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Initial count from Amboseli is good news for elephants
an article by Kevin Heath, Wildlife News
The joint Kenyan Tanzanian wildlife survey of the
Amboseli region offers good news for elephant
lovers as numbers appears to have surged following
large-scale deaths from droughts during the 2008
and 2010 period. The week-long aerial survey found
1,193 elephants – a rise of 12% on a similar
period in 2010.
click on photo to enlarge
In April a wet season census discovered that 1930
elephants were in the Amboseli – a rise of 35%
compared to wet season numbers in April 2010.
KWS Director Mr William Kiprono, who presided over
the census closing ceremony at Ol Tukai Lodge in
Amboseli National Park, said: “Amboseli is one of
our success stories and we owe it to the local
community, which has warded off possible poachers.”
The aerial census sought to show the landscape’s
wildlife population abundance, trends and
distribution. The results are expected to enhance
knowledge on the relation between wildlife,
habitat and human impacts while at the same
fostering cross-border collaboration on wildlife
monitoring and management between the two East
African countries.
Most of the funding came through the Africa Wildlife
Foundation (AWF) who are also key players in
organising cross-border programmes in Africa.
Ms Fiesta Warinwa, AWF Country Director, explained
at the closing ceremony that the organisation is
backing a number of other cross-border wildlife
surveys in the future. These would include counts in
Serengeti/Maasai Mara and Tsavo/Mkomazi.
She highlighted that the biggest danger to the
elephants and other large mammals of the Amboseli
was not poaching but the loss of habitat.
Fragmentation and land conversions were the
biggest threat to the animals but land degradation
were also a threat. She pointed out the issues of
charcoal burning and drainage of wetlands for
agriculture as the two primary land degradation
issues.
Dr. Maurus Msuha, a Principal Research Officer,
Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI),
pointed to two issues which he considered to be a
threat to the Amboseli ecosystem. He thought that
population growth and climate change were becoming
key threats to the park.
Mr Lekishon Kenana, a Kenya Wildlife Service Senior
Scientist, said data collected had been crucial in
mapping out wildlife dispersal areas and migratory
corridors.
“For us to have a win-win situation is, let’s plan
for wildlife, and we plan for people as well.
There is some space that is not useful for
wildlife, we can do developments there. And in the
real critical areas, that are important for
wildlife, we should preserve.” he said.
The latest census is expected to show that other
large herbivores are recovering well from the
droughts that affected the park during 2007 and
2009.
During that period wildebeest declined by about 83
per cent from 18,538 to 3,098; zebras declined by
about 71 per cent from 15,328 to 4,432; and
buffalos declined by about 61 per cent from 588 to
231 in the Amboseli area.
The wet season census in April revealed that
numbers of many of these species are recovering
well. Wildebeest have increased 14,728.
Similarly, zebra numbers have increased to 29,867
while buffalo population increased 575.
[Note: Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN
reporter for this article.]
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
What is the relation between the environment and peace?,
* * * * *
LATEST READER COMMENT:
One way to understand the relation between environment and peace is to turn the question on its head and ask what is the relation between the environment and the culture of war. Here is what I say in my book The History of the Culture of War :
The exploitation of the culture of war involves not only exploitation of people, but also exploitation of the environment. In recent years everyone has become more aware of the dangers of environmental pollution, with special attention to carbon emissions which have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and resulted in global warming. This is also related to the loss of the world's forests which redress the problem by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Insufficient attention has been paid, however, to the great environmental destruction and pollution caused by military activity.
Historically, military-related activity has been one of the primary causes of deforestation. This was already evident in ancient times as described above in the case of Greece and Rome. More recently, the British Empire was a major destroyer of forests, as described for India in an article by Budholai (available on the Internet) :
"The early days of British rule in India were days of plunder of natural resources. . ...more.
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