Category: Africa

Posted on

Indigenous people of Peru have been living sustainably for 5000 years

There are often arguments, that indigenous people need to be removed in order to balance nature back out. It is true that in some wilderness areas, so called indigenous people have moved into wilderness areas within the last 50 years. These people should not be called indigenous or be given rights over the land that their parents seized.

As you can see, this village is deep in the forest, with little land cleared around it. Furthermore, the village is made from renewable resources, and if the village was abandoned, within a few years these houses would have disappeared for good,

On the other hand, there are tribes in the Amazonian rainforest (as in the Congo and other rainforests) that have lived largely identical lives for 5000 years. Whats more, there is little evidence of damage to the ecosystem throughout the fossil record.

We need to be careful, as we try to protect these wild areas, There is a big difference between modern humans moving into the forest and clearing land for crops, and indigenous people who have lived in harmony with the forest for millenia.

Posted on

Egyptian vulture makes an appearance on the Scilly Isles

An Egyptian vulture has been seen within the UK for the first time in over 150 years. The first thing to note, is that despite the name Egyptian vulture, these birds range stretches to northern France and southern Spain so this animal does not have to have to be 2000 miles from where they normally live. It is clear though that this bird is far from its normal areas to live.

The birds worldwide population is declining, so perhaps colonising the Scilly Isles could allow a local increase in the population and perhaps in a few decades could become a new stronghold?

Posted on

Contradiction of wildlife tourism – do not kill the wild natural world while cutting your emissions

The world has an unfortunate problem. In many parts of the world we are successfully reducing our carbon footprint dramatically, through cleaning our electricity generation among other improvements.

Unfortunately, in our current setup, often the only way to pay for conserving the wild places on our planet is by visiting them, and for most people, this requires long-distance flights.

Something we must avoid in more wealthy countries is to simply halt all tourism to wild places. If in order to cut a few tons of carbon from our personal emissions, we remove the reason to conserve a large rainforest in Africa or Asia, can we really blame the locals when it gets cut down? In theory, money does indeed get sent to some of these countries to pay for offsetting our emissions. Unfortunately this rarely reaches people on the ground.

Continue reading “Contradiction of wildlife tourism – do not kill the wild natural world while cutting your emissions”
Posted on

Fascinating genetic analysis of African and Asian leopards show worrying fact

Despite the fact that over time I’m many zoos have accidentally or intentionally interbred African and Asian leopards they are actually significantly different.

On the left an African leopard on the right an Asiatic leopard

How different you might ask? The two different cat species are more genetically distinct than the polar bear and the brown Bear!

We need to remember that subspecies of animals evolve separately to be able to cope with local requirements. It is clear that we must save as many species as we can but also subspecies.

Posted on

Namibia is auctioning it elephants, should this be allowed?

In many countries around the world, some conservation success can lead to problems. In Africa halting elephant poaching can lead to rocketing populations, which in turn can lead to not enough space and human elephant conflict.

Elephants in Namibia taken by Thomas Schoch

In some places countries have sold the animals that they no longer say they have the space for.

The problem is that many countries are now doing this merely for the money. Namibia has decided to sell 170 elephants. The problem is is that namibia’s resident elephant population is very small, perhaps 5000 to 7000. More than 80% of the elephants in Namibia are migratory, in that they roam in and out of the country. In terms of the resident population, the 170 elephants represents at least 3% of the permanent population.

While selling animals can be a good way of raising money for conservation, reduction of this size is not wise particularly when elephants are not in a good place globally anyway.

Posted on

The UK government banned ivory selling so why are they delaying implementing

Ivory, sometimes known as white gold is a real problem. Often valued as much as gold, the rewards for killing a wild elephant can amount too many decades, sometimes the equivalent of a lifetime’s wage to a poor African or Indian. 

There is much discussion about what should be done with seized Ivory. In theory, it could be sold and the money reinvested in protection. Unfortunately, this has been shown to increase the demand for ivory, therefore increasing its value – making further poaching more not less likely. Burning might be the best plan
Continue reading “The UK government banned ivory selling so why are they delaying implementing”
Posted on

Digoel Agri claims to get prior informed consent before creating Palm oil plantation, is it true?

In the papua region of Indonesia, this company has started clearing rainforest, on indigenous ancestral land. The project is already mired in many issues, from suspicion that the permits are false and the way that the offshore investor has been kept secret.

However, while it is often only legal to get a permit from the main government, in practice it is recognised that prior and informed consent should be got from the local population. This is often skipped, as central governments will often use these ways to clear land from indigenous people allowing them to have more control over the entire country.

Areas like this have already been cleared, and more is likely to be lost in the coming months, all without permission of the tribal owners
Continue reading “Digoel Agri claims to get prior informed consent before creating Palm oil plantation, is it true?”
Posted on

The Rwandan president Paul Kagame intends to make conservation his countries next battle

In many parts of the world, conservation is an afterthought. After looking after your human population, if there is any money left then alright do conservation but not before. However, this does not work. There are many positive benefits of wildlife , and if these are not allowed to thrive it will damage the local people – by thinking of this last you end up damaging the local people.

Countries such as Rwanda are also heavily dependent on the money that tourism brings to their country.

This new aim, is to grow the economy and improve the lives of Rwandans while at the same time protecting the natural environment and keep as much forest standing as is possible.

Currently, Rwanda gets 15.1% percent of GDP from tourism, however back in the year 2000, this was just 4.7%. That gives an annual growth of this sector at more than 7%, far above all other areas. #

Importantly, tourism is a great leveller. Anyone who lives around wilderness can set up their own business. As a result, this can be a way to lift poorly served communities out of poverty.

I hope in the future that this site can assist in that process.

Posted on

Nigeria is becoming the clearing house for poached animals from throughout west Africa: they must stop it

Between 2015 and 2019 30 tonnes of ivory and 167 tonnes of pangolin scales were seized. This equates to roughly 4400 elephants dead, and 167,000 pangolins. As in other places, the illegal wildlife trade tends to bring in crime, with the same gangs handling humans drugs minerals and weapons..

Continue reading “Nigeria is becoming the clearing house for poached animals from throughout west Africa: they must stop it”
See Animals Wild

Read more news

Join as a wild member
to list your wild place & log in

Join as an ambassador supporter to
support this site, help save wildlife
and make friends & log in

Join as an Associate member
to assist as a writer, creator, lister etc & to log in

List a wild destination

List a destination in
the shadow of man

List a hide for animals more easily seen this way

Highlight some news
missed, or submit a
one-off article

Browse destinations for fun or future travel

Temporary membership
start here if in a hurry

Casual readers and watchers