northern kenya, laikipia, laikipia conservation, kenya ecology, kenya natural history, tumaren, tumaren ranch
 

Tumaren

Ecology and Conservation Observations in Laikipia, Kenya

Support WildlifeDirect:
buy branded merchandise

British Army Continue to Deny Harassment of Wildlife

Category: Issues | Date: Sep 26 2007 | By: tumaren

This is a distressing BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7011593.stm

The British Army continues to deny any wrongdoing when it comes to their excercises in northern Kenya and the impact on wildlife. A qoute from a spokeperson for the British High Commission:

“Helicopters follow routine flight paths which avoid game reserves and national parks. They have not flown beneath minimum height restrictions and have not been illegally viewing game.”

What this response does not touch on is the fact that British Army Helicopters continue to harass Elephants while practicing on private game reserves, namely Mpala Ranch. In order to practice their exercises on Mpala and despite promises to curtail Helicopter harassment, helicopters continue to push Elephant herds away from their practice areas (these are the same Elephants that live in Samburu National Reserve - they move between). Only one week ago our rangers saw the helicopters dispersing the Elephants in huge clouds of sand. The Elephant herds ran toward Tumaren but most did not cross because the river was high and they were with small young. This only aggravated their stress.
Jamie

8 Responses to “British Army Continue to Deny Harassment of Wildlife”

Lisa, on 26 Sep 2007

I am completely disgusted by this report. My god, what the hell is wrong with people? The way human beings treat wildlife is disgraceful at best. And to think that the cost of all that practicing of war to go kill something or someone, would actually help fund a National Park somewhere in Africa, that would help something or someone live. Lisa, California

Christine C., on 26 Sep 2007

Ugh…if we can’t get the British Army to behave, how can we ever believe Nkunda will???

Wim H, on 03 Oct 2007

What’s not clear from this posting is whether the helicopters are actively targetting Elephants or whether their mere presence serves to distress the herds.
Either scenario isn’t great if you’re an Elephant.
If there’s a clear case of repeated malice to be answered then let it be formally judged and disciplined.
The original reports (allAfrica.com 9/24/07) oddly focus on censure from local game rangers for viewing wildlife without paying park fees.

James Christian, on 04 Oct 2007

Wim,
According to officials at The British Army, they are no longer chasing elephants with helicopters and an incident that we had the other day with many disturbed animals was supposedly a case of ‘dust landings’ happening too close to a family group of elephants that subsequesntly ran for it.

Wim H, on 04 Oct 2007

Thanks James.
But they do avoid official Game Reserves and National Parks.
It seems inevitable that in an area where high-end exclusive private ranch conservancy/tourism is very much in the ascendancy as a business model, persisting activity out of synch with that trend will eventually conflict mightily with the idyll being funded/sold.
What was acceptable, lucrative even, just becomes an embarrassment.
Is the problem not that many of these privately owned ranches are neither Game Reserves nor National Parks but private businesses claiming the status of Game Reserves and National Parks?

James, on 08 Oct 2007

Im afraid that I don’t know enough about what happened out by Samburu National Reserve or Shaba to say how much they are avoiding those official parks but i do think its suspicous that there were complaints. why would the senior warden complain unless there was something to complain about?
These private ranches in our area (including ours) do manage for wildlife and some are called conservancys but i don’t think they are necessarily receiving any special benefit from claiming that status from the government. cheers, james

Wim, on 08 Oct 2007

Thanks James,
What is the main business of the ranches in your area?
It’s an interesting subject, private wildlife management, how does one maintain a credible private reserve/tourism business when the neighbours host wargames?
Equally, imagine if the hunting ban were overturned? Wildlife management might have quite a different meaning.
Please tell us more in more posts.
Best…

James, on 08 Oct 2007

Most of these ranches were used for cattle until that business became economically unviable for most people. Today the majority are in tourism, managing the land for wildlife and keeping very modest herds of cattle. The community ranches here are prinicipally occupied by Laikipia Masai and while they concentrate on livestock they are also beginning to enter tourism.
The hunting ban, should it be overturned (while not completely my cup of tea) would likely be an economic and environmental boon for the area. As Richard Leakey pointed out in a recent Swara article - there is more hunting today than there ever was before the ban. the differnece is it is unmanaged slaughter rather than an organized enterprise. cheer, james

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply