INDABAAFRICAN
INDABA
Angola
At a ceremony at the US Embassy in Luanda the US Ambassador Mozena presented uniforms for Angolan rangers who are patrolling the two areas in Malanje province of Angola which still harbor remnant populations of the Giant Sable. The uniforms were donated by the USF&W Service in support of the conservation project. The US ambassador pledged, "we will support the necessary veterinarian assistance and management to the sanctuaries and will contribute to education initiatives on the importance of conservation in the Palanca negra areas."
Botswana
Controlled hunting will continue in areas that are less conducive to photographic use. The value of hunting economies still applies in these areas, where only hunters continue to pay for and support conservation efforts/practices to prevent these wildlife areas from converting to less conservation-friendly land use, such as agriculture, accompanied by the resultant loss of biodiversity.
In line with Botswana’s Vision 2016, controlled and sustainable hunting will continue to be a major contributor to alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods in rural areas. Elephant is the single most important game species and the quota for 2010 was fixed at 340 bulls. In line with the Botswana Government’s 5-D policies (Democracy, Development, Dignity, Discipline and Delivery), Botswana outfitters are determined to maintain high standards and ethics/hunting practices. Contact the Botswana Wildlife Management Association (BWMA) at botswanawildlife@yahoo.com, or Debbie Peake at debbie@mochaba.net, for information on registered members companies.
Botswana
The effects of climate change resulting from global warming are beginning to be felt as the country experiences extreme climatic conditions such as severe floods and frequent droughts. Places that were traditionally malaria-free such as Gantsi District have reported Malaria cases. Experts believe that the country will experience worsening semi arid conditions. The changes are predicted to affect arable as well as livestock and wildlife industry.
Botswana
The unique Okavango Delta in northern Botswana is threatened by a Latin American invasive weed Salvinia molesta aka Kariba weed. The free floating dark green plant covers the water surface and cuts off oxygen for fish and blocks the delta's channels.
Dubai
The 225 square kilometer Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR) showcased the successful re-introduction of the Arabian Oryx, Arabian Gazelle, Sand Gazelle and large-scale indigenous flora re-seeding programs during a recent conference at Al Maha. The DDCR is the only location within the UAE where visitors are able to experience completely free-roaming wildlife within their natural desert and dune surroundings. The reserve is registered with the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), audited by UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre, The DDCR is segregated into four zones.
Ethiopia
The curio hawkers at the Merkato market in Addis Ababa keep their ivory souvenirs under the counter. But when a potential customer, mainly the many Chinese working in Ethiopia, showed up ivory chopsticks, bundled in pairs, as well as solid ivory bangles, necklaces made of ivory beads and other illicit trinkets are openly for sale.The chopsticks sold at the Merkato for 280 birr a pair, or US$22.
Kenya
Four northern white rhinos were relocated from Dvur Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic back to the wild in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia. A Boeing 747 transported two males, Sudan, 37, and Suni, 30, and two females Najim, 20, and her offspring Fatu, 9. The four rhinos are half the known population (two others remained behind while another pair is in San Diego/USA) of this rare subspecies thought to be extinct in the wild. Rhino experts believe that releasing the rhinos into natural habitat in the wild might help them reproduce, survive as a subspecies and allow their natural range to be re-stocked in the coming years.
Kenya
The head of Kenya's wildlife conservation agency says poachers have killed a rare southern white rhino. Julius Kipng'etich said poachers killed the white rhino in central Kenya on December 28. Rangers tracked down the suspected poachers and suspected buyers on Sunday and arrested them. Kipng'etich says all 12 suspects are Kenyans.
Kenya
Kenya will oppose any trade in endangered species especially elephant and rhino tasks,” said Julius Kipng’etich, the Director of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) thus opening a confrontation with fellow SADAC member states Zambia and Tanzania who have asked for an exemption to the 1989 ban on ivory trade.
Namibia
Kunene Conservancy Safaris is a very different kind of company, offering a very different kind of experience. To start with, the ownership of the company lies 100 per cent with the Himba and Herero communities living within five conservancies (Puros, Orupembe, Sanitatas, Okonjombo and Marienfluss) in the Kunene regions. That is an area of 13,500sq km and a population of only 1800, in North West Namibia. Conservancy Safaris presents an array of routes and options for travelers to choose from. The varieties include a mix of high quality bush camping with some lodge nights. A main goal of all Conservancy Safaris tours is to help offset the cost of living with wildlife for these isolated communities. These are the people who have lions and elephants in their backyard. For them wildlife is not a recreational focus but harsh reality that affects their survival. With backing and support from IRNDC and WWF, the local people have done much to protect the region with the long term goal of conservation.
Namibia
The Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) has extended its moratorium on hunting permits for leopard and cheetah into the 2010 season. According to the Namibia Professional Hunting Association (NAPHA), all hunters with hunts booked for leopard or cheetah next season should consider their hunts to be on standby until further notice. MET has drafted new regulations and is working with the Ministry of Justice to finalize and implement them.
The Namibian hunting season will reopen February 1, 2010, but insiders do not expect the new leopard and cheetah hunting regulations to be gazetted until the spring, perhaps later than that. One of the issues under scrutiny for the new regulations was the hunting of leopards and cheetahs with dogs. Other changes being considered included a possible quota system for licenses. (Source Hunting Report, Barbara Crown, Editor)
Sierra Leone
After the discovery of six elephant and four buffalo carcasses in Outamba Kilimni national park, near the border with Guinea Poachers police arrested a gang of 10 poachers from Sierra Leone and Guinea. They had "wiped out" the entire elephant herd in Sierra Leone's only wildlife park Police said an official. Tourism Ministry officials said a crack military unit has been stationed near the park after frequent incursions by poachers from Guinea and Mali hunting wild animals.
South Africa
Researchers from Panthera and the University of KwaZulu Natal have designed a leopard conservation and management plan which included a ban on hunting female and underage leopard and action to reduce human-leopard conflict. The new regulations were enacted in 2006 and by 2008 the collected data showed that the plan worked. Compared to the pre 2005 era, leopard lived longer, people killed fewer and the population grew, moreover female leopard raised more cubs.
South Africa
A rhino poacher was killed and two others injured in a fierce exchange of gunfire between a group of poachers and game rangers on Christmas day at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Field rangers in the iMfolozi section of the park heard shots in the western part of the Makhamisa section of iMfolozi at about 19:40 and responded immediately. The carcass of an adult male white rhino was found on the banks of the White Umfolozi River during a helicopter search on Saturday, December 26.
South Africa
Professor Pieter Van Niekerk, chairman of CHASA, was appointed as chairman of HAWASA (Hunting and Wildlife Associations of South Africa) for 2010. SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association handle the secretariat of HAWASA. Gary Bauer was appointed as chairman of the Hunters Forum and Hunters/SAPS Consultative Forum for a period of two years. Adri Kitshoff’s position as vice chairperson has been re-affirmed and PHASA will take the responsibility for the secretariat.
Southern Sudan
For many years, conservationists feared the distinctive wildlife documented by researchers in Southern Sudan before the conflict had been hunted to extinction. Now scientists counted 150 elephants, amongst them a big bull elephant, all survivors of 25 years of civil war. And it's not just elephants – the region boasts the largest savannah in Africa, immense fresh water wetlands, soaring plateaus and a million-strong antelope migration. Not all animals survived as well as the elephants and antelope. Thirty years ago the area was thickly populated with wildlife including 30,000 zebra. Now, they have counted just seven.
The Wildlife Conservation Society is working with the Government of Southern Sudan to try and secure key wild spaces with funding through USAID. To protect the wildlife zones, fighters from the civil war are being turned into rangers tasked with protecting the land and stopping poachers. They are being set up in remote outposts with radio communication. Often, they are the only law-enforcement in the area for miles. But they are usually outmanned and outgunned, and for the people here – among the poorest in the world -- protecting wildlife comes a distant second to survival.
A Murle herdsman puts the conflict in stark terms, "I have a question for you: You say we must not kill the wildlife because otherwise they will be finished. Now I have to slaughter one of my cows. So in a few years I will have no cows. So you want me to kill all my cows and have nothing?" "When I was young I was used to eating meat from wildlife but now people give me conditions," he said, "if you kill animals we find you, we take your gun, with which I'm also defending my life. It looks like you want to finish me."
Southern Sudan has a brief window of opportunity to come up with a strategy for conserving the land and, ultimately, helping the people
Tanzania/Zambia
Both countries will request CITES member countries for a one-off sale of its ivory stock pile, excluding seized ivory and that of unknown origin, with the proceeds from the trade being used exclusively for elephant and community conservation as well as for development programs. Tanzania wants to sell 89,848 Kilograms of its stockpile while Zambia is looking at 21,692 kilograms as well as raw hides.
USA
International conservationist, naturalist and hunting rights advocate Hubert Thummler of Mexico City has been selected by Dallas Safari Club (DSC) to receive the 2010 Peter Hathaway Capstick Hunting Heritage Award at the DSC Convention and Sporting Expo in Dallas.
DSC and the Dallas Ecological Foundation, offer the Capstick Award in recognition of exemplary leadership in conservation, education, hunting, humanitarian causes, research, permanent endowments and charitable giving. Thummler, 80, has already received the prestigious Weatherby Hunting and Conservation Award in 1992.
USA
Zimbabwe/South Africa
A TRAFFIC report found that 95 percent of all rhino poaching in Africa since 2006 originated in two countries: South Africa and Zimbabwe. "These two nations collectively form the epicenter of an unrelenting poaching crisis in southern Africa," stated Tom Milliken, a Traffic researcher. In 2001, 68 percent of African rhino horns entering illegal trade were recovered; in 2009, nine out of ten were heading to Asian markets without interference. In South Africa 210 illegal rhino deaths were recorded, and in Zimbabwe — following a steady growth in rhino populations since the mid 1990s — 235 rhinos were found to have been illegally killed, suggesting numbers in the country are in decline. The situation "most serious" was in Zimbabwe, where the conviction rate for rhino crimes is only 3%. Black rhinos made up nearly half of the losses in Africa. However, Dr. Richard Emslie, scientific officer of the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group said “where there is political will, dedicated conservation programs and good law enforcement, rhino numbers have increased in both Africa and Asia,”
Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwean Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and Harare businessman Tobias are add odds over the disposal of the Hwange Safaris hunting concession one of the seven sport hunting safaris in the Matetsi area. Musariri operated the hunting concession since 1985 as part of the Government efforts to help indigenous people break into the formerly white dominated sector. The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority recently auctioned Hwange Safaris, trading as Decatell Investments for US$90 000 after the initial winning bid by a former professional hunter of Musariri had failed to pay up. Musariri insists that the concession had been given to him on a permanent basis as part of an empowerment process. Director general Dr Morris Mutsambiwa said however that the parks authority had auctioned the concession after the Government stipulated empowerment period relating to Mr Musariri had lapsed.
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