Tumaren

Kerry, on 06 Dec 2006

The Following is an excert from a letter that I sent to Mpala concerning the military exercises before this latest incident:

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The first and most pressing, is the issue of the Elephant dispersal activities that commenced before the exercises. At 06:30 am every morning for the period that the British Army was discharging their weapons, two Tropic Air Helicopters passed over us on their way to the firing ground. Once in the firing area they began to drive off all of the large game. This included large herds of Elephant, many of whom then came over onto our property in a state of stress and anxiety. Since the British Army began these activities we have had three close calls with Elephant on our ranch. There is a cow and calf that came over that would not associate with any other members of a herd. While she was a small, young cow she is very dangerous and has stalked our security rangers on a series of occasions. Her abnormal activity and her arrival at the time of the live fire exercises leads one to suspect that she was separated from her herd during the helicopter harassment. Irregardless of how she came to be on her own, she and several other bulls that were driven over to us were very dangerous and we can’t help but worry about an accident. Human Animal conflict in Laikipia is a very explosive issue as you all know and as illuminated on your website and there are many more Elephant and People than there were when the British Army first began using Mpala - The potential for trouble has multiplied.

The second issue that concerns us is our small tourism operation (principally walking safaris) that we are trying to run opposite Mukenya on Tumaren Ranch. During the last exercise we had arrived at our river camp on the first day of the exercises. Having no prior knowledge of the exercises, we were traveling with an agent trying to emphasize the beauty and serenity that one can find in the Laikipia Landscape. The tracer fire and explosions that we were witness to that night while we sat around the fire did very little to impress her and we should be very lucky if we ever see a safari come of all our effort.

One of the most important points that conservation organizations are trying to convey to the local communities is the value of non-intrusive tourism and yet non-intrusive tourism and military exercises are completely antithetical. Tourism operations, like elephant and people have multiplied in numbers since when military exercises first began on Mpala and so we must recognize that Laikipia is not the same place that it was 40 or 20 years ago. We must also recognize that while Mpala Ranch benefits greatly from the British Army’s presence, the neighbors pay a dear cost.

With all this said we should stress that our concerns do not reflect how we feel about Mpala in general. We absolutely believe in the conservation mission of Mpala and we are very happy to have Mpala (and everyone who works there) as a neighbor. We would like to work together particularly when it comes to research, community outreach or environmental concerns and we certainly do not want to appear confrontational for confrontation sake. We think the above issues are real and shared by many other neighbors and we pursue them only to safeguard ourselves and our small businesses.

Sincerely,

James Christian

James Christian, on 09 Dec 2006

Michel,

I actually did receive a nice letter from Mpala saying that they would like to talk to local landowners in the area about the issues at hand. I know that they are also terribly sorry for what happened with the Rhino. Evidently this particular animal had been brought up by hand and was totally trusting of people. The troops said that they were lost (they killed the Rhino on Ol Jogi ranch) but in order to arrive where they did they would have had to cross a river and hop a rhino fence. I really don’t get it….

As for the army I too agree that they need to do their excercises and i would love to suggest a better area farther north where the population of elephant and people is a bit thinner. By the Somali border would be great I would think because , as you suggest , they might be able to aid with security and at the same time support a local community with no other source of outside income.

cheers, Jamie

james, on 21 Mar 2007

Amen