirely on trees – to the detriment of riparian woodland. One of the research team, Dr. Richard Fynn, suggests: “In areas without extensive tall grass floodplains, the only hope for protecting riparian woodlands is to find ways of preventing elephants from staying too long in riparian vegetation during the dry season, or by protecting specific trees from elephants.”<br />
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The researchers point out that fencing that restricts elephant movements during the wet season is also likely to increase pressure on the ecosystem. Rather than allowing the short grasslands near permanent water to rest during the dry season, the megaherbivores (elephants and buffalo) are forced to use these grasses heavily throughout the year, rather than migrating to other areas. <br />
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Artificial water holes and barriers to elephant movement (such as fences) are thus ultimate causes of ecosystem damage, rather than the elephants themselves, which simply respond to the available resources. Simply removing many elephants will not solve the underlying problem, so the population will keep rebounding and there will be an endless battle for the health of the ecosystem.<br />
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For the moment, the Savuti-Mababe-Linyanti Ecosystem remains intact. However, the researchers recommend that this area should be carefully monitored, and that pumping new waterholes should be tightly regulated. Furthermore, the prevalence of current waterholes in the Chobe Region (east of their study area) and <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/elephants-botswana-poaching-refugees/">threats to elephants beyond Botswana’s borders</a> that restrict elephants to northern Botswana are key issues that need to be addressed. Allowing elephants to move freely over large, unfenced areas is a regional challenge that needs to be discussed between Botswana and neighbouring countries. Perhaps it is time the debate around elephants evolves from carrying capacity numbers and elephant management to ecosystem health and landscape management.<br />
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<i>By Gail Potgieter</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elephants enjoying a seasonal pan during the late wet season. When this pan dries up, they will move to permanent water sources in northern Botswana. Photo by Gail Potgieter.</td></tr>
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Full article reference: Sianga, Keoikantse; van Telgen, Mario; Vrooman, Jip; Fynn, Richard W.S. & van Langevelde, Frank. (2017). Spatial refuges buffer landscapes against homogenisation and degradation by large herbivore populations and facilitate vegetation heterogeneity. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v59i2.1434">Koedoe, 59(2),1-13</a>. <br />
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<br />Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-89018387834696829642017-12-14T07:41:00.001-08:002018-03-21T13:28:35.991-07:00New Study Confirms Not Many Cheetahs Left in Southern Africa; More Work to be Done in Botswana<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<i>Ground-breaking scientific collaboration adds to calls to up-list cheetah status from Vulnerable to Endangered, and reaffirms the importance of Botswana for cheetah conservation.</i></h4>
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The cheetah may be able to run faster than any other animal, but it can’t hide from researchers determined to know how many of them remain in the wild. The importance of knowing how many cheetahs there are, and where they occur, cannot be overstated. Conservation management plans for the species rely heavily on this information. In particular, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) uses this information to decide the status of a species. Cheetahs are currently classified as Vulnerable, but this research adds impetus to the call by conservation scientists to up-list the species to Endangered on the <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/219/0" target="_blank">IUCN Red List</a>.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<h3>
The Cheetah Counting Challenge</h3>
To answer the call for better information, a group of 17 conservation scientists, including five from Botswana, produced the largest dataset of verifiable cheetah records in history. Besides using their own records from collared cheetahs, track (spoor) counts, and camera traps, they sought to include photographs and videos produced by the general public for social media. Of the latter records, only those with a confirmed location and date when the image or video was taken could be included to ensure the greatest accuracy possible. <br /><br />Amazingly, they produced accurate population density estimates for 35% of the cheetah’s range in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. This level of accuracy is unheard of for large carnivores over such a broad study area. Indeed, their proven range for cheetahs in these countries is a vast 789,700 sq. km – 32% larger than the whole of Botswana! They further report that cheetahs could occur in nearly double that area, given the suitability of the remaining habitat for which they could not confirm cheetah presence. </div>
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The Importance of Botswana</h3>
Despite the huge area, the number of cheetahs <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/4096/" target="_blank">they estimate</a> to live in the proven range is only 3,577 adults. Given the <a href="http://www.cheetahandwilddog.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Durant-et-al-Global-decline-of-cheetah.pdf" target="_blank">current Africa-wide population estimate</a> for cheetahs is 7,100, this study confirms southern Africa as a stronghold for this species. Of the four countries covered by this study, Namibia and Botswana support more cheetahs than the other two countries. In particular, the ecoregion known as the Kalahari Xeric Savannah, covering south-western Botswana and central-eastern Namibia, supports the highest number of cheetahs in southern Africa. Due to its geographic location, Botswana is at the heart of southern Africa’s cheetah population. This makes the country of special importance to the species.<br /><br />Within Botswana, the Ghanzi and Kgalagadi Districts are likely to support most of the cheetahs, and are thus critical for conserving the species. Although the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and Kgalagadi Trans-Frontier Parks provide large protected areas within these Districts, cheetahs are known to thrive more outside of protected areas than inside. The main reason for this is that they are outcompeted by larger carnivores like lions and spotted hyaenas, which occur in high densities inside protected areas. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4yHB1Gti8sTxdW3tR_DJoCSTRmjAiYgW8A4yPCd9Aqwe7pbr4hEIc9K9Xr2mRU7HudCfc5TRxd5vgBv1WBirLYwP_NMP6xYU5rdR9axRKTQq6jJyCG0PJ3WMuCPNg4s0VCqlKCnH90ai/s1600/Christiaan+Winterbach-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1500" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4yHB1Gti8sTxdW3tR_DJoCSTRmjAiYgW8A4yPCd9Aqwe7pbr4hEIc9K9Xr2mRU7HudCfc5TRxd5vgBv1WBirLYwP_NMP6xYU5rdR9axRKTQq6jJyCG0PJ3WMuCPNg4s0VCqlKCnH90ai/s640/Christiaan+Winterbach-4.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />Derek Keeping, who provided much of the data for this work by counting cheetah tracks in these key Districts, is especially concerned about how the land between protected areas is used: <i>“Currently, about half of Ghanzi and most of Kgalagadi Districts are zoned as Wildlife Management Areas (25,000 sq. km and 40,000 sq. km, respectively). The urgent challenge for Botswana is to avoid treading down the path its neighbours did in carving up public lands for fenced ranch holdings, and instead facilitate creative wilderness tourism and sustainable wildlife use opportunities for the remote communities residing within these vulnerable Kalahari Wildlife Management Areas.”</i> <br /><br />The fact that this globally important cheetah population relies largely on farmland to survive shows that farmers are crucial to conserving this charismatic big cat. Although tourists love to see cheetahs, farmers often bear the costs associated with supporting the cheetah population. Cheetahs generally prefer hunting wild prey, but they can kill goats, sheep, and even young calves and foals. Dr. Florian Weise, the lead author for this study from <a href="http://www.clawsconservancy.org/" target="_blank">Claws Conservancy</a>, says: <i>“The future of the cheetah relies heavily on working with farmers who host these big cats on their lands, often bearing the cost of coexistence.” </i></div>
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Rebecca Klein from <a href="http://www.cheetahconservationbotswana.org/" target="_blank">Cheetah Conservation Botswana</a> emphasises the roles of both appropriate land use planning and working with farmers in Botswana: <i>“Ensuring that livestock farming communities have the tools and the incentives to minimise conflict incidents is one approach, along with equally important efforts to diversify livelihoods towards wildlife and culturally based tourism which will bring the species a value in the eyes of the people with which they must share the land to survive. We hope this paper will be a landmark in providing policy makers with the spatial and population information required to make responsible decisions regarding land use changes in the region.” </i><br /><br />Derek Keeping, Dr. Glyn Maude (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/krcbotswana/" target="_blank">Kalahari Research and Conservation</a>), Rebecca Klein and Jane Horgan (both Cheetah Conservation Botswana) all contributed scientific records for cheetahs in Botswana. Although they provided valuable records for cheetahs living on farmland and protected areas in the proven cheetah range, large areas in the Kgalagadi and Ngamiland Districts that are considered potential cheetah range have not yet been surveyed. The new study revealed that understudied areas such as these in southern Africa could support another 3,250 cheetahs, which would further demonstrate the importance of Botswana and her neighbours for cheetah conservation. There is therefore much work still to be done, to more effectively count the current cheetah population in Botswana, and conserve the species for future generations. <br /><br /><br /><i>By Gail C. Potgieter</i><br /><style>
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Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-32522117774517257472017-07-18T07:54:00.001-07:002018-03-21T13:40:02.182-07:00 Money, Money, Money, Isn’t Funny, in a Conservationist’s World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV4PmQRCOL8XiuzgJtlPZ_VrsDZvcmXZmG1-XxbAWWmAZtXxjILI_jJSU1xtrXCOfx2_ca2NTv96SZtE1fT9RpSgSbIIs-BTXN-BOOVyUPDPxp2dPE4uGeEFOXGpoOksJ4Vzics-bbuh4i/s1600/Blog+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1259" data-original-width="1600" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV4PmQRCOL8XiuzgJtlPZ_VrsDZvcmXZmG1-XxbAWWmAZtXxjILI_jJSU1xtrXCOfx2_ca2NTv96SZtE1fT9RpSgSbIIs-BTXN-BOOVyUPDPxp2dPE4uGeEFOXGpoOksJ4Vzics-bbuh4i/s640/Blog+Cover.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The current global state of biodiversity has been described as a crisis, with some scientists going as far as declaring that the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn" target="_blank">sixth mass extinction is already happening</a>. What is also well documented is that in order to reach our global conservation goals, <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/338/6109/946" target="_blank">we need more money</a>. The public, particularly in the Western world, has become more aware of conservation needs in recent times, and are thus more willing to donate to the cause than ever before. For example, the global outcry over Cecil the lion’s death led to massive public donations to organisations involved in lion conservation. However, one of the key take-home messages from the resultant Cecil Summit on lion conservation was that we need <a href="https://www.wildcru.org/cecil-summit/" target="_blank">more money to secure the future of lions</a>.<br />
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Members of the public wishing to donate to the conservation cause face a <a href="http://magazine.africageographic.com/weekly/issue-42/elephant-charities-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/" target="_blank">bewildering array of organisations</a> that are asking for money, many of them concerned with the same species. The discerning donor also wants to know how well their hard-earned money is spent, in terms of conserving wild animals and their habitats. <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/40592354" target="_blank">Donors are advised to do their homework</a> on the cause and organisation of their choice before committing to them. However, having done your homework, how do you separate the good from the bad? Here, I will provide some pointers on how to do just that. <br />
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This article is not yet another call for more money or a definitive guide for which organisations are best, but rather a closer look at how the issue of funding affects conservation outcomes. I will take you on an insider’s tour of fundraising mechanisms used by conservation organisations, and reveal that how and where an organisation obtains its funds can influence its effectiveness. Additionally, I will highlight some critical, yet frequently overlooked, money-related issues that are hindering conservation. Having ‘taken the tour’, I trust you will have a greater understanding about how conservation works (or doesn’t work), which should allow you to make more informed decisions about supporting conservation efforts in future. <br />
<u><b><br />The importance of people</b></u><br />
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First off, let’s talk about people. Every human endeavour on earth is, by definition, driven by people, and conservation is no different. Humans are the ultimate driving force behind the destruction of the environment, and humans are the key to resolving this problem. These points may seem obvious, and yet it frequently seems that the world of conservation finance is unaware of them. One of the most common complaints about conservation organisations (particularly large ones) is how much money is spent on staff salaries. This sentiment is echoed by many donor organisations that do not provide funds for salaries or administration costs.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuB7nj2KV1TWjo1ONn_x3S3s3OH4cPTsJkX24ve99ZkwUG3DX68Y2SUl26fPbe0XOCigFpJPtFnv2euSl9IyzJfoAJW4Arqa2jGBgbBhsGgtvOPWg0eWMeepesbdpc-iwaTzhpzweUWUjx/s1600/Office+work.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuB7nj2KV1TWjo1ONn_x3S3s3OH4cPTsJkX24ve99ZkwUG3DX68Y2SUl26fPbe0XOCigFpJPtFnv2euSl9IyzJfoAJW4Arqa2jGBgbBhsGgtvOPWg0eWMeepesbdpc-iwaTzhpzweUWUjx/s640/Office+work.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conservation is nowhere without dedicated conservationists</td></tr>
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Objections to paying people are somewhat understandable, as conservation donors like to know that their money is going ‘to the animals’. Additionally, paying for equipment that is perceived to provide the resolution to conservation problems appears to give you more ‘bang for your buck’ than paying for someone’s salary, or office space. However, in my experience, the actual effectiveness of any conservation-related project or organisation is determined almost entirely by the quality and dedication of the people working there. One could sponsor a hundred anti-poaching drones, or the materials to build a similar number of predator-proof kraals, but without the right people involved, all that money could go to waste.<br />
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People are not just an important part of conservation; they are critical. Directors and principal investigators (in the case of conservation research) are key to ensuring that an organisation fulfils its mission. Besides organisation leaders, the people on the ground – e.g. park rangers; post-graduate students; employees from local communities – are the little cogs that make the whole machine work. Particularly for employees drawn out of local communities, salaries and general staff treatment can make or break a locally based project, as this <a href="https://scroll.in/magazine/841182/in-an-odisha-reserve-poachers-who-turned-protectors-are-threatening-to-go-back-to-killing-animals" target="_blank">example from India demonstrates</a>.<br />
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<b><u>Funding the un-fundable</u></b><br />
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Besides salaries, administration and overhead costs are vital to making a non-profit organisation of any kind work, yet they are frequently <a href="http://www.cvlandtrust.ca/blog/new-thinking-about-non-profit-organization-overhead-or-administrative-funding-and-spending-this-article-from-2009-leads-a-new-direction-in-how-effective-an-organization-becomes-when-it-scrimps-on-administrative-costs" target="_blank">not covered or severely restricted by donor agencies</a>. The people employed may be dedicated and passionate, but they soon become disheartened when vital equipment (e.g. vehicles) do not work, or there is no budget for basic office equipment like computers. As an example, I once looked for money to build much-needed predator-proof kraals in a remote rural area. All the potential donors I looked at that provided the modest amounts of funding I required (US$1,000-5,000) excluded vehicle expenses. Consequently, had I received funds from these organisations, the budget would have covered the costs for building several large kraals, but not for transporting these materials to target communities!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizr-fLd1rIBzmpNXpjUD3CR7-Xo-9-Hwz02FPwtu5xrHR_2GjlNPTFH1E9DDgdfDQKz3Xi5BXQ9Q9siaxq64p28pEjNcq3VDgWvozbtqXofQQ-jkcmGqxg7zAoy5VsmTzQjyQcf0BwGm2s/s1600/Transport.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="1600" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizr-fLd1rIBzmpNXpjUD3CR7-Xo-9-Hwz02FPwtu5xrHR_2GjlNPTFH1E9DDgdfDQKz3Xi5BXQ9Q9siaxq64p28pEjNcq3VDgWvozbtqXofQQ-jkcmGqxg7zAoy5VsmTzQjyQcf0BwGm2s/s640/Transport.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Using funding from one grant, I was able to buy, transport, and pay to build predator-proof kraals for remote rural communities. This project was discontinued, as funding for transport and overheads is not available from many grantors.</td></tr>
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With the emphasis on funding equipment directly related to project activities (vehicles, computers etc. are categorised as ‘indirect’) and tangible, measurable outcomes, donors rarely support projects that rely on building relationships to find sustainable solutions. Projects that are aimed at local communities especially require time and patience, with measurable outcomes few and far between. Time and patience obviously requires the salary and indirect costs associated with getting the right kind of person into the right places, thus making the critical early phases of community projects virtually un-fundable. Some of the greatest conservation success stories were created through such unattractive processes as listening to and truly engaging with local people (<a href="http://www.irdnc.org.na/pdf/IRDNC-Lessons-from-the-Field.pdf" target="_blank">e.g. establishing communal conservancies in Namibia</a>), yet these successes are rarely repeatable due to donor reluctance to fund this kind of work.<br />
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A recent grant proposal I helped write was aimed at reducing conflict between humans and lions. The timescale provided was two years, in which we had to produce such measurable outcomes as ‘the number of lions saved’, and ‘the proportion of lion range in Africa conserved’ as a direct result of our project. Anyone who has worked with local communities would realise that things are never that simple. You need to develop relationships and build trust, listen to what communities really want, and then present your ideas on potential solutions, respectfully allowing them to support or reject those ideas. <br />
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In some areas, the idea of coexisting with lions is so nonsensical to local people that a measurable outcome such as ‘number of lions saved’ could take a generation to accomplish. Changing deeply held beliefs and perceptions simply does not happen on a two-year timescale. However, not spending the time needed to do this, and favouring instead projects that have donor-satisfying short timescales, frequently results in local communities realising that the NGO dedicated to ‘helping them’ actually has other priorities. The consequences of this breakdown in trust for long-term, ultimate conservation goals (like ‘saving lions’) are dire.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQ8LMlcNjSPwRsJsj_jP0BTEsFBB6vdltEFO5ZTXS8nqj20I5ZOuOIisMGxdn__zv1DZnlDqHF3yM6UCRzWeYUDJb9PZit-v8bpBFZgmfL6mV5QFbM84z-PnFs89TwVgBvSQLVXWcn7dK/s1600/Dead+cow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="1600" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQ8LMlcNjSPwRsJsj_jP0BTEsFBB6vdltEFO5ZTXS8nqj20I5ZOuOIisMGxdn__zv1DZnlDqHF3yM6UCRzWeYUDJb9PZit-v8bpBFZgmfL6mV5QFbM84z-PnFs89TwVgBvSQLVXWcn7dK/s640/Dead+cow.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The less attractive face of conservation. This cow was killed by lions. Changing local perceptions of dangerous wildlife takes time and patience, which are difficult to fund.</td></tr>
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A lack of funding to employ and keep the best people can render a conservation organisation useless, or worse. Dynamic leaders are forced to spend their time fundraising, rather than furthering their conservation goals. Underpaid anti-poaching rangers could be tempted by bribes from well-funded poaching groups. Young, promising scientists could leave the field of conservation and apply their skills in another scientific field that holds better career prospects. I have not made these examples up; I have witnessed them time and again in different countries and organisations.<br />
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Anyone working in Human Resources in any other industry will attest to the fact that the treatment of staff is key to the success of any organisation, and <a href="http://www.ngopulse.org/article/ngos-and-salary-allocations" target="_blank">non-profit organisations are no different</a>. What happens to an industry when all of the organisations therein underpay their staff and consequently underperform? The entire industry suffers, potential investors look elsewhere, and very little innovation or achievement is accomplished. Considering the consistent undervaluation of people in conservation, is it any wonder that our conservation goals are rarely achieved, and that donors are fatigued by constant requests for funds by a seemingly inefficient industry? <br />
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But what about the overpaid CEOs of large, bureaucratic organisations that employ a legion of staff, yet don’t seem to get anything done? Or what about those organisations that drum up more than enough money through clever fundraising campaigns to fund bloated budgets? Sadly, unscrupulous organisations do exist in the otherwise noble field of conservation. Besides the outright fraudsters (<a href="http://www.cannedlion.org/cub-petting.html" target="_blank">such as cub-petting operations</a>), there are an untold number of organisations that started off well, yet have been derailed by the conservation financing system. This leads me to the next critical issue: accountability.<br />
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<u><b>Do donors know what conservationists are doing with their money?</b></u><br />
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Much of conservation funding these days comes directly from the public, as well-marketed conservation can generate popular support. Many organisations are becoming adept at fundraising from the public, and are looking at ways of marketing their cause as broadly as possible. Indeed, a recent study showed that increased marketing to the general public is a key factor for <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-ugly-animals-can-win-hearts-and-dollars-to-save-them-from-extinction-78507" target="_blank">conserving less attractive animals</a>. Whilst it is wonderful that more people are becoming aware of conservation needs and are willing to contribute to meeting them, this situation allows scope for abuse. <br />
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Window dressing and exaggeration are common aspects of the fundraising campaigns of more conservation organisations than you want to know about. In the race for the public’s attention, each organisation tries to outdo the other by describing their cause in the most emotive way possible, knowing that tugging heart strings often loosens purse strings. Additionally, the success of each conservation project is talked up, and some projects are sustained simply because it looks good to the layman. Finally, few individual donors are interested in the financial nitty-gritty of their chosen recipient, so fund wastage and mismanagement can go entirely unchecked.<br />
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The abuse of funding can be minimized by donor organisations that give grants to conservationists based on detailed project proposals and budgets. Having received a grant, the conservation organisation needs to provide regular update reports and financial statements that prove that the money is being used properly. However, from a conservationist’s point of view, fundraising from the public and writing grant proposals share one key drawback: time. <br />
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<u><b>Time is money – unless you work in conservation</b></u><br />
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The extreme competition for limited funding (from all sources) leads conservation organisations to devote increasing amounts of time to fundraising. In smaller organisations, the director or CEO is forced to spend most of their time either touring the Western world, or writing endless grants just to keep their projects going. Costs incurred by either of these activities are rarely covered by the funds received, and the general public have negative perceptions of organisations that, ironically, spend money to raise funds from the public. Larger organisations employ people to write grants and lead fundraising or marketing campaigns, thus freeing up time for their directors to focus on actual conservation work. Yet employing a fundraiser is one more administration cost criticised by potential donors as ‘unnecessary’.<br />
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This situation is not helped by the fact that every donor organisation has different demands for how they want their grant proposals formatted or worded. Each proposal must be different from the last one, because donors have such a wide variety of demands and interests. A human-wildlife conflict project, for example, must be framed as conserving animals for one donor, and then re-framed as assisting local people for the next. Even donors with relatively similar interests request proposals in completely different formats, thus making it time-consuming to write several proposals for the same project. <br />
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As for public fundraising, in-person tours generate more attention than online campaigns, which leads to the fundraiser racking up the air miles in a bid to reach as wide an audience as possible. A globetrotting director is vulnerable to becoming out of touch with local project staff, which can cause internal staff-related problems that hamper their organisation’s efficiency.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8QMh20flCSHrcpFKP0Wn3R8SeCkswx4FDYfEyjHMO8fH4ViQAH04SXxjSbW_2qim83MJplTG-ua7pD3sc1OISyjRufQHYweRsfjpUT8ct8UdRcXiDmrudFiN-C5e1JLKoB5xP91A-2019/s1600/Sunset.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1600" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8QMh20flCSHrcpFKP0Wn3R8SeCkswx4FDYfEyjHMO8fH4ViQAH04SXxjSbW_2qim83MJplTG-ua7pD3sc1OISyjRufQHYweRsfjpUT8ct8UdRcXiDmrudFiN-C5e1JLKoB5xP91A-2019/s640/Sunset.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the end of another glorious day in the African bush, one pauses to reflect on how the day's time has been spent. For many conservationists, the answer is "trying to raise money".</td></tr>
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<b><u>Money can be an obstacle to conservation</u></b><br />
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Sources of funding have an inordinate impact on conservation outcomes. In general, donor communities are either from developed countries, or urbanised subsets of developing countries. For African conservation NGOs, the people who are likely to be affected by their work are rural people in developing countries. The needs and desires of the donor and target communities are frequently at odds with one another, and it takes a brave balancing act to reconcile the two. Sadly, if they are not reconciled, then the wishes of the donor community are likely to outweigh those of the target community – money talks. This issue is certainly not limited to conservation NGOs, as all foreign-based or funded organisations in Africa <a href="http://africanarguments.org/2011/08/08/parasites-of-the-poor-international-ngos-and-aid-agencies-in-zimbabwe-by-diana-jeater/" target="_blank">walk the tightrope of helping communities and keeping donors satisfied</a>.<br />
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Here a just a few examples of how money can become an obstacle to conservation. NGOs that receive money through volunteers focus on projects that are attractive and allow a ‘hands-on’ approach for foreigners, even if such projects have dubious conservation value. Those supported by universities may focus on research questions that lead to publishing scientific journal articles, rather than producing practical guidelines for conservation managers (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science?CMP=share_btn_tw" target="_blank">the world of scientific publishing is itself manipulated by money</a>). Public-funded organisations may avoid controversial topics and choose not to lobby for legislation changes they know to be necessary, in case their followers do not agree with or understand their stance. Projects funded by short-term grants may show promise, only to be terminated when the funding runs out. Conservation NGOs run the risk of turning local communities against them by focusing on outcomes that tick donor’s boxes, rather than undertaking true community engagement. <br />
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The above examples are just a small selection of the pitfalls conservation NGOs can fall into due to the source of their funding. Considering this list (which is by no means comprehensive) may leave you cynical about conservation in general – are there any organisations that do what they say they do? Are there any that use their funds in the best possible way? Should I spend my hard-earned money on conservation efforts, or will it just be wasted? How can we fix a system that seems so broken, before time runs out for global wildlife? <br />
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<b><u>What can we do about it? Solutions lie on both sides of the equation</u></b><br />
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As a conservationist observing the industry from the inside, it is easy to become despondent and think about giving up the whole effort. However, our wildlife deserve better than that. Furthermore, it is not all gloom and doom, as there are several organisations that have set out to do things a little differently from the rest. I will refrain from naming names here, just as I have for some of the dubious ones I referred to previously, as I do not have complete information on every organisation, and my opinions on any of them are entirely subjective. Nonetheless, I will outline some of the positive funding strategies I have seen that help conservation NGOs become more effective.<br />
<br />
A few of the larger conservation NGOs get around the problem of paying reasonable salaries, whilst remaining attractive for public donations, by funding their operating costs through endowment funds or conservation-minded philanthropists. This system is based on understanding how important people are in the conservation effort, and how difficult it is to raise public funds to pay them what they are worth. The salary-paying philanthropist then also has the right to know how the organisation is operated, and is more likely to hold them accountable for their use of time and money than the general public.<br />
<br />
Philanthropists and large endowment funds are rather scarce, and very little could be done worldwide if we needed one of these for every conservation attempt. However, the salary issue can also be addressed by businesses supporting conservation. Some companies have established Trusts that do conservation work, with the conservationists’ salaries covered by the business side of the operation. Specifically, wildlife-based tourism operators can play a greater role in conserving wildlife by adopting this model. As not all tour operators are big enough to support a Trust on their own, they could club together and support one Trust that does conservation work on their behalf. <br />
<br />
If you are interested in donating to a cause, don’t be put off by organisations that need funding for salaries and overheads, as not every worthy organisation has a philanthropist or business supporting it. Rather, donors should focus on finding out how an organisation is run, and how it proposes to meet its objectives. If possible, talk to a neutral party in the industry who can tell the difference between window dressing and real conservation. Paying the salary of someone who takes the time to engage with communities, or has the skills required for managing large wilderness areas, or the diplomatic tact needed to engage with governments at the highest level, is certainly not a waste of money.<br />
<br />
High profile award funds (<a href="http://tuskawards.com/" target="_blank">e.g. the Tusk Awards</a>) have been established to provide publicity and funding for hardworking, sometimes relatively unknown conservationists. Besides giving individual conservation projects a financial boost, the public recognition of the work done by these individuals will certainly help to keep their projects going in future. These awards also demonstrate that without dedicated conservationists, there would be no conservation, thus improving public perceptions of spending conservation money on people.<br />
<br />
Zoos with Trusts that act as donor organisations are talking about standardising their requirements for grant proposals, such that one proposal may be sent to several Trusts without needing extensive changes. This is a very positive development, and more grantors with similar interests should come together to standardise their proposal requirements. This would lift a great burden off the shoulders of small conservation NGOs that cannot afford fulltime grant writers. <br />
<br />
I recently found a new conservation group that promised to post all their financial records on Facebook, thus ensuring that their donors knew how their money was spent. This is an enormous step forwards in transparency and accountability, and I think many other public-funded organisations would do well to emulate this example. Donors should have easy access to such information, rather than having to do extensive research to find out where their money is spent. On the other side of the coin, donors need to understand that salaries and overheads (or indirect costs) are essential to the functioning of most NGOs. They should not discontinue their support just because their chosen NGO honestly includes these items in financial reports.<br />
<br />
Finally, some conservation NGOs that understand the importance of research for guiding conservation action have teamed up with universities. The conservationists on the ground play a major role in determining the research agenda, and the university supplies students to find answers to relevant research questions. In this way, research funding from international universities can support conservation action. This system serves to prevent research from becoming too detached from conservation realities, and helps increase continuity between research projects. The local conservation NGO thus becomes a hub of research and an overarching body under which post-graduate students can operate. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwJDAZzlspEiBXMpOLV-BqNoImHPwv15VZYrdC39S2ic6-77T77UPW97fD6Zv7gOz7KbTPhxEPqTQW53S4k8kMrC09n0lRUsZQUAOS3XGd4yMEAkjnHU7zP2QyNVo2h1-tY93S6bDjR8Q/s1600/Fieldwork+and+money3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwJDAZzlspEiBXMpOLV-BqNoImHPwv15VZYrdC39S2ic6-77T77UPW97fD6Zv7gOz7KbTPhxEPqTQW53S4k8kMrC09n0lRUsZQUAOS3XGd4yMEAkjnHU7zP2QyNVo2h1-tY93S6bDjR8Q/s640/Fieldwork+and+money3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This field trip to monitor carnivore populations in an under-studied area of Botswana was funded by the University of Wisconsin (Steven's Point). Their students accompany us into the field and help collect data.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As many and as difficult as the funding challenges appear to be, I believe that there are workable solutions. However, conservationists need to see the potential pitfalls of their particular funding strategy, and be willing to find ways to avoid them. As I have shown above, the source of funding can influence conservation work negatively, but it can also have a positive influence by increasing accountability and effectiveness. To this end, educating the donors about conservation funding issues is paramount. I would encourage all conservation organisations to take an honest look at how their funding sources influence their work. If this self-appraisal is negative, then look to engage with donors to find a way of making money work for conservation.<br />
<br />
<i>By Gail C. Potgieter </i><style>
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Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-12514859352080840692017-05-08T05:18:00.001-07:002018-03-21T13:38:08.152-07:00Studying “The Servant of Vultures” to Save Them<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VyQ9ICqJ4AKvJx8XVsf1jqVPv-nbPaBrfUdyFK7k4cDX_-Iq9pZfWBmxtJl-LG_YixQ5ySfVUaUQKaomhokMubQAisY4PufjaeD1IILtXovoBv2N2OnGclOYJBOZjL-tGLkn96vijODM/s1600/Hooded+Vultures+for+presentation.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-VyQ9ICqJ4AKvJx8XVsf1jqVPv-nbPaBrfUdyFK7k4cDX_-Iq9pZfWBmxtJl-LG_YixQ5ySfVUaUQKaomhokMubQAisY4PufjaeD1IILtXovoBv2N2OnGclOYJBOZjL-tGLkn96vijODM/s640/Hooded+Vultures+for+presentation.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Along with several other African vulture species, the Hooded Vulture is globally threatened (Photo by: J. Loughran).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />The Hooded Vulture, with its small body and slender bill, is on the lowest rung of vulture society. This point is succinctly made in Setswana (the official language of Botswana), as the Hooded Vulture is called motlhanka-wamanông, which means “servant of the vultures”. However, these diminutive vultures are not stupid, as they follow African wild dogs when they hunt, knowing that the dogs are excellent hunters that are likely to provide fresh meat. <br /><br />Sadly, these clever little vultures are under severe threat, and their numbers have declined catastrophically throughout Africa. In 2015, the IUCN drastically adjusted the conservation status of Hooded Vultures from Least Concern to Critically Endangered. It is now faced with extinction, unless the trends can be reversed through dedicated conservation efforts.<br /><br />Although this species occurs in large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, we are not sure how well they are faring in Botswana. Although we know that they occur in the northern parts of the country (the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park are population strongholds), we don’t know how far individuals fly and how much time they spend in unprotected areas. We also do not know if the national population is increasing or decreasing. In response to this lack of information about a species that is declining globally, Raptors Botswana has embarked on a project to find out more about its life history. The project is part of this local NGO's commitment to using raptor research to guide national conservation efforts. <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyAA627bBJzaAsaiJiEfB-YdUTm7uqDVVFDhM0swL5sVeVtik1AIKecoB0_xbIVvZFwnm1vcVvB5jvfc5seEvxCUp7WMBsi20cFEx2a4JeLBiZnoKWJr0vh4fhTIM2M2zpAIHQ_qMJWel/s1600/Pete+with+imm+HV+RGB+300dpi.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyAA627bBJzaAsaiJiEfB-YdUTm7uqDVVFDhM0swL5sVeVtik1AIKecoB0_xbIVvZFwnm1vcVvB5jvfc5seEvxCUp7WMBsi20cFEx2a4JeLBiZnoKWJr0vh4fhTIM2M2zpAIHQ_qMJWel/s640/Pete+with+imm+HV+RGB+300dpi.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pete Hancock, the director of Raptors Botswana, releases an immature Hooded Vulture after fitting it with a tracking device (Photo by: R. Reading).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Hooded Vulture study was recently initiated by fitting two birds (an adult and an immature) with satellite tracking devices in Kasane in the north-western corner of Botswana. The devices will help us determine the birds’ movements, and provide insights into the threats they face. Having obtained the necessary permits, the Raptors Botswana team arrived at the Chobe Crocodile Farm owned by Sue Slogrove. The farm was perfectly suited to our mission, as up to 40 Hooded Vultures visit regularly to scavenge on left-over meat that is fed to the crocodiles. This is surely one of the best places in the whole of Africa to see these rare vultures!<br /><br />Despite their familiarity with the farm, the birds are wild and remain wary of people. We therefore deployed our cannon net machine to catch the birds; we have used this device to catch vultures before and have found it to be a humane and efficient method. We caught nine Hooded Vultures in our very first attempt! After fitting the transmitters to two of them, the remainder were quickly measured and released.<br /><br />The value of using tracking devices was quickly realised, as the vultures defied our initial predictions. We thought that they would stay near the abundant, steady food supply at the croc farm, returning each day to feed. To our surprise, they soon dispersed towards the Okavango Delta, and they continue to cover significant distances each day. This information could never have been obtained without using satellite trackers, making it well worth the expense and effort. We will continue learning more about this under-studied species as the solar-charged transmitters send us their locations on a regular basis.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhydquQEacLSYUziRw8SmHYhpCeL1zkwNEGnGUxkALtlhVC8xhq9BI2GzxxAXWiz-REWrkGLi292SF-NB6vQhHSa8pZWuHnmb8Z7-W5lMOh3Rq45hsCFcwSTnoV09NT4f9iAHKPxpCxscXr/s1600/2017-04-06+HVs.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhydquQEacLSYUziRw8SmHYhpCeL1zkwNEGnGUxkALtlhVC8xhq9BI2GzxxAXWiz-REWrkGLi292SF-NB6vQhHSa8pZWuHnmb8Z7-W5lMOh3Rq45hsCFcwSTnoV09NT4f9iAHKPxpCxscXr/s640/2017-04-06+HVs.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first week’s movements of the two vultures (represented by red and blue dots) shown on a Google Earth backdrop. The capture location is in the top right. (Map by: P. Hancock).</td></tr>
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<br />By Pete Hancock<br /><br /><br />Acknowledgement: Raptors Botswana would like to thank Sue Slogrove for allowing us to catch the birds on her property, and for assisting with capture logistics. <style>
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</style>Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-38115640654697259882017-05-02T08:00:00.003-07:002018-03-21T13:30:55.484-07:00Living with Lions – Using the Latest Technology to Tackle an Ancient Problem<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<!--StartFragment--><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This lioness has been sedated so that researchers can place a collar on
her and keep track of her movements as part of the Pride in Our Prides lion
conservation project. (© CLAWS Conservancy).</span></i><!--EndFragment-->
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<h3>
<u><br /></u></h3>
<h3>
<u>Lions in the Night</u></h3>
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<br />
It is 4 p.m. on Sunday, 23 April 2017. Mr. Matsimela<sup>*</sup> receives a message on his cell phone with the following information: <i>Good afternoon.</i><span class="s1"> </span><i>Mutlawankanda and Nduraghumbo </i>[two collared male lions]<i> are moving back into Beetsha area. They are 4 km east of Matswii and Nxeku</i> <i>along the Okavango Delta channel, please kraal cattle at night and inform other people in your area. Thanks, Flo. </i>(<sup>*</sup>Name changed).</div>
<div class="p2">
<i></i><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Mr. Matsimela lives in the village called Beetsha, and his cattle graze in the surrounding area. He is also a village elder who knows everyone in the area and has been given the responsibility to pass the information on to others. Having received the text, he spreads the word through cell phone messages and word-of-mouth. He calls his herder and asks him to find the cattle and make sure they are brought in for the night. Additionally, he sets to work with his family to build fires around the cattle enclosure that will keep the lions at bay. His message reaches the people farming closest to the lions’ position. This family has recently received a sturdy cattle enclosure from the Pride in Our Prides project (PiOP), who sent the initial warning message. They chase their cattle into the enclosure and close the gate securely, knowing that their cows are safe, even if the lions come right up to the enclosure.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
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During the night, the lions came to the well-built enclosure, but they could not enter, or scare the cattle into breaking out of the enclosure. They carried on to the village, but skirted around Mr. Matsimela’s farm due to the fires he had set around his traditional cattle enclosure. Seeing the lions by the firelight, some young men came out banging tin plates and shouting. The lions took flight and left the village, heading back to the safety of the Okavango Delta.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
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The story above typifies the work done by CLAWS Conservancy’s Pride in Our Prides project among communities living in the far northern region of Botswana. As recently as 2013, before Pride in Our Prides began, the lions’ approach would have gone unnoticed until the next morning, when farmers discovered several dead cows. Their response to continued livestock losses from lions was to poison livestock carcasses, in the hope that they would kill the responsible lions. Poisoning events in 2013 killed 50-60% of the known lions in this area, and caused the deaths of many vultures and other scavenging animals. It was clear that something needed to be done to help the local people find better ways to live with lions.<br />
<br /></div>
<h3>
<b><u>Finding a Solution: Pride in Our Prides</u></b></h3>
<div class="p1">
<br />
The founder of CLAWS Conservancy, Dr. Andrew Stein, immediately recognised the importance of this lion population, as it lies in a key part of the KAZA Trans-Frontier Conservation Area that includes parts of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Zambia (see map). Although KAZA encompasses several protected areas in the member countries, subsistence farmers occupy the land between these wildlife areas, where they grow crops and raise livestock. If lions cannot move through farming zones between protected areas, then this lion conservation stronghold may become fragmented and isolated, which is the first step towards losing this population altogether.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--StartFragment--><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The KAZA Trans-frontier Conservation Area (in green) covers parts of
five southern African countries, including Botswana. The project area is at the
heart of this landscape, where communities live on the edge of the Okavango
Delta World Heritage Site. (Map created by: Dr. Florian Weise).</span></i><!--EndFragment-->
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Dr. Stein partnered with Dr. Florian Weise, who currently heads the PiOP project with assistance from the local community liaison Mr. Mathata Tomeletso. Both researchers have years of experience working with livestock farmers to address the conflict between them and large carnivores, particularly cheetahs and leopards. One of the key lessons they learned was that information and transparency are critical requirements for successfully changing farmer attitudes and hence their reactions to large carnivores. They found that the judicious use of satellite collars and consequent information on animal movements could be a game changer for large carnivore conservation. Farmer hostility turned into genuine interest in individual carnivore movements. Suspicion about the motives of carnivore conservationists turned into working relationships that brought farmers into the conservation world, rather than alienating them. </div>
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The PiOP project operates on the same principles of information sharing and transparency, and their strategy has once again yielded positive results. To add to the community buy-in to the project, the local villagers are asked to give their own names to individual lions that are collared. The act of naming a lion gives the community a sense of ownership and personal connection, in that they now see the lions as individual animals with different characteristics, rather than branding all lions as a problem. One lioness was named “Maleherehere” which means “the Sneaky One” – for good reason. This particular lioness has had close encounters with hostile people in her life (shown by old gunshot wounds in her shoulder), and has learned to sneak away quickly after killing and eating cattle. Even the researchers have confirmed her ‘sneakiness’ as they battled for several days to dart her for collaring! </div>
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The two male lions in the lion alert at the beginning of this article were also named by the community. Nduraghumbo or "Head of the Homestead" is an old male, previously part of a coalition that was killed by villagers before the project started. Mutlawankanda "One who forages for food" associated with a pride consisting of two females. One of the men from the village said, "I like Mutlawankanda, he has two wives like me", thus revealing his new connection with lions.</div>
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Currently, six lions from five prides living on the edge of wildlife management areas and near communal livestock grazing lands have been collared. The lions in these prides are the most likely to cause livestock losses, and the collared individuals are those that are identified as pride leaders or are known to have caused livestock losses in the past. The collars are programmed to send Dr. Weise a text message whenever they cross one of two virtual lines (or ‘fences’) that correspond with: 1) the areas where livestock graze, and 2) within a few kilometres of five focal villages. He translates the detailed information (exact GPS location, direction of travel) into an understandable warning message that can be used by the community to proactively protect their livestock. The effort put into the community programme has paid off – since the PiOP project began in 2014 no lions have been poisoned, and during 2016 not a single known lion was killed using any means. </div>
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<!--StartFragment--><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This graphic is used to explain to communities how the lion alert system
works. This system ensures that livestock farmers can proactively protect their
livestock from lion predation. (Graphic by: Dr. Florian Weise).</span></i><!--EndFragment--></td></tr>
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<h3>
<b><br /></b></h3>
<h3>
<b><u>The Future: Introducing New Technology and Strengthening Old Traditions</u></b></h3>
<div class="p2">
<br />
In future, the CLAWS Conservancy team aims to make the project self-sustaining by employing the current community liaison officer as the project leader. A key part of this strategy is to fine-tune the lion alert system and automate it, thus reducing the need for an expert to translate and transmit the information. To this end, they have partnered with Professor Volker Wulf and his team from the University of Siegen in Germany. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Prof. Wulf has developed the field called Socio-Informatics, which aims to make highly technical information conveniently available to local communities in a form that they can understand and use. For the PiOP project, they will engage with the community to find out: what types of cell phones are predominately used; the local level of literacy; which languages and/or images are widely understood; the kind of information from the lion collars that will be most useful. They will use this knowledge to create a user-friendly cell phone application that will provide the right information to the right people, at the right time. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Although the lion alert system is an innovative solution to the ancient problem of human-lion conflict, the CLAWS team does not view it as a silver bullet that will fix the problem by itself. Rather, lion alerts are part of a much broader, holistic plan to change the way livestock are managed and encourage sustainable farming that is adapted to local conditions. As part of this strategy, they are building strong cattle enclosures that can withstand lion attacks, to replace the current traditional enclosures that cannot deter lions. They have built 17 enclosures to date and closely monitor their use by farmers; no losses have been recorded from within these enclosures over the past two years. </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">The livestock enclosure on the left was built by the Pride in Our Prides project, and is predator-proof. The traditional enclosure on the right is designed to keep livestock inside, but cannot prevent predator attacks. (© CLAWS Conservancy).</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="p1">
<br />
Another major challenge is to encourage people to employ full-time herders that protect their livestock during the day and bring them in at night. At the moment, most farmers allow their cattle to wander unprotected during the day, and battle to find them to bring them in at night. Consequently, the CLAWS team plans to partner with several other conservation groups who can assist with farmer education and herder training in future.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
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<!--StartFragment--><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Herders are a critical part of pro-active livestock protection and
grazing management. (© CLAWS Conservancy). </span></i><!--EndFragment--></td></tr>
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The innovative, highly practical methods used by CLAWS in this project are to be lauded as an example for other human-wildlife conflict practitioners to follow. Perhaps even more remarkably, they are using rigorous scientific methods to monitor and test the relative success of all aspects of the PiOP project. This strategy shows their commitment to not only reducing human-lion conflict at a local scale, but to use the knowledge gained to inform conflict mitigation measures worldwide. Furthermore, the technology used for the lion alert system has great potential for other conservation-related uses, such as anti-poaching. </div>
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This pioneering work in northern Botswana is breaking new ground for global conservation efforts. If you would like to find out more about CLAWS Conservancy and how you can get involved, check out their <a href="http://www.clawsconservancy.org/">website</a>. We will keep you up to date on the PiOP project’s progress in future articles of <i>Conserve Botswana.</i></div>
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</style>Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-55123720699406814252017-04-14T02:31:00.001-07:002018-03-21T13:29:39.932-07:00Trading Endangered Species – Necessary Evil or Selling our Souls? Part 2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXjmbCFCx-9VetobAgkmqfl4a8kJiw6_4Z1K1r9vRVmefLvAzj0y9TBAIn6S_kV5nm5P_fOgTMgRnZTT85yTcagZHaFM4nYSHyjHTdbF6oUlHD5W_r54ZGfSXdU8oE5KUdqOX8ohKRWDq/s1600/rtp074-0215.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvXjmbCFCx-9VetobAgkmqfl4a8kJiw6_4Z1K1r9vRVmefLvAzj0y9TBAIn6S_kV5nm5P_fOgTMgRnZTT85yTcagZHaFM4nYSHyjHTdbF6oUlHD5W_r54ZGfSXdU8oE5KUdqOX8ohKRWDq/s640/rtp074-0215.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This baby rhino is in danger, as poachers might kill its mother for her horn. How do we stop the rhino poaching scourge, and secure this baby's future? Photo by Rob Thomson.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The policies of South Africa with regards to wildlife conservation have implications for other countries in the region, including Botswana. Although Botswana has very different policies, the close proximity of South Africa, and the many land borders between the two countries mean that their respective policies are likely to influence each other’s conservation efforts.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://conserve-botswana.blogspot.com/2017/04/trading-endangered-species-necessary.html">In Part 1 of this series</a>, we considered the recent South African proposal to export 800 lion skeletons from the captive lion breeding industry. This article delves into the even more complex topic of trading rhino horn, on the back of news that South Africa has <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/wildlife-watch-rhino-horn-ban-overturned-south-africa/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20170405news-southafrica&utm_campaign=Content&sf68213706=1">allowed domestic trade</a>, even though international trade is still banned. As mentioned in Part 1, there are four main differences between trading lion bones and rhino horn, listed below to refresh your memory.<br />
<ol>
<li>The lions that are earmarked for trade should all come from captive lion breeding farms, whereas the rhinos are currently kept under mostly natural conditions on large game ranching properties, where they remain part of working ecosystems. </li>
<li>The groups lobbying for trade in lion bones are almost exclusively the lion breeders themselves, whereas the rhino horn pro-trade group comprises both rhino owners and rhino conservationists. </li>
<li>In order to trade lion bones, lions must be killed, whereas a rhino’s horn can be removed non-lethally, and it will regrow in time.</li>
<li>The conservation threats to rhinos and lions in the wild are very different, so any idea that purports to help conserve these species should be viewed within that context.</li>
</ol>
These differences indicate that there is a stronger argument, based solely on conservation efforts, for rhino horn trade than there is for lion bone trade. In particular, the <a href="http://theconservationimperative.com/?p=282">support for legalising horn trade among noted conservationists</a> cannot be ignored. Reading through all of the pro- and anti-trade opinion pieces, one realises that this topic really is a minefield, with many facts portrayed differently depending on who is telling the story. The purpose of this article is less about giving an opinion one way or another, and more about helping you navigate this minefield to form your own opinion on the subject. Consequently, I describe three of the crucial sticking points in the debate, and look at what is perhaps the key to moving forward for rhino conservation, rather than setting forth another one-sided opinion piece. The three issues (these are by no means the only ones) I will focus on are: the historical context of the rhino horn trade and conservation efforts, whether or not a free market trade could work for rhinos, and if reducing demand for horn will save the rhino.<br />
<br />
<i>Historical Context</i><br />
To address the current poaching crisis, some suggest that we consider the historical context of the problem. What do we learn from this history? To answer this question, let’s start with <a href="http://blog.rhinoafrica.com/2015/09/22/history-rhino-poaching-south-africa/">Operation Rhino</a>. The incredible recovery of the white rhino population from a handful of individuals in the 1950s to nearly 20,000 rhinos in South Africa today was started by a far-sighted project called Operation Rhino. A key figure in this Operation, the late <a href="http://theconservationimperative.com/?p=219">Ian Player</a>, attributed much of the success of his work to the notion of private ownership and sustainable use of rhinos in South Africa. This project sparked what today is a thriving wildlife ranching industry, which <a href="https://www.ewt.org.za/media/2016/THE%20ROLE%20OF%20THE%20WILDLIFE%20RANCHING%20INDUSTRY%20IN%20SOUTH%20AFRICA.pdf">hosts more wildlife on more land</a> than the protected areas in the country.<br />
<br />
The success of Operation Rhino, and the importance of wildlife conservation on private land in South Africa are agreed by the majority of conservationists, irrespective of their stance on trade. Where opinions diverge is over the question: can a similar strategy, based specifically on rhino horn trade, stop the current poaching crisis, or would it fuel still more poaching? Similarly, does banning trade in endangered species achieve its stated goal of reducing poaching, or does it actually serve to increase poaching? To try and answer these questions, groups on both sides of the debate turn to the history books.<br />
<br />
Although one would think that studying the history of rhino horn trade, and the banning thereof, might lead to clear conclusions that are either for or against the trade, this is not the case. <a href="http://www.rhino-economics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/The-Rhino-Poaching-Crisis-by-Michael-t-Sas-Rolfes-Final.pdf">Historical analyses by those favouring trade</a> suggest that trade bans, particularly the 2009 ban in South Africa, actually precipitated the current rhino poaching crisis. According to their analyses, small quantities of legally obtained rhino horn from South Africa during the 2000’s obviated the need for traders to employ poachers to obtain their supplies. The fact that other African countries had banned hunting of their rhinos was the reason why poachers had decimated those populations long before they targeted South Africa. Poaching is a risky and expensive business, so surely if there were a less expensive way of getting horn (i.e. legally), then profit-oriented traders would choose that route instead.<br />
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Among the anti-trade lobby, the same historical data is used to support trade bans and suggest that rhino hunting in South Africa was the real cause for increasing demand in Asian countries. During the 1980’s, rhino poaching in Africa was recognised as a major threat to the species, and CITES successfully lobbied several Asian countries to ban the domestic trade in rhino horn. During the 1990’s, China removed rhino horn from the official list of ingredients used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and encouraged practitioners to use legal substitutes for horn.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.saveourrhino.net/rhino-poaching-timeline/">Anti-traders suggest</a> that these measures led to the relative lull in poaching during the late 90’s and early 00’s, until Vietnam became a new consumer country. On the back of a rapidly growing economy, some Vietnamese wanted to show off their newly acquired wealth by using expensive products such as rhino horn for a variety of reasons (including treating hangovers). Around the same time that Vietnamese suddenly grew a taste for rhino horn, rather strange legal rhino hunts were happening in South Africa. Instead of the usual hunting customers – American or European males – hunts were being sold to young Vietnamese women, who could not actually hunt. It soon came to light that these women were actually employed by horn traders who would sell the horn from the trophy on the black market once the ‘huntresses’ returned home.<br />
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The discovery of Vietnamese ‘pseudo-hunts’ that were used to supply rhino horn on the black market led to the moratorium on all rhino horn trade within South Africa in 2009. The pro-trade lobby suggests that by cutting off the legal channels for obtaining rhino horn under a regulated trophy hunting system the moratorium <a href="http://www.rhino-economics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/The-Rhino-Poaching-Crisis-by-Michael-t-Sas-Rolfes-Final.pdf">forced traders to find another way</a> of obtaining the horn – poaching. Anti-traders hold that the pseudo-hunts that were allowed due to South Africa’s hunting industry actually <a href="https://iwbond.org/2016/04/19/whos-actually-killing-and-making-a-killing-from-rhino/">stimulated the demand</a> for rhino horn in Vietnam, without which there would have been no poaching crisis. As you can see, this is a chicken-and-egg argument, with both sides quoting the same basic facts, yet disagreeing on cause and effect. Did rhino hunting delay the poaching crisis or create it?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTBz-0eo8YhqrmVXtVLwoowzT4Pquucood3sJWG3yZKE7eTxYuVtryZR4RqWrSclfLG7j4mgE6GWacrFj5Oj2E57sv6-MfNXvCVUPkgrcgFMwJqRvo94wPFRTAnHK70_G_Uzy_U1Qsvur/s1600/IMG_0061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaTBz-0eo8YhqrmVXtVLwoowzT4Pquucood3sJWG3yZKE7eTxYuVtryZR4RqWrSclfLG7j4mgE6GWacrFj5Oj2E57sv6-MfNXvCVUPkgrcgFMwJqRvo94wPFRTAnHK70_G_Uzy_U1Qsvur/s640/IMG_0061.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These white rhinos are moving through the thick bush of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Park, the home of Operation Rhino. Photo by Gail Potgieter.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i>Trade Bans vs. Market-Driven Sustainable Use</i><br />
Whether trade bans help or hinder conservation objectives is one of the key issues in this debate. The anti-trade side almost invariably points to <a href="http://www.news24.com/Columnists/MelanieVerwoerd/the-big-problem-with-legalising-rhino-horn-sales-20170315">CITES briefly lifting elephant ivory bans</a> to allow African countries to sell stockpiles of ivory to consumer countries as Exhibit A for the importance of trade bans. Following the once-off ivory auctions, demand for ivory in the consumer countries spiked, as a once scarce commodity suddenly became available to more people. This drove increased elephant poaching, as traders found that illegally obtained ivory could now be ‘laundered’ and sold as though it came from the previous once-off auctions.<br />
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This story holds an important lesson for all conservationists thinking about the trade in endangered species. The question is: what exactly did we learn? For the anti-trade group, the answer is obvious – trading endangered species’ parts is a dangerous business, as it may cause unexpected market reactions, and provide a way for illegally obtained parts to enter the market, further incentivising poaching. For the pro-trade group, the answer is also obvious – <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2017-03-22-the-big-problem-with-opposing-legal-rhino-horn-sales/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Afternoon%20Thing%2022nd%20March%202017&utm_content=Afternoon%20Thing%2022nd%20March%202017%20CID_f88078558e32221c5855008e85df336d&utm_source=TouchBasePro&utm_term=The%20big%20problem%20with%20opposing%20legal%20rhino%20horn%20sales#.WOudwRhh2Ru">once-off sales don’t work</a>, and serve only to drive demand and increase the price of the ‘commodity’. However, they argue that sustainable, <a href="http://theconservationimperative.com/?p=28">long-term supplies</a> could satisfy the market for horn and outcompete illegal poaching.<br />
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One key point that must be borne in mind here is that elephants must be killed for their ivory, yet rhinos can be <a href="http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/130/1304549480.pdf">dehorned non-lethally</a>. The pro-traders therefore suggest that trade could be started with current stockpiles of rhino horn and continued sustainably by non-lethally dehorning privately owned rhinos on an annual basis. The idea of commercial ranchers using rhinos as a ‘cash-cow’ by dehorning them regularly is <a href="https://iwbond.org/2015/11/30/commoditisation-of-rhino-horn-trade-self-approved-in-south-africa/">morally repulsive</a> to most of those in the anti-trade group. Rhinos are wild animals that use their horns for many reasons, some of which we may not even understand – how can we reduce this magnificent animal to a semi-domesticated state, deprived of its iconic horn? There are a few counter-arguments from the pro-trade lobby to this ethical issue (barring those that simply dismiss moral arguments as ‘bunny-hugging’):<br />
<ol>
<li>Only privately owned rhinos will be dehorned, thus allowing rhinos in protected areas to keep their horns, and also be less threatened by poachers. </li>
<li>What is worse, a living rhino without its horn that is occasionally subjected to stress and sedation, or a dead rhino with its horn hacked off in the most inhumane manner imaginable? </li>
<li>In the current poaching crisis, many private rhino owners and even governments are already dehorning rhinos, as a means of protecting them against poachers – not much will change with the suggested trade anyway.</li>
</ol>
To sum up this point, how you view markets and private wildlife owners is key to which side of the trade debate you are likely to choose. For anti-traders, <a href="http://rhinos.org/tough-issues/implications-of-opening-domestic-rhino-horn-trade-in-south-africa/">markets are Pandora’s Box</a> – opening them may lead to such rapid species decline that it may be too late before we decide to close them again. Furthermore, people who own rhinos are clearly in it for their own interests, and are not to be trusted with conserving these precious animals. For pro-traders, markets are an integral part of sustainable use, which has been a <a href="http://theconservationimperative.com/?p=267">pillar of wildlife conservation </a>in South Africa for decades; they are useful, not scary. Similarly, rhino owners were a key part of Operation Rhino, which is the reason there are any white rhinos in South Africa today; rhino owners are thus absolutely essential to future conservation efforts.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR2AQYHGpita-tc6IvH7bJ1QLjcUKMTgbkhi8XwKub0uUBHjC1sczTgfDCr8oQy9RLGEavm16V5jETf7ArIfKKmxpYQgXF49RAqO6FvGsm-E9ZZuSlJKgPWP_3_x1bPdqNglOE6eqydKe6/s1600/IMG_2567.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR2AQYHGpita-tc6IvH7bJ1QLjcUKMTgbkhi8XwKub0uUBHjC1sczTgfDCr8oQy9RLGEavm16V5jETf7ArIfKKmxpYQgXF49RAqO6FvGsm-E9ZZuSlJKgPWP_3_x1bPdqNglOE6eqydKe6/s640/IMG_2567.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This black rhino in the remote desert of Namibia is also affected by the poaching crisis - the government recently launched an intensive programme to dehorn all of the rhinos in this region in an effort to deter poachers. Photo by Gail Potgieter.</td></tr>
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<i><br /></i>
<i>Reducing Demand</i><br />
Among those who do not see legal trade as an option, a key strategy to alleviate rhino poaching is to <a href="http://wildaid.org/news/domestic-rhino-horn-trade-could-fuel-poaching-wildaid-warns">reduce demand for horn</a> amongst consumers. Despite China’s official stance on rhino horn, some Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners still prescribe rhino horn as an essential ingredient for serious illnesses, mainly fevers (<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hard-truth-about-the-rhino-horn-aphrodisiac-market/"><b>not</b> as an aphrodisiac, or a cure for cancer</a>). The Vietnamese market is rather different, as rhino horn is seen as a status symbol by the <i>nouveau riche</i>, and their use for it has no basis in traditional medicine. Some of these end users have no idea that rhinos are highly threatened, or that their demand for horn fuels a veritable war in Africa that has cost many lives, both human and rhino.<br />
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Reducing demand requires an array of strategies including education, awareness building, and on-going engagement with potential user communities. If we could convince Chinese traditional healers to use horn from domestic water buffalo in Asia as a substitute for rhino horn (they have been shown to exhibit similar properties), then they would stop buying expensive horn from illegal dealers. If we convince people who use traditional medicines in Asia that rhino horn is made of keratin, and is actually <a href="http://www.wildaid.org/news/richard-branson-speaks-out-against-rhino-horn-trade">just like human fingernails</a>, then maybe they won’t place their trust in horn to cure fevers. Finally, if the <i>nouveau riche</i> of Vietnam realised the destruction their luxury tastes actually cause, perhaps using rhino horn would become a social taboo, much like campaigns against fur worked in Western countries.<br />
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Such demand reduction strategies take time, money, and sustained effort, not to mention government willpower amongst countries that are notorious for turning a blind eye to animal abuse. Pro-traders that do not have a financial stake in rhino horn trade <a href="http://www.rhino-economics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/The-Rhino-Poaching-Crisis-by-Michael-t-Sas-Rolfes-Final.pdf">agree</a> that eliminating demand for horn would be the gold medal for rhino conservation. However, they ask: how long is it going to take to realise this lofty goal? Can demand be reduced quickly enough to save the rhino from extinction? The traditional medicine market has used horn for millennia, and people who use it have long-held, deeply ingrained beliefs. Is it realistic to expect these beliefs to evaporate following media campaigns led by Western NGOs that tell them that their medicine is as effective as chewing your fingernails?<br />
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To these searching questions, anti-trade conservation groups reply with some good counter-arguments: 1) If demand elimination truly is the gold medal for rhino conservation, then that is where we should focus our limited resources, rather than fighting each other over legalising trade. 2) Yes, reducing demand does take time and effort, which we are willing to spend, but legalising the trade in the meantime will send out mixed-messages to consumers and undo all our hard work. 3) We believe that <a href="https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/tackling_the_demand_for_rhino_horn">demand can be reduced</a> (if not eliminated) to the extent that rhino poaching at least declines, provided that we use the right strategies to target the right consumer groups. <a href="http://rhinos.org/tough-issues/implications-of-opening-domestic-rhino-horn-trade-in-south-africa/">Further research</a> and funding is urgently needed to properly address the demand problem, rather than committing to the relatively unknown route of trade legalisation.<br />
<i></i><br />
<i></i>
<i>The Way Forward – Addressing Mistrust</i><br />
I am sure that some pro-traders reading this article would have snorted in disgust at the last sentence of the previous section. “Further research and funding” is a typical call from anti-trade organisations, and the ‘typical’ disgusted pro-trader response to it, exemplifies the key problem with this debate. The goal for both sides of the debate is the same – to conserve rhinos. You would think that this provides enough common ground for the two parties to engage with each other in meaningful ways that would lead to an eventual resolution of the debate. The truth is, it is far more complicated than that. Conservationists who back either side of this debate are generally very different kinds of people with very different life experiences and perspectives. Consequently, they harbour deep feelings of mistrust for one another, and more often than not portray the other group with well-worn stereotypes. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2KMiEEiduQ3LwrYkBoZjocIIdZT8vour7vmIINko9y1Q7HF-iaHwDuV2RNrqvR-UIh0exl1MBbvuLMO6SA1kN8FiehXivgn1ORXnx3ysKOzvhFZU0bxk-j44AHpliGoYxH6k9-B-U0zsn/s1600/IMG_5421.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2KMiEEiduQ3LwrYkBoZjocIIdZT8vour7vmIINko9y1Q7HF-iaHwDuV2RNrqvR-UIh0exl1MBbvuLMO6SA1kN8FiehXivgn1ORXnx3ysKOzvhFZU0bxk-j44AHpliGoYxH6k9-B-U0zsn/s640/IMG_5421.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just like this beautiful black rhino, we need to keep moving forwards for conservation. Photo by Gail Potgieter.</td></tr>
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Pro-traders are frequently those who have experienced the plus side of sustainable use first-hand. Wildlife ranchers and game wardens that are involved with live wildlife auctions extol the value of the wildlife ranching industry and quote the success this has had in terms of boosting wildlife numbers. They have many years of field experience, and have lived ‘in the bush’ for much of their lives; they are outdoorsman and many enjoy activities such as fishing and hunting for meat. They are also frequently on the frontlines of the poaching crisis: they have seen mutilated rhinos first-hand, tracked poachers through the bush for kilometres, perhaps even watched their friends and employees die at the hands of poachers. They are hardened bush people who have an intimate understanding of the environment, even if they lack university qualifications.<br />
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Anti-traders usually come from an entirely different background. Many work for or have established conservation NGOs that emphasise such lofty goals as evidence-based conservation, and saving species through education and community outreach. A good number of them are not from Africa, but have fallen in love with the continent. By and large, they have degrees in biology-related fields and have studied various aspects of conservation in depth. They love wildlife and working in the field, but are more often than not stuck behind a computer writing funding proposals or analysing the data from their latest research. The best of the NGOs strive to use academic research to drive on-the-ground conservation efforts and closely monitor their results. They have a real passion for their work, even though they have never had poachers’ bullets whiz past their ears, or watched a friend die for protecting wildlife.<br />
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This is not to say that the kinds of people who match the description in the first group are always pro-trade, or those in the latter group are always anti, but these are the stereotypes. As I have described them, one can see virtue in both groups, and I would argue that the conservation world needs them equally. Without boots-on-the-ground, dedicated people at the frontline of the poaching war, we would have lost all our rhinos already. However, without NGOs that continue to do research and outreach activities, conservation efforts will be rudderless and go largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.<br />
<br />
Sadly, there is a deep level of mistrust between the most passionate and outspoken of those in each group. This is manifest when pro-traders <a href="http://theconservationimperative.com/?p=267">dismiss all anti-trade arguments</a> as ‘sentimentalist’ or ‘animal rightist’, implying that these supposed keyboard warriors cannot possibly understand the urgency for a radically new way of approaching conservation (i.e. legalising trade). It is also manifest by anti-traders, who <a href="https://iwbond.org/2015/11/30/commoditisation-of-rhino-horn-trade-self-approved-in-south-africa/">cast the pro-trade argument</a> as ‘uncaring’ or even ‘self-serving’, implying that pro-traders view individual wild animals merely as a means to an end, without considering their welfare.<br />
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The snide comments are particularly jarring when it comes to how the two sides fund their conservation efforts. Anti-traders cast wildlife ranchers as wealthy farmers who care only about the financial bottom line, and view their <a href="https://africageographic.com/blog/rhino-horn-trading-extinction/">animals as inanimate assets</a>. Pro-traders cast conservation NGOs as money-grabbing organisations who actually want to <a href="http://theconservationimperative.com/?p=267">keep species endangered</a> to ensure that they have a sustainable source of income from their gullible international donors. It seems that it is not enough to merely disagree about how to solve the current poaching crisis, but we must destroy each other’s reputations and denigrate each other’s contributions to conservation at the same time.<br />
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The two sides nonetheless agree on a few essentials: we are in a crisis, and something must be done about it; we are facing highly organised criminal syndicates; the current situation is leading to the extinction of the rhino – it simply cannot carry on as it is now. Yet how are we ever going to fix this problem if the very best of the conservation world – bush warriors on the frontlines, and charismatic NGO leaders with international support – <a href="http://theconservationimperative.com/?p=132">cannot even sit around the same table</a> and discuss these things without resorting to personal attacks? Although I have cast the two groups as polar opposites for the sake of revealing stereotypes, I believe that there are many in each group that are closer to the middle ground, and do not resort to attacking those who do not agree with them. Those towards the middle need to talk to others in their ‘group’ that are on the extreme edges, and create a true middle ground where conservationists from across the spectrum can come to a real agreement on the way forward. Perhaps the ‘keyboard warriors’ need to experience the frontline of the poaching war themselves, and the ‘bush warriors’ need to take a step back and listen to those who have researched the issue on an international scale.<br />
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To counter our highly organised, ruthless, common enemy, we need a unified strategy that everyone agrees on and works towards. If we achieve such a goal, then we can present a united front to the rest of the world and a strong proposal to CITES and local governments (in either direction) that shows that we have a concrete plan to combat the scourge of rhino poaching. <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/new-trade-ruling-could-spell-end-for-rhinos-conservationists-8625414">The current situation</a> where domestic trade is allowed in South Africa, with enough <a href="http://www.news24.com/Columnists/MelanieVerwoerd/the-big-problem-with-legalising-rhino-horn-sales-20170315">loopholes</a> to stimulate uncontrolled illegal international trade, is a direct result of the conflict between the two groups, and is highly unlikely to improve the rhino’s plight. Can we set aside our differences, for the rhino’s sake?<br />
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<i>By Gail C. Potgieter</i>Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-30584280453083873982017-04-05T03:24:00.000-07:002018-03-21T13:29:39.870-07:00Trading Endangered Species – Necessary Evil or Selling our Souls? Part 1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitEejo6DUrp-UZic5d7Eudx9GscqQedOATiIkEON11TOsPcHkz8TRqG3xnYRyrb0KwzKuLtM32_2z09z5zfBd4_TENAvbDCApWajviDsjyOUqGWJPQQEknyObz9c3s9b7sOCV_beGTDH-t/s1600/RTP_6817.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitEejo6DUrp-UZic5d7Eudx9GscqQedOATiIkEON11TOsPcHkz8TRqG3xnYRyrb0KwzKuLtM32_2z09z5zfBd4_TENAvbDCApWajviDsjyOUqGWJPQQEknyObz9c3s9b7sOCV_beGTDH-t/s640/RTP_6817.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Should lion bones from captive lions be traded internationally? I so, what does that mean for wild lions like this one? Image taken by Rob Thomson near the Okavango Delta, Botswana.</td></tr>
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<br />South Africa has made some moves recently to legalise and promote the trade of rhino horn and lion bones with Asian countries, notably Vietnam and China. Whilst the pro-trade in rhino horn lobby was not successful at the recent CITES Conference of the Parties meeting (CoP17), <a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/document/E-Res-17-07.pdf">South Africa was allowed to export lion bones</a> from the captive lion breeding industry. After CoP17, <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160523-rhino-horn-ban-south-africa-cites-smuggling-john-hume-rhino-ranching-swaziland/">South Africa legalised domestic trade in rhino horn</a> (CITES only governs international trade), and has <a href="https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarelease/africanlion_pantheraleo_exportquota">proposed to export 800 lion skeletons annually</a>. The critical question is: will the trade in these endangered species be good for their conservation in the wild, or will it lead to their further decline?<br />
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The idea of trading an endangered species under any circumstances may be appalling to some, which means the answer to this question for both rhino horn and lion bone is a resounding NO! However, the proposed trade for these two species are two rather different issues, as we will see. As with most controversial topics, the trade debate has two sides and is more complicated than it first appears. The purpose of this two-part article is to help you understand the arguments for and against trade in lion bone (Part 1) and rhino horn (Part 2), and help you judge the validity of these arguments from a conservation perspective.<br />
<br />
The key differences between trading lion bones and rhino horns can be summed up in four points:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>The lions that are earmarked for trade should all come from captive lion breeding farms, whereas the rhinos are currently kept under mostly natural conditions on large game ranching properties, where they remain part of working ecosystems. </li>
<li>The groups lobbying for trade in lion bones are almost exclusively the lion breeders themselves, whereas the rhino horn pro-trade group comprises both rhino owners and rhino conservationists. </li>
<li>In order to trade lion bones, lions must be killed, whereas a rhino’s horn can be removed non-lethally, and it will regrow in time.</li>
<li>The conservation threats to rhinos and lions in the wild are very different, so any idea that purports to help conserve these species should be viewed within that context.</li>
</ol>
<br />
In light of these differences, I will consider the cases for and against lion bone and rhino horn trade separately. This article focuses on lion bones. The captive lion breeding industry in South Africa is both highly lucrative and ethically dubious. The practices used by some lion farmers in the industry are akin to backyard puppy/kitten breeders that view females as moneymaking machines that need to pop out cubs at the maximum possible rate. Lion breeders in South Africa have two main options for making money from their lions. Young cubs may be removed from their mothers very early, so paying tourists/volunteers are ‘needed’ to bottle feed and raise them. Adult males are sold as trophies to people who like the idea of ‘hunting’ but don’t want to go too far out of their way, or spend too much time or money to obtain their trophy. The proposed export of lion bones will add a third string to their moneymaking bow, as the skeletons of both trophy males and their mothers can be sold to Asian markets. On ethical grounds alone, the case against lion farming is quite overwhelming, and this case has been made in the <a href="http://www.bloodlions.org/">Blood Lions documentary</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuCJ8-RXwrHhoOIwK0SibSc_VL8jv6u8p3vY3XX02SWawmR_46pzrfhzg11S3-fUwPbBgdKDLYRC34FE58Im7HGAIEAwtUDNf9Q94PIfVlbG3SvlD8cd29EVJF1LjnvuwplZGVjOu0Yern/s1600/Profile+pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuCJ8-RXwrHhoOIwK0SibSc_VL8jv6u8p3vY3XX02SWawmR_46pzrfhzg11S3-fUwPbBgdKDLYRC34FE58Im7HGAIEAwtUDNf9Q94PIfVlbG3SvlD8cd29EVJF1LjnvuwplZGVjOu0Yern/s400/Profile+pic.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This poster by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/YouthForLions/">YouthForLions </a>is part of an awareness campaign to stop the practice of lion cub petting.</td></tr>
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But is there another side to this story? Lion breeders have formed the <a href="http://sapredators.co.za/p2/sapa/about-the-south-african-predator-association.html">South Africa Predator Association (SAPA) </a>to provide their side of the argument and to lobby the government to keep their industry alive (<a href="http://www.cannedlion.org/">there are calls to ban lion breeding altogether</a>) and allow the trade in lion bones. This particular association does not support the cub petting part of captive lion hunting, but does endorse the other aspects of it. From websites such as this one and online comments from other supporters of captive lion hunting, I have distilled four of the main conservation-related arguments for allowing the lion bone trade.<br />
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Firstly, pro-traders argue that by supplying a substantial Asian market with bones from captive-bred lions, we can weaken the motive for poachers to kill wild lions for the same market. Secondly, the captive lion population could function as a safety net for wild lions, and provide a source of lions that can be released into the wild in places where they have been extirpated. Thirdly, they quote the exponential increase in the number of lions in South Africa since the captive lion breeding industry developed as a good thing for lion conservation. Finally, the industry is highly lucrative; if it were to be banned altogether, then people employed to look after the lions would lose their jobs and South Africa’s already fragile economy would suffer.<br />
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To answer these very pragmatic arguments, we need to go beyond ethics and consider these claims based on conservation. The use of lion bones by Asian countries is a relatively new thing, as they traditionally used tiger bones for the same purposes (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2011/dec/06/china-tiger-bone-wine-auction">mostly soaked in a liquor concoction to make tiger bone wine</a>). The tiger is being pushed towards extinction for a number of reasons, and some captive tiger facilities that supplied bones have been <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/06/happened-thailand-tiger-temple-160605074332073.html">shut down due to ethical concerns</a>. As the supply of tiger bones dried up, the makers of tiger bone wine looked for a suitable substitute, and discovered that lion bones will do just as well. They also found that lion bones were more readily available than tiger bones, as there was little regulatory control over what happened to lion skeletons after they had been trophy hunted in Africa. This was bolstered by the captive lion industry in South Africa, which <a href="https://www.wildcru.org/news/bones-of-contention-lion-bone-trade-report-released/">produces far more dead lions per year than wild lion hunting</a>.<br />
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Before lion bone wine became a thing in Asia, <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/15951/0">lions faced several threats to survival </a>– persecution due to human-lion conflict, habitat loss due to expanding human populations, and prey loss due to poaching are the primary threats; over-exploitation by trophy hunters in some countries is a secondary threat. The rapid growth of the lion breeding industry in South Africa is uncannily coincidental with the Asian markets’ sudden inclusion of lion bones in their ‘tiger’ bone wine. So much so that some have suggested that the captive lion breeding industry has actually <a href="https://www.panthera.org/panthera-statement-south-africa-proposed-quota-lion-skeleton-exports-impact-wild-lion">produced this new threat</a> to wild lion populations beyond South Africa’s borders. As with all arguments against trade, the question remains – how do we prevent the legal trade in captive-sourced lion bones from masking an illegal trade in wild-sourced lion bones?<br />
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The next argument is that captive lions could potentially be released into areas where lions were previously shot out, thus functioning as a safety net for the species. While there are a few such places where lions could be reintroduced, the key question here is: do we need a source of captive bred lions to accomplish this? In a <a href="http://sapredators.co.za/a12/general-articles/captive-bred-lions-to-put-end-to-debate.html">media release</a> aimed to prove that captive lions can be ‘re-wilded’ SAPA announced the experimental introduction of several captive lions into a more natural setting - a fenced game ranch. They aim to show that captive lions can become wild again, and learn to hunt on their own. The problem with this is that even if the 'experiment' works, it fails to answer the key question above.<br />
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The real answer to the question is no, we do not need captive bred lions as a source of release-able lions – there are already many wild lions located on large, private ranches, and state protected areas across southern Africa that could be used as source populations for lion reintroduction projects. Some of the smaller fenced ranches and reserves in South Africa even have<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/fences-divide-lion-conservationists-1.14207"> too many lions</a> for the space and prey they have available. Wild lion relocation has been done many times before, whereas trying to ‘re-wild’ captive lions is rare, and has potentially disastrous consequences. Amongst these, the consequence for human-lion conflict is perhaps the most concerning. Whereas wild lions tend to become wary around people’s homesteads and their livestock, captive bred lions have no such inhibitions. Under uncontrolled conditions (i.e. not in captive enclosures or well-fenced reserves), these lions pose an even greater threat to people and their livestock than wild lions, and are likely to be killed as a result. Efforts of relocating large carnivores are already <a href="http://www.conservationevidence.com/individual-study/863">fraught with difficulty </a>and have the potential to fail, and using captive rather than wild lions adds one more unnecessary complication to the process.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1YeK0_QhFQ4zFcxnOoMnjiC7n_DC-3nLRSQOO6w3XvDsSCekwt6yPYZC0-PUgPil_dXlZDiwk3oA-_R0hgUjdVjY_PVGchVFwrvdvn7kwhf2ywd5km7zXloYNm6o5j2dqhhRPCDBfuHa/s1600/rtp078-0639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1YeK0_QhFQ4zFcxnOoMnjiC7n_DC-3nLRSQOO6w3XvDsSCekwt6yPYZC0-PUgPil_dXlZDiwk3oA-_R0hgUjdVjY_PVGchVFwrvdvn7kwhf2ywd5km7zXloYNm6o5j2dqhhRPCDBfuHa/s640/rtp078-0639.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Any reintroduction project for captive bred lions requires, as a minimum, a well-fenced area that will prevent these lions from coming into contact with humans. Releasing captive bred lions into unfenced or partly fenced wildlife reserves is not feasible. Photo by Rob Thomson. </td></tr>
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<br />Another way of justifying lion farms is to piggyback on the conservation and economic success of game ranching in South Africa. The laws of the country allow farmers to own wildlife species and benefit financially from keeping them, mainly through sustainable hunting, live game sales, and photo-tourism. In broad terms, this has led to the expansion of land that is kept in a more natural state, and vast increases in the populations of many species (including white rhinos, but we’ll get to that in Part 2). These same laws allow farmers to keep lions, but do not specify that the lions should be wild. Considering numbers only, the lion population in South Africa has skyrocketed as a result of captive lion farming, just as the number of other wildlife species has increased due to game ranching.<br />
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There is, however, one key difference. Game ranching has become a lucrative form of land use that incentivises private farmers to increase the biodiversity hosted on their farmland. Farms that used to be operated under cattle only, to the exclusion of other species, have now been returned to a more natural state where several species of native herbivores (e.g. impala, kudu) take the place of cattle. <a href="https://www.ewt.org.za/scientific%20publications/An%20assessment%20of%20the%20economic,%20social%20and%20conservation%20value%20of%20the%20wildlife%20ranching%20industry%20and%20its%20potential%20to%20support%20the%20green%20economy%20in%20SA.pdf">This system, although not perfect, is generally good for both the environment and the economy.</a> Only the very largest game ranches are able to support wild lion populations, as lions require a great deal of space and natural prey. Keeping wild lions on privately owned farmlands would therefore require the conservation of large tracts of land to maintain intact ecosystems.<br />
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Captive lion farming, in contrast, does not incentivise the maintenance of large, natural areas. The lions on these farms do not hunt for their prey under natural conditions, but are fed carcasses by their carers. Although recent regulations require farmers to have an area where the lion can be released for a short period (anywhere between 4 and 90 days) before being hunted, these areas are not big enough to sustain even one pride of wild lions on a long-term basis. Captive lions are therefore no longer part of an intact, natural ecosystem, thus eliminating their potential benefit to biodiversity conservation. Mere lion numbers do not equal conservation success, as only the continued persistence of wild lions and the intact ecosystem and space they depend on to survive constitutes real conservation. Tellingly, a <a href="https://www.wildcru.org/news/new_report_lion_conservation/">recent scholarly report</a> from lion experts throughout Africa excluded South Africa from their assessment of lion conservation efforts, on the basis that most of the lions in the country are captive.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNnKEPxpryTLh92AMhMjvQ2XXLeHHTc-vJoccwyrutlFaP5VAKPDLyLFctwNnMugJhkP6ppg3q0qvNZFLnwWjQrq6OBxiMAg5lZeK1kKYWEl-2NmKxP3O6eD70U2Fz9tu3SqKti1fgQRtL/s1600/ForBlog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNnKEPxpryTLh92AMhMjvQ2XXLeHHTc-vJoccwyrutlFaP5VAKPDLyLFctwNnMugJhkP6ppg3q0qvNZFLnwWjQrq6OBxiMAg5lZeK1kKYWEl-2NmKxP3O6eD70U2Fz9tu3SqKti1fgQRtL/s640/ForBlog.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Due to their position at the top of the food chain, the 'footprint' of wild lion conservation extends beyond protecting one species to protecting entire ecosystems. Captive lions have effectively lost their conservation footprint. Photo by Gail Potgieter.</td></tr>
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The first three arguments for captive lion breeding, and subsequently trading lion bones, are on shaky ground. The only valid argument left for lion farming is the economic benefit of the industry. Intensive lion farming is certainly more profitable than maintaining and protecting the large swathes of natural habitat required to host wild lions. This begs another crucial question: if game farming in South Africa is to be based purely on economics, then won’t the trade from captive animals (trophies and bones) eliminate the current incentives for game ranchers to conserve natural ecosystems? Whether or not economic benefit alone is worth allowing the lion farming industry to continue is an open question. From the recent actions of the South African government and the CITES allowance for captive-sourced lion bones to be sold internationally, it seems that their answer is yes, we should let the industry continue. Now that you know all the arguments, what is your answer?<br />
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<i>By Gail C. Potgieter</i>Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-40106916611845979122017-03-24T02:32:00.002-07:002018-03-21T13:30:55.515-07:00Conservation News: Strides Towards Human-wildlife Coexistence<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjln6x4iWXA_zu-QzNkf6BKu3aLGP4VRPb_o84pNJZV0_Xz2S9dhvZoUpk_f_AgWPXFFFTWgfVBvvrw0TPvuaIlbIDYcfIzUGmjjdvgMRHTJejy9ZrPS45NTxDT4f4EEP3Q2JGtUafdzhvr/s1600/DSC_0841+%25281%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjln6x4iWXA_zu-QzNkf6BKu3aLGP4VRPb_o84pNJZV0_Xz2S9dhvZoUpk_f_AgWPXFFFTWgfVBvvrw0TPvuaIlbIDYcfIzUGmjjdvgMRHTJejy9ZrPS45NTxDT4f4EEP3Q2JGtUafdzhvr/s640/DSC_0841+%25281%2529.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">These two dogs stand guard to prevent cheetahs and other predators from attacking their goats. © Jane Horgan </span></td></tr>
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Two of Botswana’s conservation organisations were in the news recently, highlighting their efforts to help humans and wildlife coexist. In a giant elephantine step for conservation, Ecoexist reported the official establishment of thirteen elephant corridors in the far north of Botswana (read their announcement <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ecoexistproject/photos/a.624512387586641.1073741828.624498400921373/1252905471413993/?type=3">here</a>). Meanwhile, Jane Horgan of Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB) gave an <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/stray-dogs-help-endangered-cheetahs-cheat-death-20170223-gujs2x.html">interview</a> to The Sydney Morning Herald about their projects aimed at reducing farmer-cheetah conflict.<br /><br /><div>
Setting aside areas where elephants can move without encountering crop fields or homesteads may sound like a relatively simple task, but it most certainly is not. As with many conservation issues, the establishment of corridors involves a dizzying array of stakeholders. From local farmers and their village elders who are directly and indirectly affected by elephants, through to a variety of government divisions involved in agriculture, land-use planning, and the environment, all of these groups must be consulted, and their varying priorities considered and included in the planning process. It should therefore come as no surprise that it has taken the Ecoexist team in collaboration with Tawana Land Board, Seronga sub-landboard and USAID SAREP several years to reach the point where thirteen corridors have officially been designated.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjteQ2Zod_oimFAQIwnR4B-Jw536WXkEqp4BaEjHvxinUhc3xbJ1Be64TRxjgB8rtl_552S2Gu8fpsvHfEQpan-08ub5Kngy2h08UvhwqIBw2-1B_b3H3zaQsU6w1FkNbwKLYclKJbjOy4x/s1600/Ecoexist+corridors.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjteQ2Zod_oimFAQIwnR4B-Jw536WXkEqp4BaEjHvxinUhc3xbJ1Be64TRxjgB8rtl_552S2Gu8fpsvHfEQpan-08ub5Kngy2h08UvhwqIBw2-1B_b3H3zaQsU6w1FkNbwKLYclKJbjOy4x/s640/Ecoexist+corridors.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Ecoexist's Dr. Anna Songhurst (far left) announces the establishment of elephant corridors with representatives of all the local stakeholders that helped make this dream a reality. © Ecoexist. </span></td></tr>
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We heard all about Ecoexist’s achievement first-hand from Dr. Anna Songhurst, their Field and Program Director, who recently gave a talk in Maun, Botswana. I would like to highlight just two of the crucial aspects of this project that should be hallmarks of all conservation efforts dealing with human-wildlife conflict. Firstly, the identification of corridors was based on thorough research that produced sound data on where the elephants were moving and what the possible reasons were that they raided some crop fields more often than others. The research began with Dr. Songhurst’s own Ph.D. work, and it continues with other students joining the Ecoexist team. There is no substitute for information backed up by solid research when looking at ways to resolve a complex issue such as human-elephant conflict. <br /><br />Secondly, the results of these studies were not just left on a shelf to gather dust, as so much scientific research does, but brought to the attention of community members and policy makers, who together are the custodians of wildlife. Data on elephants were thus combined with relevant information about people and the environment as a whole. The holistic nature of this project, by taking into account the needs of people and elephants, sets it apart from many other projects that tend to focus only on the wildlife side of the equation.<br /><br />In a similar vein, Jane Horgan (M.Sc.) spoke about CCB’s multi-pronged approach to farmer-cheetah conflict. CCB uses a combination of education, research, and promoting locally applicable solutions to reduce livestock losses to farmers. One of these measures is to raise locally bred dogs with livestock, thus turning them into guarding dogs that will protect their flocks. Cheetahs need large areas to thrive, including farmlands where they share space with livestock and farmers. However, farmers are unwilling to share their land with predators that are capable of killing their sheep and goats. The dogs help solve this problem by keeping domestic animals off the cheetah’s menu.<br /><br />Conserving the population of cheetahs outside protected areas in southern Africa is critical to saving this species from extinction. Within national parks, cheetahs often occur at low densities, as lions and spotted hyenas frequently kill their young and steal the carcasses of animals killed by cheetahs, before the cheetah can eat its full. On farms far from protected areas, larger carnivores have been eliminated, which provides an opportunity for cheetahs to thrive, provided that the cheetahs are not persecuted to the same degree as spotted hyenas and lions. This is why conservation efforts on farmlands, such as those conducted by CCB, are desperately needed.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7ImoP8hfo52KVghpu1L0rZzDKvWwOdNwaz56He_792rLW-uC-MEJQ5skUr7g1HFBeGv0s1BNS3PyC6nnFXnTemI7l1dt3fMyYSCji-h-8YGrR0XgKb-Nq2EtrxO7lQg-8W7k6OpKZcu1/s1600/DSC_0647+%25281%2529.jpeg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7ImoP8hfo52KVghpu1L0rZzDKvWwOdNwaz56He_792rLW-uC-MEJQ5skUr7g1HFBeGv0s1BNS3PyC6nnFXnTemI7l1dt3fMyYSCji-h-8YGrR0XgKb-Nq2EtrxO7lQg-8W7k6OpKZcu1/s320/DSC_0647+%25281%2529.jpeg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaiKQY0-uNj6f7e3MgVugdRThsHUX7rqOczqGNmjZdfvFhKKPcOX2nogr1w_92O6I6STQKjhx8bMRMAqgsSC48w9YAFcb12t1C8CUmHduzyKyd28K9MeFOR844TYl8MYYZXleUx6N5AIM/s1600/IMG_3872+%25281%2529.jpeg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJaiKQY0-uNj6f7e3MgVugdRThsHUX7rqOczqGNmjZdfvFhKKPcOX2nogr1w_92O6I6STQKjhx8bMRMAqgsSC48w9YAFcb12t1C8CUmHduzyKyd28K9MeFOR844TYl8MYYZXleUx6N5AIM/s320/IMG_3872+%25281%2529.jpeg" /></a><br /><br />These puppies are bonding with the livestock they will protect when they grow up. © Jane Horgan<br /><br /><br />As unlikely as it may seem, elephants and cheetahs have something in common – they both need space to live beyond protected areas, which requires tolerance and understanding from the people living there. Balancing the needs of people with those of endangered species is a tricky business that requires patience and dedication. We applaud the efforts of Ecoexist and CCB that use multiple strategies based on science and community outreach to help negotiate coexistence between people and animals.<br /><br />By Gail C. Potgieter<br /><br />Acknowledgements to Dr. Anna Songhurst and Jane Horgan for photographs and draft edits.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8847529701668685360.post-56618972321168891612017-03-20T01:48:00.002-07:002017-03-22T01:02:09.257-07:00Welcome!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Welcome to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Conserve Botswana</i> magazine blog! We will use this medium to keep
you informed of new and interesting stories from the conservation world,
particularly as they affect Botswana. As with our magazine (coming soon!), this
blog will cover some hot topics in conservation science, from the perspective
of on-the-ground conservation biologists working in Botswana. This will afford
you an insider’s view in the conservation world, and if you are in the position
to support conservation projects, help you find the perfect project or
organisation to support.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Our regular “News Wrap” article will
provide commentary on some of the interesting conservation-related news, as it relates to conservation in Botswana. Consequently, we focus on news from within the country, and from its
direct neighbours. As wildlife knows no boundaries, policies and events in
Botswana’s neighbouring countries can have direct consequences for its own
wildlife conservation efforts. We will look at the news through a scientific lens, and strive to give both sides of the story for controversial topics.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWgqeZjDudQKgH-fVNRbM3Vr8o4k233oGR_7Ubbqa-pZ6scvD-Wy_D9c4mRWfXYgUUknyOuJo5_UoMSSDzmh22h5ZFJJIST0Lc1vMaVzTrKA-wVMDGDCQPropyzCr4Y-hoR9X2uUe08xu/s1600/Bots+in+SthnAfrica.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWgqeZjDudQKgH-fVNRbM3Vr8o4k233oGR_7Ubbqa-pZ6scvD-Wy_D9c4mRWfXYgUUknyOuJo5_UoMSSDzmh22h5ZFJJIST0Lc1vMaVzTrKA-wVMDGDCQPropyzCr4Y-hoR9X2uUe08xu/s640/Bots+in+SthnAfrica.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Botswana and southern African Countries. Wildlife knows no boundaries!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
This blog will also serve as a mouthpiece for conservationists in Botswana who want to draw attention to issues that are otherwise under-reported. By subscribing to this blog, liking our Facebook page, or following us on Twitter, you can stay up to date and informed about conservation projects, applied research, and topical conservation issues in Botswana and surrounds.</div>
Conserve Botswana Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17785084302447726238noreply@blogger.com1