"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
The African Wildlife Foundation will invest $25 million over the next 4 years to support the work being done by local communities and African governments to protect wild lands and wildlife in Africa.
The pledge was made at the recent Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) conference in London. AWF’s President Kaddu Sebunya said that poaching and illegal trade in wildlife poses an acute threat to Africa’s rich heritage of natural wealth.
Kaddu says that there is some recovery and stabilization of some vital wildlife populations. AFW has invested $13.1 million to tackle the illegal wildlife trade in Africa and also a further $5.5 million with public-sector partners. The total of $18.6 million has been used to:
Support anti-poaching efforts on the ground
Strengthen prosecutorial and judiciary processes
Put sniffer dogs in critical transit points
Campaign to stop demand in Asia
As a result:
10 out of the 14 populations of elephants the funding has been targeting are increasing or are stable.
All rhino populations and 7 out of 9 carnivore populations that AWF supports are increasing or are stable
Prosecutors are building stronger case; judges are delivery stronger sentences for wildlife crimes
Sniffer dogs have made over 250 finds
And now this most recent pledge will support programmes putting the priorities in place that came out of the London IWT conference:
To build African leadership and ownership of the illegal wildlife trade in Africa
Protect habitats and key populations of rhinos, elephants, great apes, large carnivores and giraffes
Enhance detection of wildlife crimes and strengthen the ability to prosecute and judge, putting criminals behind bars.
The belief is that Africa must own and drive the illegal wildlife trade work. The London conference will help strengthen partnerships across borders to fight the illegal wildlife trade in an effective way.
Four key elements are crucial to give Africa’s wildlife a chance, according to AWF Chief Scientist and VP of Species Protection, Dr Philip Muruthi, and they are:
The Supreme Court has ordered the TN (State of Tamil Nadu’s) government to track down on elephant corridor encroachment.
There are 400 resorts that are violating the corridor territory and elephant deaths in the state have gone up. One report in The Times of India says elephant deaths in the state doubled from 61 in 2015-2016 to 125 over the past year.
There’s been a long battle between conservationists and resrots owners in Tamil Nadu at the confluence of the Western and Eastern Ghats.
Back in 2011, the Madras High Court ordered the creation of an elephant corridor. Resort owners were to hand over or leave their lands falling within the corridor area.
It also mandated that no new development activity was to occur in the area. Private landowners quickly applied for and got a stay on the order a few months later.
During the north east monsoons, the elephants move from Bandipur in Karnataka to Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In the south west monsoons, they do the opposite journey.
Lawyer and conservationist Elephant G Rajendran, said that the elephants’ abode is the forest where it has the food it needs. They move along their traditional path. This used to be rich forestry cover but private resorts have chosen to operate there, so the elephants are losing their path
Wildlife corridors are vital to wildlife because they enable the animals to get from one essential piece of habitat to another so it is really important they are connected.
In the south west China’s Yunnan Province, environmental workers have opened some canteens for wild Asian elephants.
The aim is to reduce conflicts between the elephants and people.
Staff from the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve have created about 100 hectares of the elephant’s favourite food in three different sites. Bamboo and paper mulberry are on the menu.
On 5 July, a canteen had 20 Asian elephants who enjoyed their meal over two hours.
In Pu'er City, over 253 hectares of sugarcane, bananas and maize have been planted for the elephants.
The idea is that open-air canteens will help entice the elephants away from human settlements to prevent conflicts between the animals and people. The elephants can munch on food plants far away from the villages so they are less likely to come in to conflict with them. Fewer elephants are looking for food in the villages now.
The wild Asian elephants are endangered animals. In China their population has grown from over 170 in the 1990s to about 300 today. They live mainly in Yunnan.
Elephants and other wild animals are being protected in India by protective barricades around open wells in reserve and revenue forest.
This is because the animals were falling into wells.
After a survey of the wells, they were nearly all found to be abandoned and unsafe for wild animals.
Reports suggest there are about 360 such abandoned wells in the reserve and revenue forest.
Rescuing the trapped elephants was an enormous task which took several hours to do, so the Dhenkanal Forest division has taken steps to stop this happening and to prevent elephants and other wild animals from falling into them in the first place.
African Parks is responsible for the rehabilitation and long term management of national parks and protected areas.
They do this in partnership with governments and local communities, and the goal is to make teach park ecologically, socially and financially sustainable in the long term.
And at the end of 2017, they were responsible for managing 14 protected areas in 9 countries (it’s now 15). The areas spanned 40,540 square miles covering 7 of the 11 ecological biomes on the continent. They have a large counter-poaching force with 1,000 rangers and over 5,000 staff across the parks.
They are undertaking various active management interventions:
Extreme species translocations and reintroductions
Providing security to create safer spaces for humans and wildlife
Ensuring that local people benefit
Where security has been restored and governance established, they’ve seen the rise of civility and a better way of life has returned.
There is tremendous momentum to make this rehabilitation happen and to continue to build on successes that African Parks has so far achieved.
Founded in 2000, it’s a non-profit conservation organisation.
Their Annual Report for 2017 Restoration: Nature’s Return highlights:
The Chinko team achieved success on the ground keeping 10,000km2 free of cattle and giving wildlife a chance to return
39 elephants were collared in one of the largest elephant collaring exercises in Africa, giving them better protection from armed poachers
The successful reintroduction of 18 black rhinos from South Africa to the Akagera Park in Rwanda, 10 years after they had locally become extinct.7 years were spent making the park safe and reducing poaching to an all time low.Singing children lined the route between Kigali and Akagera to celebrate their return.
The park received 37,000 tourists for the year, making it 75% self-sustaining
A long term agreement was signed with the Government of Benin for the Penjari National Park, the largest remaining intact ecosystem in all of West Africa, and a stronghold for the critically endangered West African lion and African elephant
In December, African Parks signed a 25 management agreement with the Government of Mozambique to manage the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, the first marine reserve in its portfolio
And HRH Prince Harry joined African Parks as their President.