Is Education the key to getting communities involved in conservation?

In Nigeria, the Wildlife Conservation Society has been taking a projector to remote villages around the cross gorillas range.

As in other parts of the world, often the humans that live on the edge of the wild animals range rarely see the animal. Indeed, it is often the case that the only locals who have seen the animal are hunters.

Might it be as simple as showing the locals what we are trying to protect?

It is essential to get local people on board when you are trying to protect mega fauna. One of the difficult things with many of the large mammals is that they breed slowly. As a result it is important to get human populations on side, as even a small number of animals killed can lead to the eventual loss of a whole species.

Conservationists appear to have to learn the same lesson over and over again. Without local people on side, you are almost always fighting a loosing battle. Local populations need to both have a great love for the wildlife that they live alongside, but also the ability for the communities to gain from the presence of the wildlife – whether this is because they get direct finance, or because there are jobs for the people in the village.

At the moment the world’s current maximum temperature rise would make life impossible for 1 billion people on the planet

At 35 degrees Celsius the human body can no longer regulated temperature effectively. Indeed even healthy people sitting in the shade at this temperature turn to last not much more than 6 hours.

If we have 4 degrees of global warming, half of the population on earth will fall into the dangerous category of extreme heat.

Currently, Brazil India and Ethiopia are the hardest hit by extreme heat, but at 4 degrees Celsius, this will increase dramatically impact in large parts of Europe as well as lots of other parts of the developed world.

The scary statistic is that even if we hit 2 degrees of warming, this will still put more than 1 billion under this horrific heat condition.

Continue reading “At the moment the world’s current maximum temperature rise would make life impossible for 1 billion people on the planet”

Wild travel can resume!

With the improving covid situation worldwide finally we can return to visiting wild areas of the planet. Not only has the tourist industry missed this basil so it has had a terrible impact on conservation efforts in many parts of the world.

This is because in many cases there is not enough money to protect animals without out.the tourist dollars that they bring in. Since covid start there have been very few tourists arriving in many of these countries.

Yet this situation is changing. Now, many countries in Africa are considered completely safe. There have been less infections across the whole of Africa than have been reported in the UK – now while some of this may be down to poor health care (there are slightly more people who have died from covid in Africa than the UK), clearly your risk in Africa is far lower than your risk in the UK.

My family will be travelling to Kruger in South Africa in August! Obviously I hope for this to create many stories for this site and videos for the sister YouTube channel.

My other aim is to be able to list all of the public rest stops on the website after this trip. 

What does this mean?

Currently we only list the private reserves along the borders of the Kruger. These are fantastic ways of seeing wildlife. You will be pampered indeed spoilt, by the wonderful treatment you will receive. 

However, even amongst wealthy people, the cost of these lodges can become prohibitive – a one week safari in some of these places can run to $10,000 or more per person.

Of course on this website we wish to cater for people who have large amounts of money, however we are not in this category and we want to cater for everyone.

Self-drive safaris are something that many people greatly enjoy. With a little bit of research you can quickly become competent at finding the animal to yourself (sighting maps in each rest stop help). There is something liberating about entering an area so large, and being able to go where you like as you like, exploring whichever part of the park you prefer.

On self-drive safaris your accommodation is different. Generally you have the choice of setting up your own tent, taking a hut, or in some places a mid option is a a fancy safari tent. These obviously very in price, but even in the most expensive you are likely to be spending less over your whole holiday then you would for one night on a private reserve.

For those who could afford it I would recommend to do a self-drive safari with a couple of days on a private reserve at the beginning or end of your trip.

DO CONSIDER BOOKING TRIPS ABROAD. THESE RESERVES WILL BE LESS CROWDED THAN NORMAL, AND WE CAN STOP RESERVES BEING TURNED INTO HUNTING AREAS IF WE RETURN SOON ENOUGH.

All of the partners on this site have very reasonable policies on cancelation if this is necessary because of Covid.

There is also the advantage at the moment, that most airlines have a simple policy of cancellation if advice suggests that travel is not wise.

A trial of Silvopasture in Devon

I wrote about Silvopasture recently, there is now a trial going on down in Devon. A farmer is now planting huge numbers of trees sparsely across his land. Each row has trees roughly every 6m and each row is roughly 14m apart.

This will produce a patchwork of shade and sun.

Trees being planted are Oak Aspen and Alder – native British species.

Neighbours have suggested that he is mad, and concreting over his land would have the same benefit. Of course common sense would suggest that concreting over the land would leave far less grass than sparsely planted trees but there we are.

5600 trees will be planted across his 165 acre farm. He is taking part in a 12 year trail to see what benefit Silvopasture can have. The expectation is that the environment will benefit, but that there should also be increased productivity for the farmer.

If it can be shown that grazing sheep under sparse woodland increases yield, roughly 63% of agricultural land could have similar treatment. This could amount to hundreds of millions of trees across the country.

Studies elsewhere suggest benefits include reducing flooding increasing drought resilience, improving animal health and weight, as well as boosting biodiversity and sequestering vast quantities of carbon.

More than 126000 gallons of oil have leaked near Huntington beach California

Oil spills are an unfortunate fact of life for as long as we continue to move oil around the planet.

126000 gallons, alarmingly, is a relatively small spill, compared to most oil spills.

Nevertheless this oil still has the capability of killing many thousands of birds along with sea otters and other marine mammals.

Pictures show floating beams, which are used to stop the oil from getting around, and indeed a lot of oil does float on the surface. Unfortunately by no means all and as such much of the oil that leads into the sea will remain and continue to cause damage for decades into the future

South African cheetah to be introduced into India

This Cheetah image feels like an exclusively African view – but it shouldn’t,

There is an impressive wealth of cats living in India. From the Indian tiger (known throughout the world) to the Asiatic lions last home- the gir forests of west india (the asiatic lion once roamed across Asia, throughout southern Europe, across northern and western Africa – therefore there are probably more “Asiatic” lion in Africa than in Asia), 12,000-14,000 leopards remain in the country. The snow leopard also still roams mountains within the country. It also still has a population of clouded leopards. In other words, in terms of big cats, it has all species except Jaguar.

Continue reading “South African cheetah to be introduced into India”

Saiga antelope making wonderful progress but is never likely to return to its former numbers

The Kazakstan population of these antelope has more than doubled in the last 2 years from 334,000 to 842,000. In 2015 there was a mass die-off and distressing images of the steppe strewn with bodies made the rounds. Thankfully, the mothers give birth to twins every year, so their ability to bounce back is impressive.

Back during the Soviet era there were many millions of these antelope, but with increasing development in their range a return to those days is highly unlikely.

With numbers like these of remaining individuals, one would be forgiven for thinking that these species is not critically endangered, or perhaps even endangered. However, these terms are applied based on percentage fall in the size of the population. Saiga antelope have suffered a 90% decline in their population at the end of the 20th century.

So long as there is not another mass die-off and poaching is kept under control, these animals are likely to recover, and continue to be the base of an extremely large food chain.

The Tapanuli Orangutan is still threatened with extinction, despite only recently being discovered

The Tapanuli Orangutan lives on Sumatra but are thought to be more closely related to Bornean Orangutans. Numbering around 800 members, they had a far wider ranging habitat until recently. They are now restricted to about 1000 square km – about 2.5% of their former range.

While looking very similar to other orangutans, this sub species has not interbred with any other orangutans for over 1 million years and despite living in Sumatra, are more closely related to the Borneo Orangutan

What is harder, is that these Orangutans are not naturally mountainous animals, but have been driven there by the hunting that has so decimated their numbers.

Continue reading “The Tapanuli Orangutan is still threatened with extinction, despite only recently being discovered”

Will the Vaquita survive much longer

The Vaquita is a small porpoise that is severely endangered. Up until now there has been a no take zone in the upper gulf of California, in order to avoid accidental bycatch, but unfortunately that has been eradicated.

With fewer than a dozen Vaquita left, this is likely to be the end, as bycatch of even just a couple a year will mean the little porpoise is no more very soon

Time will tell if conservationists are correct

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