African conservationists denounce park plan
Aug 20, 2005
AFRICAN conservationists on Thursday dismissed with contempt a suggestion by US scientists that the best way to save the planet’s large wild mammals, most of them native to Africa, is to build a huge nature preserve in the midwest United States.
AFRICAN conservationists on Thursday dismissed with contempt a suggestion by US scientists that the best way to save the planet’s large wild mammals, most of them native to Africa, is to build a huge nature preserve in the midwest United States.
Wildlife experts in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania — home to some of the world’s largest populations of so-called “megafauna†— heaped scorn on the idea, saying it was at best fantasy and at worse a threat to local protection efforts and tourism.
Wildlife Authority chief Moses Mapesa said the suggestion published in this week’s Nature magazine should be reconsidered.
“This sounds like fiction to me,†he told AFP in Kampala. “The Americans are great people, they have gone to the moon, but I don’t think that this is a great way to do things in conservation. They cannot start dreaming things in a new age,†Mapesa said. “If they want to support, they should support conservation work where it is.â€
Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Edward Indakwa said the idea that the only way to save Africa’s lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinos was to move them to the United States was unrealistic and might be seen by some as theft.
“Africa has well-established animal conservation parks and besides, America does not understand how to conserve some of these animals like the ones they are suggesting,†he said.
“These animals have been our heritage for centuries,†Indakwa added. “If they once existed in the west and then became extinct, well, we are not ready to let go of our own.â€
Veteran Kenya-based conservationist Ian Douglas-Hamilton, chairman of Save the Elephants, called the proposal “a terrible and absurd idea.â€
“Africa has done a lot more to conserve its large mammals than the United States,†he said. “If they want to preserve these animals, they should help Africa set up sanctuaries in Africa itself, not America.â€
“The idea could be taken as imaginative or creative but is unrealistic, pure fantasy,†Elizabeth Wamba of the International Fund for Animal Conservation said.
Magnus Ngoile of Tanzania’s National Environmental Management Council rejected the scientists’ premise that Africa’s large mammals “are dying, stranded on a continent where wars are waged over scarce resources.â€
“In very few cases do soldiers hunt animals,†he said, stressing that African people, not wildlife, were the prime casualties of conflicts on the continent.
Critics noted that the plan would generate tourism and boost depressed US local economies at a time when poverty reduction in Africa is purported to be a chief international concern.
Animal relocation would hit east Africa particularly hard, they said, noting the region’s economy depends heavily on tourism revenue that would drop if potential North American visitors could stay at home to see exotic species in the wild.
“What they would be doing would be taking away from our most vital economic sector: tourism,†said an official with the state-run Kenya Tourism Board.
AFP
Wildlife experts in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania — home to some of the world’s largest populations of so-called “megafauna†— heaped scorn on the idea, saying it was at best fantasy and at worse a threat to local protection efforts and tourism.
Wildlife Authority chief Moses Mapesa said the suggestion published in this week’s Nature magazine should be reconsidered.
“This sounds like fiction to me,†he told AFP in Kampala. “The Americans are great people, they have gone to the moon, but I don’t think that this is a great way to do things in conservation. They cannot start dreaming things in a new age,†Mapesa said. “If they want to support, they should support conservation work where it is.â€
Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Edward Indakwa said the idea that the only way to save Africa’s lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinos was to move them to the United States was unrealistic and might be seen by some as theft.
“Africa has well-established animal conservation parks and besides, America does not understand how to conserve some of these animals like the ones they are suggesting,†he said.
“These animals have been our heritage for centuries,†Indakwa added. “If they once existed in the west and then became extinct, well, we are not ready to let go of our own.â€
Veteran Kenya-based conservationist Ian Douglas-Hamilton, chairman of Save the Elephants, called the proposal “a terrible and absurd idea.â€
“Africa has done a lot more to conserve its large mammals than the United States,†he said. “If they want to preserve these animals, they should help Africa set up sanctuaries in Africa itself, not America.â€
“The idea could be taken as imaginative or creative but is unrealistic, pure fantasy,†Elizabeth Wamba of the International Fund for Animal Conservation said.
Magnus Ngoile of Tanzania’s National Environmental Management Council rejected the scientists’ premise that Africa’s large mammals “are dying, stranded on a continent where wars are waged over scarce resources.â€
“In very few cases do soldiers hunt animals,†he said, stressing that African people, not wildlife, were the prime casualties of conflicts on the continent.
Critics noted that the plan would generate tourism and boost depressed US local economies at a time when poverty reduction in Africa is purported to be a chief international concern.
Animal relocation would hit east Africa particularly hard, they said, noting the region’s economy depends heavily on tourism revenue that would drop if potential North American visitors could stay at home to see exotic species in the wild.
“What they would be doing would be taking away from our most vital economic sector: tourism,†said an official with the state-run Kenya Tourism Board.
AFP