Poaching, rhino horn, education ..... and China links

Everyone enormously pleased to have John back in Kenya following his trip to China. China is not only an enormously important market for tourism in Africa, but it is also a cornerstone in the education fight to combat poaching of rhino horn and elephant ivory. As powdered rhino horn now equals the price of cocaine, surpassing that of gold, the market has become so lucrative that 2011 has seen a major increase in animals lost to poaching, destined for markets primarily in Vietnam and China. In an effort to raise Chinese awareness on this challenge Laikipia Wildlife Forum has hosted many senior Chinese entrepreneurs and government officials this year to show them the important rhino conservation work being done in Laikipia in conservancies such as Ol Pejeta and Ol Jogi. In the last month three elephants have been poached in areas relatively close to the Ol Lentille conservancy. John welcomed the chance to talk to many prominent Chinese business people, and we look forward next year to being able to show some of them these animals in their natural habitat. It is great to see this growing understanding that we must all be working together to extend these educative links: if the rhino is to survive much longer the power of the camera lens and the healthy safari experience has to be harnessed.... above that of the bullet and the supposed 'curative' effect of powdered horn.

Fauna and Flora International

I'm loving their It's In Our Hands initiative, raising awareness of the plight of endangered species. As Laikipia residents we are particularly in line with their cause. Laikipia, an unprotected area of community and private ranchland, has higher numbers of wildlife than anywhere in Kenya except the Maasai Mara. Wildlife numbers are increasing in Laikipia, whereas they are decreasing in the rest of East Africa.

Eastern Black Rhino in Laikipia

Laikipia is home to Kenya's highest populations of endangered species (large mammals) including half of Kenya's rhino population and 37% of all Eastern Black Rhinos in Africa. 70% of the global population (a mere 3000) of grevy's zebra live in Laikipia (including on the Ol Lentille Conservancy) as do similar numbers of reticulated giraffe.

Reticulated giraffe in Lentille Conservancy, April 2011

We frequently have packs of African Wild Dog denning at Lentille, and Laikipia has the 6th largest population of this highly endangered animal worldwide. Jackson's Hartebeest, Patas monkey...I could go on. Laikipia is a hugely important ecosystem to so many threatened species so I wanted to highlight this World Environment Day (yesterday) campaign by FFI to bring this issue to the forefront of conservation discourse.

FFI have asked people to upload images of themselves holding a piece of paper with the name of an endangered species on it to their online library:

"As the library of images grow, so too will global awareness not only of the futures of thousands of species on the brink of extinction, but also of human involvement in it – from both negative and positive angles. These images will create a link from the people championing them, directly back to the species they’ve written on their paper sign"

Here is my contribution: