Roundup: Africa Urged to Conserve Land for Wildlife

Roundup: Africa urged to conserve land for wildlife

NAIROBI, June 2 (Xinhua) — A global advocacy group, Peace Parks Foundation, is calling on African governments to set aside at least two percent of the continent’s land for wildlife conservation.

Peace Parks financier Richard Branson said having extended conservation areas would not only benefit the continent by increasing water catchment areas, but also provide a diverse ecosystem for varied species.

Speaking in Nairobi on Saturday, founder of the Virgin Group announced that the Virgin Mount Kenya Elephant Corridor would help to create a vital 250,000 U.S. dollars new elephant corridor, north of Mount Kenya, which would provide a lifeline for local communities and the dwindling elephant population in the region.

“The fence will provide a lifeline for local communities and the dwindling elephant population in the region,” Branson said.

Around 2,000 elephants, part of the Laikipia-Samburu elephant population, will benefit from the Virgin Mount Kenya Elephant Corridor, which will cost up to 1 million U.S. dollars to build and maintain over the next 10 years.

It will be created between the Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve and the Mount Kenya National Reserve, enabling elephants to benefit from the diverse resources offered by each habitat.

Mount Kenya is a World Heritage site and one of the most impressive landscapes in Eastern Africa.

Branson made the announcement as he arrived in Kenya to launch Virgin Atlantic’s new daily service between London Heathrow and the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

“Historically, the African elephant has roamed across the continent from South Africa to the Mediterranean coast but its population is under serious threat. We need to build safe elephant corridors to protect the species, as well as the villages, people and crops around them, and our wider environment,” said Branson.

“All of us at Virgin are pleased that we can create a vital lifeline for the entire animal and human population in the region. “

The project’s architect Dr. Jonathan Moss said the corridor, which is expected to reduce human-wildlife conflicts in the area and sustain the elephants’ migration patterns, will be completed early 2008. “We need to build safe elephant corridors to protect the species, as well as the villages, people and crops around them, and our wider environment,”said Moss.

The project will link the two major ecosystems in the region and enable the elephants to use their historic access routes, and at the same time prevent the damage caused to crop fields, which are a source of livelihood for area residents.

The selected access route was designed after researchers used substantial Global Positioning System satellite data to track the elephants’ movements over time.

The corridor, which will pass through the Marania River valley, will cross just two pieces of privately owned land by Kisima and Marania Farms. It will also cross two roads.

The Mount Kenya forest zone is the largest such area remaining in Kenya and its ecosystem plays a critical role in water catchment for the two main rivers in the country; the Tana and Ewaso Nyiro rivers.

The Mount Kenya National Reserve is surrounded by a growing farming population and farmland, which over time has cut off the historical elephant access routes.

Elephants have either been contained within the reserve or forced to move out in search of mineral salts to supplement their diet.

This not only presents a threat to the elephant population and its habitat but has also increased human/elephant conflict in the region.

Therefore the corridor is needed to prevent elephants from killing and injuring people and livestock, where there have been growing numbers of deaths in recent years, and from damaging crops and trampling through villages.

A corridor would also protect conservation in the region, and cut down incidents such as poaching, logging, charcoal burning and illegal livestock grazing.

Tana River alone supplies over 55 percent of Kenya’s power to the national grid.

The Virgin Mount Kenya Elephant Corridor is the brainchild of the Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust and is supported by Virgin Group, the telecoms company Safaricom, Kisima Farm, Marania Farm, The Ngare Ndare Forest Trust and Lewa Conservancy. Support has also been received from the Borana Conservancy and the Laikipia Wildlife Forum

“This is probably the last realistic opportunity we have to link the two major ecosystems in the region and enable the elephants to use their historic access routes, while at the same time reducing human/elephant conflict,” said Levi Wendo, chairman of the Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust.

“The corridor will help prevent the damage that elephants can do to crop fields that are vital to livelihood in the area and I am so pleased we can now proceed with this project to benefit the Mount Kenya region.”

Branson’s pledge was made ahead of a meeting to debate the continuing international tussle over trade in ivory.

The 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will be held in Hague, Netherlands, starting from June 3 to 15.

A group of countries led by Kenya, wants CITES to adopt a 20- year ban on ivory trade in Africa. But opposing the Kenya position, Botswana and Namibia have proposed commercial trade in raw ivory between themselves, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

A third proposal is from Botswana which is seeking a once-off sale of 48 tones of raw ivory and pieces in its possession. Organizations such as the US-based International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) support Kenya in its bid.

They said if CITES allowed southern African countries to reopen a legal trade in ivory, it would give poachers the green-light to go ahead with the slaughter of wild animals.

The moratorium proposal comes after a huge increase in poaching and illicit ivory trade. For instance, more than 23 metric tons of illegal ivory were seized around the world between August 2005 and 2006.

According to the IFAW, the number of elephants in Africa has dropped from 1.3 million in 1979 to 350,000 today.

It is estimated that there has been a 50-60 percent decrease in wildlife in Kenya between 1989 and that the elephant’s population has decreased from 100,000 to less than 30,000 largely due to human- animal conflicts and poaching.

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