Elephant options in Africa May 2, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Animals, Conservation, Safari, Tourism, ecotourism , 1 comment so far
No doubt you have heard by now that South Africa has decided that culling will once again be an optional intervention in the management of elephant populations, albeit an intervention of last resort, to address what is known as “the elephant problem”. Elephant conservation has been enormously successful in southern Africa (58% of the population), to the extent that some conservationists now argue that there are “too many” elephants. Personally, I think that the problem could be restated as “too little elephant habitat”. (more…)
Corridors, Climate Change and Democracy April 16, 2008
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Climate Change, Conservation , add a comment
Corridors are the sexiest thing in conservation. It has been realised for some time now that Africa will be one of the continents hardest hit by the effects of climate change. When Africa’s protected areas were initially proclaimed, no-one foresaw the increases in human population that we’ve experienced, and now these areas are islands in a sea of humanity.
Mother of All Crocodiles April 2, 2008
Posted by Clarissa Hughes in : Animals, Community, Conservation, ecotourism , add a comment
Madikwe, short for Madikwena, meaning Mother of All Crocodiles is a shining example of ecotourism success in Africa. This 76,000 hectare reserve was created in 1994 and was the subject of the largest game reintroduction exercise on the planet. Operation Phoenix saw the translocation of 8000 animals over a period of 8 years. The fully fenced reserve offers an almost unique location to view both desert adapted species, and the more regular bushveld animals. Gemsbok, brown hyena and eland occur; as do buffalo, elephant and spotted hyena.
Is it only about “the Big 5″? February 17, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Conservation, Tourism, ecotourism , 1 comment so far
Every once in a while I trawl through the research output of academia, specifically in the fields of ecotourism, sustainable tourism and ecotourism certification. The other day I came across the following article in the Journal of Ecotourism (vol 6, no. 1, 2007) entitled “Wildlife viewing preferences of visitors to protected areas in South Africa: Implications for the role of ecotourism in conservation“.
The article’s conclusions are particularly interesting, given the prevailing wisdom in the tourism industry that tourists to Africa are only interested in seeing the “Big 5″ - leopard, lion, elephant, rhino and buffalo. Just recently we have been debating this issue in ecoAfrica, so the research is timeous and topical for us. I for one have always been loathe to accept that only the Big 5 holds any attraction to travellers to our continent. (more…)
Power down in South Africa continued… February 2, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, Sustainability , add a comment
Here’s an excellent post from my favourite blog about energy and the crisis that faces us, The Oil Drum: Understanding the current energy crisis in South Africa, in which the authors point out that the underlying problem is exponential growth. To quote:
Yes, at this rate of growth we will double our economy. What is it we will be doubling? We will double our GDP. This means we will double what we produce. In order to double what we produce we will need to double what goes into what we produce. This includes raw materials and crucially, energy. Yes. Roughly speaking, on this growth path, in the next 11 years we are going to need to double the amount of energy we are currently consuming.
As Albert Bartlett, Professor Emeritus, Physics Department, University of Colorado, once wrote: “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function”.
Powerdown and travel January 24, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, News, Sustainability, Tourism , 1 comment so far
The CEO of the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), Michael Tatalias, attracted the ire of both Eskom, South Africa’s power utility, and FIFA, world football’s governing body, when he stated that Eskom’s rolling blackouts are threats to both tourism and the 2010 World Cup.
Predictably, the local media latched on to these statements, which I agree are rather sensationalist, and trumpeted them loudly, but failed to even mention the other half of his statement which asks what we as citizens and businesses are doing to curtail our consumption of energy. (Also see my post on this subject recently)
Powerdown in South Africa January 22, 2008
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Climate Change, Conservation, Sustainability , 4comments
This post is only tangentially related to travel, but it has a lot to do with sustainability, so I thought I would vent here on this blog anyway. As I sit here writing this, South Africa has entered a period of rolling blackouts. The cause is uncontested: the government failed to allow the national power utility, Eskom, to create generation capacity way back in the ’90s. After an unprecedented period of economic growth the chickens have come home to roost and the reserve margin is down to 8% so that the grid has no resilience when capacity is temporarily reduced by an outage or when demand spikes. Meanwhile the demand trendline shows unabated growth. The crisis is expected to last for another seven years, by when additional generating capacity should come online.
But what interests me are the reactions to the crisis from my fellow citizens, which only serve to show how difficult it is to change behaviour and how invested in our energy-intensive consumer-age paradigm we are. (more…)
Manyara, Maasai & Marriage: a personal view of northern Tanzania November 12, 2007
Posted by Julia in : African Peoples, Conservation, Safari, ecotourism , 1 comment so far
Finally, my bags were packed and I was holding electronic air tickets to fly to a land I dreamed of visiting for a very long time!
Flying from Cape Town, I flew into the gateway city for most safari expeditions (Johannesburg) and spent a night at a lovely little guesthouse. Outlook Lodge was a welcoming overnight stop after leaving the comforts of my own home. On the following day, a quick transfer to Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport where I met the rest of the group.
Unfortunately after a 3 hour delay we finally arrived at 22:45 at Kilimanjaro Airport. It was interesting to discover the journey took us from Johannesburg to Dar Es Salaam (4 hours), then from Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar (a whole 10 minutes airborne!!) and lastly a flight from Zanzibar to Kilimanjaro (40 minutes) – Jambo!
Bazaruto, dugongs and peak oil September 14, 2007
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Conservation, ecotourism , add a comment
The Bazaruto archipelago, off the coast of Mozambique, is a tropical island paradise and a national park. Proclaimed in 1971 to protect, amongst other species, what is now the last viable dugong population in Africa, it is under threat from the desperate exploration for and extraction of oil and gas, as world demand for hydro-carbons starts to exceed a plateauing supply. The short-term profits to be made, at the expense of the long-term survival of our ecosystems, are enormous. (more…)
Save Shark Bay August 20, 2007
Posted by Ralph Pina in : Conservation , 1 comment so far
This one is mainly for those familiar with South Africa’s Langebaan Lagoon, core wetland in the West Coast National Park. Once more a so-called “developer” is attempting to incrementally pave and privatise the coast, adjacent to one of our most important national parks, and one of my favourite places on the planet. This particular proposal glories in the name “Baja Sardinia”. Huh?
Register your objections at SaveSharkBay.org and let’s show that this country’s sophisticated environmental legislation actually works. Click on the post heading above to view the location on Google Maps.
