Kenya Can't Stop Poaching
International
Now this is the country that banned hunting back in 1977. Now wildlife numbers have dwindled. Countries to the south that have hunting wildlife populations are thriving. Eco tourism is not providing needed income to stop poaching. This article just came out today. Kenya's wildlife authority says it needs help to curb the escalation of killings of the endangered elephants and rhinos for ivory tusks and horns.
Kenya Wildlife Service chief William Kiprono said Tuesday that poachers have killed 18 rhinos and 51 elephants so far this year.
Kiprono denied that a poaching cartel exists within the organization and that steps are being taken to ensure that none of its employees engage in poaching.
Kiprono said that since 2009, 17 wildlife service employees had been fired and some prosecuted, three had been demoted and five others fined. He said 26 were investigated but no evidence found.
Last week Richard Leakey, famed scientist and founding head of the Kenya Wildlife Service, alleged the service had been infiltrated by powerful people enriching themselves from poaching. Sorry but "we told you so".
Amazing how some just won't look at the facts.
Amazing how some just won't look at the facts.
I love when the word Eco-tourism comes up in conversation... It is extremely difficult to generate sufficient funds this way. And it takes years of building...
Hunting conservation works and works right NOW.
Ya he can use his extensive back ground of community organizing
And over there can try community anti-poaching organizing a three year stint should be right amount of time. And take moochell too
Hard to do the math on eco-tourism. You can't get there from here!
I have never heard of anyone paying $20,000 to shoot an elephant with a camera.
Uh, yeah....but you might get a thousand people to pay $20 each, and still have the elephant left for next season.
Might not be the best argument.
I do agree on principle, though.
You will not get 10,000 people to pay $20 each.
Most people think numbers are obtainable in eco-tourism until they implement the fee.
It's always funny when a local park decides to implement a fee to use it's resources... Less then half the people who used it for free will ever return.
There is a fair amount of research/literature that shows that ecotourism CAN work IN PLACES. The places where it works (economically) is in places that look pretty (normally mountainous areas or riparian areas.) Let's charitably say it's 15-20% of Africa.
The problem is that there are "miles and miles of bloody Africa" that are NOT pretty. What we would just call "scrub lands."
Not surpisingly, in the scrub lands, hunting works just fine and pays the bills. We hunters are just not as picky when it comes to scenery. If we want to shoot a 58" kudu and that big kudu lives in flat, ugly,nasty, thorn-infested scrub land, we are fine with it and will happily pay to hunt him there.
The eco-tourists are too snooty for that!
Where sport hunting has been eliminated, the bottom line is that the elephants and rhino are paying a steep price. There being no PH's running around the bush keeping an eye out for poachers.
Pete
Agreed 64indian64. Ecotourists also don't spend as much time in the wild as hunters. They also require infrastructure to be comfortable. Hunters put money where their mouth is when it comes to preserving habitat.
I have old national geographics that show areas in Africa where elephants destroyed the environment by tearing down every tree there trying to get food. They ended up starving with no food left. To all the antis that's ok as long as they aren't shot. Makes no sense at all.
They must have lots of money.... a Kenyan is giving me a million dollars just for helping him get his millions out of the country.... all I had to do is give him my checking account number... amazing....
Gonna buy a lot of hunts..... can hardly wait....
TD, that money he trying to get out of the country is the money the USA gave to them. So it just some of your tax dollars coming back to you.
I hiked across Kenya for over two months in 1998 (up until the embassy bombings). It was amazing how few animals you saw outside of the parks. We would go days without any sightings other than monkeys. Contrast that with a casual walk in the Okavango in Botswana (when there was active hunting). You couldn't walk 100 yards without seeing something.
