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In the shadow of snow-cappedMt. Kilimanjaro, elephant fami-lies divide their time between the

dusty plains and the emerald-greenswamps of the Amboseli-LongidoHeartland. The area includes six largeranches to the north in Kenya and, inTanzania, the slopes of Kilimanjaroand the savannahs of Longido, whichabut the Kenya-Tanzania border nearAmboseli.

Because migrating wildlife in theregion cross national boundaries, theAmboseli-Longido Heartland strad-dles the border of two countries.

Longido, Tanzania, is situatedabout 50 miles north of Arusha onthe Kenya border, immediately southof Amboseli and within the EastAfrican Rift Valley. Longido isflanked by the slopes of three moun-tains, including majestic Mt.Kilimanjaro, which rises 19,340 ft.above Longido’s southeast side. Mt.Meru (14,979 ft.) stands south ofLongido and the smaller Mt. Longido(8,625 ft.) is to the east.

Longido’s average altitude is 4,000ft. Most of its terrain is semi-aridsavannah dotted by tall, umbrella-like acacia trees. Rainfall is about 20inches per year. The lowest parts ofLongido form the Ngasurai Plain inthe south and Sinya bottomland inthe north.

The jewel in this Heartland’scrown is the small (150 square miles)Amboseli National Park, the most

visited game park in Kenya andhome to AWF’s 28-year-old AmboseliElephant Research Project (AERP).

Some 55 other mammal speciesroam the land, including lions, leop-ards, cheetahs, giraffes, impalas, buf-faloes and a few black rhinos. Duringthe dry months (Amboseli means“salty dust” or “barren place”), wilde-beests, zebras and Thompson’s gazellesare drawn to the park’s two large,spring-fed swamps that bring water toa region that gets only 12 inches of raina year. The area is also home to morethan 400 species of birds.

The Maasai people have lived herefor 400 years, co-existing with thewildlife in relative harmony. Known

as fierce warriors, these traditionalpastoralists raised livestock and occa-sionally hunted large animals likeelephants and rhinos as acts of brav-ery or in times of serious drought.

But events over the last 30 yearsare transforming the relationshipbetween the Maasai and Amboseli’swildlife. In 1972, Amboseli and itsbasin swamps—an important watersource to the Maasai and their cat-tle—became a national park. “TheMaasai, who had always shared thewhole range with wildlife, were askedto abandon these swamps, restricttheir movements and still allow thewildlife to move onto their remaining

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Balancing Human, Wildlife Needs in Amboseli-LongidoStriving for Peaceful Coexistence in an AWF Heartland

The elephants are expanding their range beyond Amboseli, reducing pressure on thesmall game park, but increasing the likelihood of human-elephant conflicts.

Visualize a 40-pound pineconewith four legs and a tail, andyou’ll have a fairly accurate

picture of the cape pangolin.Sometimes called a scaly anteater, the

cape, or ground, pangolin (manis tem-minckii) is covered with large, brownoverlapping scales. It has a small, earlesshead and a long, broad tail. The tooth-less creature eats ants and termites, dig-ging them from mounds with clawedforefeet. The digging is accompanied byfrequent snorts that produce slimy bub-bles. Large salivary glands coat theextremely long tongue (up to 16 inchesin larger pangolins) with a gummymucus that traps the insects as they arelicked up into the mouth.

Its appearance hardly suggests amagical creature endowed withsupernatural abilities ranging fromrainmaking to enhancing romance.And yet the pangolin is valued bypractitioners of traditional medicineand magic for these and other powers.

When mixed with bark from certaintrees, the scales are thought to neutral-ize witchcraft and evil spirits. Buriednear a man’s door, they are said to givean interested woman power over him.Sometimes the scales are burned tokeep lions and other wild animalsaway. In some areas, pangolins are sac-rificed for rainmaking ceremonies, andin others they are hunted for meat.Unmarried men or women who come

Pangolin’s “Magic”Powers ThreatenIts Survival

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We still see Africa asone big game reserve.”That’s a U.S. execu-

tive’s explanation for why hiscompany doesn’t invest in SouthAfrica.

Last Oct. 17, The WashingtonPost reported that “frustrated bytheir inability to attract foreigninvestments, South African offi-cials surveyed corporate execu-tives from around the world tofind out why.” The U.S. execu-tive’s response crystallized theissue for the South African gov-ernment. Mpho Mosimane,spokesman for President Thabo Mbeki, observed, “Peopledon’t even know we have paved roads in South Africa.” AnAmerican visiting the Ivory Coast recently said of Abidjan’sskyscrapers and highways, “Of course, that’s not reallyAfrica.”

Have we in the conservation community, in collabora-tion with a host of nature-film producers, helped to per-petuate these misperceptions? Do our images of herds ofelephants thundering across a vast African landscape sus-tain a perception of Eden, devoid of human inhabitants?Or, if local people are shown at all, are they in exotic tribaldress suggesting a continent frozen in time? As we cele-brate the remarkable contribution of international scien-tists like AWF’s own Cynthia Moss, do we inadvertentlyimply that conservation can come only from the outside,through foreigners, rather than from inside Africa andthrough African leaders and communities?

As the only international conservation organization with80 percent of its staff living in Africa, we recognize that whilethese images are true, the reality of Africa is much morecomplex. This is not surprising on a continent that is morethan three times the size of the United States, housing 53nations and one-eighth of the human race. While manycountries remain heavily rural, 35 percent of Africa’s popu-lation is urban. It is a land of grinding poverty but also grow-ing industrialization. Areas with rich soils, like the EastAfrican Highlands, are densely populated in contrast to thevast relatively unpopulated deserts of Botswana.

Africa continues to house its share of despots, but therehas been modest but very real progress in strengtheningdemocracy. While Africa retains tradition and culturalcohesion, it is (and always has been) a continent of change.Despite the reality of famine, the scourge of AIDS and stag-nation (18 of the world’s 20 poorest countries are in Africa),in 1997 economic growth in 35 African countries was 3 per-cent or better and for 2000 continent-wide growth is pro-jected at 4 percent. So we can’t talk about “one Africa,”lumped together as an undifferentiated landmass.

If bushjackets and sundowners arebeing replaced by business suits andpower lunches, will wildlife also fadein memory in an ever more complex,modern and urbanized Africa? Willthere still be a place for a millionwildebeests shadowed by predatorsand a night alone under the vastAfrican sky? As Africa continues togrow and industrialize and agricul-ture expands, won’t wildlife disap-pear—as it did from much of theUnited States and Europe?

Ruminating on the challengesbefore us in a modern Africa, it isclear that if we don’t act, much will

be lost. But I believe we can successfully save much ofAfrica’s remaining wild splendor, including some of thelast great migrations on earth. From whence comes myoptimism?

Wildlife will survive in the 21st century because we rec-ognize the role of the people in Africa who share their landwith wildlife and have developed strategies that supporttheir aspirations for a better life while protecting vast land-scapes. After all, wildlife is a matter of human survival, forin rural Africa wild harvested resources produce the foodthat is eaten, fuel for cooking, medicine for health andmany of the products that generate essential income.

Conservation will succeed because we see Africa’s eco-nomic development not as a threat to the environment—wildlife will not prosper in a sea of want—but as an oppor-tunity to harness the creativity of the private sector.

We will succeed in protecting wildlife—not by freezingAfrica in the past but by understanding history and build-ing on the foundation of Africa’s many cultures, which arerooted in concern for the natural world. While respectingtradition, we understand in this new century that changeis inevitable, indeed, desirable. Democracy, especiallyadvancing rights for women, will help unleash untappedenergy and begin to hold African governments account-able for their stewardship of natural resources.

Returning to the issue of the Africa of our memory andAfro-realism—if vast wild areas and wildlife are seen as animpediment to foreign investment and a threat to modern-ization, we conservationists will find ourselves pushed asidein Africa’s drive for improvement. So we must demonstratethat protecting Africa’s great natural treasures and encour-aging economic development are not locked in oppositionbut can (admittedly, with great difficulty) be made mutual-ly supporting. The challenge for the new century for AWF,with our deep roots in Africa and our commitment to con-servation on the ground, is to understand that both sky-scrapers and plains teeming with spectacular herds ofwildlife are and shall forever remain “really Africa.”

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

THE AFRICAN WILDLIFEFOUNDATION

PresidentR. Michael Wright

WASHINGTON

Vice President for AfricanOperations

Patrick J. BerginNAIROBI

AFRICAN WILDLIFE NEWS

Associate EditorJulie Vermillion

Editorial ManagementSharon K. Congdon

Design and ProductionThe Magazine Group

The African Wildlife News is published inWashington, D.C., U.S.A. four times a year.

©2000 by the African Wildlife Foundation1400 16th Street, N.W., Suite 120

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V i e w p o i n t

Images of AfricaStuart T. Saunders, Jr.

Chairman of the Board

William P. Richards, Jr., Vice Chair

R. Michael Wright, President

Victoria Leslie, Secretary

Henry P. McIntosh IV, Treasurer

Kenneth AuchinclossGeorge R. Bunn, Jr.

David ChallinorFaye Campbell Cowan

Joan DonnerClinton A. FieldsJane W. GastonJudson Green

John H. HeminwayJennifer E. InskeepWilliam E. JamesDennis J. KellerJohn H. NorrisPhilip OsborneSally E. Pingree

Calvin H. RaullersonJacqueline S. RussellJeffrey R. Short, Jr.

Kelly J. StewartLeila Maw StrausBarry R. Sullivan

Douglas C. WalkerMatthew WeirGordon Wilson

TRUSTEES EMERITIArthur W. ArundelE.U. Curtis BohlenGeorge C. Hixon

Richard M. JacksonRobinson McIlvaine

Russell E. Train

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By R. Michael Wright, President, AWF

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Since she broke through gender barriers in 1997 tobecome a ranger at the Cheimsford Nature Reservein Natal Province, Caroline Sanford has worked tocommunicate the importance of global conserva-tion. She found a new and receptive audience forher message last fall in Tennessee’s Great SmokyMountains National Park during a three-monthassignment sponsored by the AWF/National ParkService international exchange program.

The “sheer floral beauty” was CarolineSanford’s immediate impression on arrivingin Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains

National Park. But as she settled into her assign-ment at the Tremont Educational Institute, theSouth African conservation specialist began to per-ceive a key difference between the national park sys-tem of her own country and that of the United States.

“Here, you encourage people to use the nationalparks,” says Sanford. “The basic theme seems to bea strong cultural, historical and people-basedpreservation ethic.”

By contrast, reserves in Natal “are more purelyconservation-oriented, and people have to learn tofit into that order of things. In general, there is not agreat emphasis on the historical aspect of our parks.”

Sanford has been surprised at the professionalspecialization in this country’s National ParkService. “Here, distinct departments do specifictasks, and people are taken on to do only those jobs.In most of the reserves back home, the staffemployed in a reserve do all the work required—lawenforcement, alien plant control, road maintenanceand so forth.” At the same time, she discovered thatboth national park systems separate scientific ser-vices from park management.

On assignment at Great Smoky MountainsNational Park, Sanford teaches children and othervisitors about local wildlife and the need for conser-vation worldwide. “My position allows me to takepeople who are truly awed by the outdoors andwant to experience more into the wilderness. I try tohelp them understand what is actually going onaround them . . . and see the world in a differentlight.” Sanford says she aims to awaken within peo-ple “a love of the land that has so much to offer if wejust give it some respect.”

Sanford, born to British parents, wanted to workin wildlife conservation from childhood. Initially,she had set her sights on becoming a veterinarian,but her father died when she was 11. Her mother’smodest salary as a bookkeeper would have requiredextensive financial aid for veterinary school, andSanford readily concedes that her grades weren’tgood enough to qualify her for such assistance.

There were also obstacles to a career in wildlifeconservation—a field not particularly welcoming to

women in South Africa (as elsewhere)—butSanford prevailed. She earned her national diplomain nature conservation from South Africa’s CapeTechnicon in 1993 and minored in computer sci-ence “as a fallback.” After graduation, she held part-time administrative and educational jobs for theKwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service.

Her hard work (and supplemental jobs in pizzaparlors and as a hotel housekeeper) went unre-

warded until 1997, when she was permanentlyhired as a ranger at the Cheimsford Nature Reserve.“For a woman,” she says, “that was real advance-ment.” The following year, she transferred to theItala Nature Reserve, also in Natal, where she wasresponsible for the Thalu section.

Sanford says she believes her particular perspectivehelps colleagues and visitors at Tremont understandthe global importance of conservation, but adds thatshe will return to South Africa with new insights. Sheplans to visit educational centers there to pass onsome of the techniques and ideas U.S. parks havedeveloped to address specific problems. Sanford adds,however, that each national park system can learnfrom the other. She has noted a number of manage-ment practices used in South Africa that only now arebeing considered by our National Park Service, suchas certain fire-management policies.

And Sanford has other plans. Last year, she beganworking on her national diploma in computer sci-ence. And she is engaged to a fellow Itala ranger.They plan to marry in May, and then Sanford willlikely put her career on hold to raise a family. Sheplans to return to conservation and says she is con-fident that some day more women will be workingthe trails.

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South African Ranger Teaches, Learns in U.S. Park

Ithought I was hallucinating as I awakened froma nap on the road to Arusha. An oncomingvehicle appeared to be skating a wide slalom,

and our own car was on the wrong side of the road.Then I saw that gaping trenches and living-room-

sized craters interrupted the pavement in bothlanes; our driver and others were dodging them,darting back to their respective sides just before ahead-on collision.

My colleague Jackee Kasandy and I were headingfrom Nairobi to northern Tanzania to help withpublicity for a successful effort by AWF’s ArushaConservation Service Center (CSC) in “communityconservation”—that broad attempt to help commu-nities manage wildlife for the animals’ survival andthe community’s profit.

But the image of working around enormous pot-holes would recur over the next few days as Ilearned more about this particular effort.

Ololosokwan, a Maasai settlement borderingSerengeti National Park, was about to celebrate itsfirst payment from a business partnership with thetourism company Conservation Corporation of

Africa (CCAfrica). In return for leasing 25,000acres of community land surrounding an upscalelodge called Klein’s Camp, CCAfrica would pay thecommunity over $25,000 a year and provide a clin-ic and other benefits. The community would retaindry-season grazing rights and benefit from localjobs. Serengeti wildlife would remain free tomigrate from the park through this acreage withoutfences or hunting.

This deal is a milestone in community conserva-tion in East Africa (see African Wildlife News, Fall1999). AWF’s team of legal, community conserva-tion and business experts had helped negotiatewhat both sides called a fair and durable agree-ment. And our work would assist in establishingsignificant precedents in Tanzania: for Maasai landtenure, for communities to negotiate as equals withinvestors, for communities to make an income fromthe tourist trade, and for creating a model jointpartnership that helps conserve land for wildlife.The High Court of Tanzania blessed the settlement,rendering it the more solid.

Road to Community ConservationCan Be a Rough OneBy Carole Douglis, AWF Public Affairs Officer, Nairobi

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land,” recalls Cynthia Moss, who founded AERP in1975, just three years after the park opened.

At about that time, the land surrounding the parkwas parceled out into large group ranches, each runby a committee of Maasai elders.

The realities of modern life have continued tourge the Maasai toward agriculture: Kenya’s rapidpopulation growth, coupled with the lack of arable

land (two-thirds of Kenya is semi-desert), haveforced small cattle herders to turn to farming tosupplement their income and their diet. Moss andher fellow AERP researchers have watched thetransformation of growing numbers of Maasai fromherders to farmers: “We knew that as soon as theybecame agriculturalists, they would come intodirect and acute conflict with the elephants . . .”

Today, AERP is working with local communitiesto ease that conflict, particularly when elephantsmigrate outside the park. Amboseli’s elephants arethe subject of the longest-running study ever of ele-

phants in the wild. Mossand three African assis-tants—Norah Njiraini,Katito Sayialel and SoilaSayialel—meticulouslyrecord the births,deaths, friendships andother dramas of morethan 1,000 elephants.Having escaped theextensive poaching ofKenya’s elephants forivory in the 1970s and1980s, the Amboseli ele-phants represent anintact social structurethat reveals invaluable

information on elephant social behavior, reproduc-tive patterns, intelligence, family life and how theycommunicate.

So it was especially noteworthy when Amboselielephants were reported as far north as Enselenkeifor the first time in many years, and about 30 milessouth, toward Mt. Kilimanjaro, in an agriculturalarea. This new movement indicates that elephantsremember former ranges and can reoccupy them ifthey are made elephant-friendly. As the elephantsexpand their ranges, they are spending substantialamounts of time outside the park, including on thegroup ranches, which are important elephant feed-ing areas as well as corridors to other sources offood, water and shelter.

“When the elephants range farther, it is welcomenews—for the park and for the growing number ofMaasai-owned tourism-related businesses,” says R.Michael Wright, president of AWF. “As we secure‘friendly’ range outside the park for the elephants, thatrelieves pressure on the park itself. And a revived pop-ulation of lions and the freer migration of large ani-mals will offer new economic opportunities for localpeople.” The downside, adds Wright, is “greater poten-tial for conflict between elephants and humans.”

Waterholes are a common trouble spot: Outsidethe park, elephants depend on the same waterholesused by local people and their domestic animals.Recent incidents include two goats killed by ele-phants at Ilmisigiyio; a boy badly injured by a bullelephant at Il Marba; and two men injured, one atNamelok, the other at Olrika.

Through its Nairobi Conservation Service Center(see box) and with funding from the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service’s African Elephant ConservationFund, AWF is conducting community conservationwork on the group ranches surrounding AmboseliNational Park. These efforts include: • Paying a consolation fee to owners of livestock

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Observing the Daily Drama of Elephant Lives

When I first started working with ele-phants, I was afraid of being in thewild—and very afraid of elephants,”

laughs Norah Njiraini, research assistant andtraining manager for AWF’s Amboseli ElephantResearch Project. “I couldn’t imagine I’d be ableto continue.”

That was 15 years ago. In the meantime,watching their behavior closely day in and dayout, Norah has learned to love the animals. Shecan recognize about 800 individual Amboselielephants by sight. “Sometimes I like them morethan humans,” she says. “They’re kind, loyal,fun—and they’re always themselves.”

Out in her Land Rover in the morning, Norahfirst must locate some of her subjects. Then shenotes what they’re eating, if there’s a newborn, ifany males or females are ready to mate and ifanyone’s missing from the families she sees. Sherecords the elephants’ interactions, apparentmoods and anything unusual. She jumps out ofher vehicle to pick up dung or, if an elephant hasdied, skin samples, preserving them in alcoholfor later DNA testing. Because the elephants areaccustomed to her and the AWF vehicle, theycalmly let her drive among them.

Most of the time, Norah observes families. Led

by the oldest matriarch, elephant families consistof mothers, sisters, cousins, daughters and youngmales under ten years (males leave the familyunit at maturity and remain largely solitary).Each family uses a distinctive greeting for mem-bers and after even a brief separation they stagean emotional reunion, trumpeting, touching andrelieving themselves with abandon.

Norah, who started her career as an adult-edu-cation teacher, not only conducts research butonce again is teaching. These days, she instructselephant conservation staff who come toAmboseli from throughout Africa, the UnitedKingdom and the United States.

Norah Njiraini has been watching and documentingthe behavior of Amboseli’s elephants for 15 years.

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The climate and landscape of the Amboseli-Longido Heartland, punctuated by palmsand Acacia trees, are ruled by Mt. Kilimanjaro, less than 25 miles away. The mountaingets most of the rain, but water runs down its slopes through underground aquifers andbubbles up in springs in the Amboseli Basin, where Amboseli National Park is located.

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Amboseli-Longidocontinued from page 1

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killed by elephants from a fund established by theDelano Foundation.

• Documenting all reported human-elephant con-flicts surrounding Amboseli National Park, incooperation with the Kenya Wildlife Service(KWS).

• Surveying waterholes in and outside the park.• Mapping neighborhoods, so that natural

resource management and conflict resolutioncan take place at the local level.

• Targeting the morani as a special age group with ahistory of spearing elephants. As defenders of thecommunity, they made reprisals after elephantsinjured or killed livestock. As the morani becomeinvolved in conservation activities, they appearexcited about starting a morani cultural boma.These strategies appear to be helping reduce con-

flicts between elephants and local people, based onthe following evidence:• FFeewweerr eelleepphhaannttss ssppeeaarreedd.. AERP staff monitor

the elephant population daily and are confidentthat the number of elephants speared hasdeclined significantly.

• BBeetttteerr rreeppoorrttiinngg aanndd mmaappppiinngg.. Now thatAWF/AERP’s consolation program ensuresprompt payment for livestock loss, local Maasaihave an incentive to report all cases of human-elephant conflict to KWS, as required by law.

• LLeessss mmoonneeyy ssppeenntt ttoo ccoommppeennssaattee ffoorr lliivveessttoocckklloosssseess.. Within six months of implementing theconsolation program, the number of reportedlosses has dropped. “If the reporting system has improved and all

conflict cases are being reported, then the use ofless money to compensate can be a measure of suc-cess,” says Philip Muruthi, Amboseli’s director ofspecies and ecosystems programs. “It implies thatpeople understand the conditions of the programand are changing their behavior to reduce conflicts.”

In Longido, AWF’s Conservation Service Center inArusha is working with communities in the villages of

Ngereyani, Tingatinga, Sinya, Elerai, Olomolog,Lerang’wa, Irkaswa and Kamwanga. The first four vil-lages largely maintain the Maasai culture in how theylive, work, dress and interact, according to EutropiaNgido, a CSC staff member. “You find some crop pro-duction and small business activities in the villages,”she reports, “but livestock-keeping is still the majoractivity and engages the majority of the population.”

This traditional way of life is reflected in CSC’srecent activities and accomplishments in WestKilimanjaro and Longido:

• Sponsor conservation training for morani whotend cattle in the bush

• Help villages organize themselves and set upmanagement structures to implement wildlifepolicy; conduct training in leadership, negotia-tion, game scouting and fund management

• Assist communities to identify and characterizeresources, assess markets and evaluate potentialpartnerships

• Broker agreements between communities andprivate companiesIn 2000, CSC—in tandem with AWF’s Conserva-

tion, Economics and Commerce program—willcontinue helping communities with business plan-ning. The goal is to help local people seize the ini-tiative in establishing tourism and other enterpris-es by evaluating their natural resources and pro-moting them to wildlife tour operators.

This report is part of an occasional series aboutAWF’s African Heartlands initiative, which directsconservation efforts to larger landscapes thatembrace parks, private reserves and human settle-ments. AWF has identified four areas as AfricanHeartlands: Amboseli-Longido, bordering Kenyaand Tanzania; Laikipia-Samburu in Kenya;Tarangire-Manyara, in Tanzania, and the areaknown as Greater Virungas, running along the bor-ders of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

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Bumper Crop of Babies

Ninety-two baby elephants were born atAmboseli in 1999, a record for theAmboseli Elephant Research Project’s

28 years.“Calves born in November and December are

the beginning of the ‘El Nino boom’ of late 1997and the first half of 1998,” reports project direc-tor Cynthia Moss. Most elephant matings andbirths occur during the rainy season. “Conditionswere so good that all possible available femalesgot pregnant and now—22 months later—we’reseeing the results.” Moss said she expects to see“many more calves in 2000.”

Newborns weigh about 260 lbs. and standabout 2 ft. 9 in. at the shoulder. Although theycan walk immediately, their vision is poor andthey depend completely on the mother and otherfamily members. After about a week, the calvesare walking well, even running, and that’s whenthey start interacting with the other elephants.

“The baby’s trunk is its main medium of con-tact with the world around it,” says Moss. “It isconstantly reaching, smelling and touching withit. . . . A baby often stands vigorously swinging itstrunk back and forth, tossing it up and down,and sometimes whirling it around in a circle. The

highly flexible, wiggly trunk is what makes ababy elephant look remarkably like a rubber toy.. . . But the trunk is also a source of comfort. Acalf will frequently suck on it in the same waythat a human infant sucks its thumb.”

By six months, the calves are eating vegetation,but still suckling. When they start nibbling grass,they also are making their first attempts to drinkwater with their trunk. Watching calves play canbe amusing, as they engage in head-on sparring,energetic chases and taking turns climbing oneach other.

Observing Amboseli’s baby elephants over theyears, Moss has learned that by nine months theydemonstrate distinct personalities.

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Bringing Community Conservation to Amboseli

Give people the economic incentive andthe tools to conserve wildlife, and theywill do so. That’s the straightforward

logic of community conservation.Through its Conservation Service Centers—

one in Nairobi, Kenya, and the other in Arusha,Tanzania—AWF seeks out communities andindividuals who want to conserve the wildlife ontheir property while benefitting from their land.A conservation team with expertise in areas suchas community development, education, business,law, land-use and ecology then consults with thelandowner to develop a conservation plan—andoften a wildlife-related business.

The Nairobi CSC is working on several initia-

tives in the greater Amboseli region, according toMoses Kanene, enterprise development specialist.

When the Kimana/Tikondo Group Ranchreceived a proposal by the African Safari Club forexclusive use of 6,000 acres for 10 years, membersof the ranch asked CSC to review the proposal.

Since November, the Nairobi CSC has beenworking on the Conservation of ResourcesThrough Enterprise (CORE) project in theAmboseli region, funded by the U.S. Agency forInternational Development (USAID). CSC staffrecently visited Amboseli to identify conservationtargets and design wildlife-related businesses to benefit local people while encouraging conservation.

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across a pangolin are expected to enjoy wealth andpower in the future. But for married people, seeing apangolin is considered a bad sign.

For African tribesmen, the cape pangolin is oftenthe gift of choice for their chief or king. “The pan-golin has the power to enable a person to disappearwhen encountering an enemy,” according to SekuruSibanda, a representative of Zimbabwe NationalTraditional Healers Association (ZINATHA). Hesaid its scales are regarded as suitable attire for

chiefs primarily because “it is a sacred animal.Pangolin scales are believed to have the power todefend a chief against any general harm.”

Although dismissed by many people as mythical,the powers associated with the pangolin seem to bethe ultimate defense kit for believers, as evidencedby the rush to kill this defenseless animal, causingits vulnerable status. TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade-monitoring program, will study the effect of illegalsales of pangolin products on population sizes inMalawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa andTanzania.

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About the Cape Pangolin• The cape pangolin lives in forested savannahs in southern and

eastern Africa.• Primarily nocturnal, the pangolin usually spends the day in

burrows or under dense thickets. It wanders great distances,walking a few miles each night but tending to use the sameburrow for many months.

• Pangolins are normally solitary. Females are usually alone with their young, but occasionally areaccompanied in their burrow by a male. Newborn pangolins measure 6 inches long and weigh 12ounces; by the second day, their pale, soft scales begin to harden. They are nursed for three to fourmonths—but start eating termites at one month. This is also when the youngster begins to accom-pany the mother, sometimes riding on the base of her tail.

• An adult common pangolin is 27 to 42 inches long and weighs 30 to 40 pounds. Average lifespan is20 years.

To inform other local communities and the widerworld, I invited several local and internationalreporters to fly up with me to Ololosokwan.

Everyone I approached wanted to cover the story.So far so good.

The first “potholes” were logistical. The phones inArusha crashed upon my arrival. The cellular net-work, increasingly used in Tanzania, soon was out,too. Our plane reservations had vanished with thephone lines, and the flight was now full. Getting threereporters to Klein’s Camp or checking options withAWF staff in Nairobi became minor adventures.

As for e-mail, I discovered that was nonfunction-al when Daudi Sumba, our information technologyspecialist, was seen out back climbing a tree, clutch-ing a bunch of balloons. He tied them as high as hecould, then we drove across town to the Internetprovider’s office. While I sent e-mails, Daudi carriedbinoculars to the rooftop to search for the balloons.The point was to aim the radio transmitter—whichthe office uses for its Internet connection instead ofa phone line—directly at our offices. No luck—toomany trees. Next day, Daudi spent hours searchingfor helium to float the balloons higher.

I continued to communicate the old-fashionedway—using up shoe leather. The journalist fromNairobi was five hours late, so I roamed the town toline up a replacement.

Human nature provides its own formidableobstacles on the road to community conservation.The African village way is consensus on all things ofimport, at least among the elders. It can takemonths to get consensus on a land-use plan or jointpartnership deal. Two days before the celebration,the village elders decided not to allow cameras. It’shard to imagine a more photogenic scene than hun-dreds of Maasai in red robes and beaded jewelryhosting a ceremony on the Serengeti plain. Theirdecision knocked out TV coverage and made printstories unlikely. But consensus is consensus, and wewent with notebooks and tape recorders.

In Ololosokwan, it had taken many meetings forconsensus to swing behind this community-corpo-rate tourism agreement we were now celebrating.In spite of all the potholes along the way, the agree-ment was signed and is being implemented, withcontinued support from AWF.

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Please join the Baobab Societytoday with a gift of $1,000 or more to AWF.

For more details

please call Mary

Elizabeth Simpson

at 202-939-3341

… The Baobab tree,

a source of moisture,

food and shelter to the

inhabitants of Africa’s

arid plains, is an apt

symbol for those individ-

uals who sustain AWF’s

conservation efforts.

The Baobab Tree

Keep AWF on the MoveConservation work in the

African wilderness means driving endless miles over pitted, dusty roads.

So rugged, reliable vehicles are a “must” for AWF field staff.

One 4-wheel-drive vehicle (no AC or radio) costs about $46,000

(US$). Annual operating cost—fuel, insurance, repairs—is $7,000.

Please send your donationtoday to the “AWF Vehicle

Fund.” And help keep AWF inthe driver’s seat.

Cynthia Moss to Speak in L.A.

Cynthia Moss, founding director of AWF’sAmboseli Elephant Research Project and

author of “Elephant Memories” and other booksabout her experiences in Africa, will speak at theLos Angeles Zoo Sunday, April 30, at 2 p.m. Formore information or to reserve seating, call(323) 644-4708.

continued from page 3Road to Community Conservation

6

AWF participated in the firstnationwide discussion onU.S.-Africa relations, held in

February in Washington, D.C. Fivethousand people, including worldleaders and policymakers as well asrepresentatives from grass-rootsorganizations, academia and thebusiness sector joined the generalpublic at the National Summit onAfrica. Sponsored by The FordFoundation and The CarnegieCorporation of New York, the summit was formedto strengthen the network of Africa’s supporters inthis country and to set an agenda for U.S. policytoward that continent.

AWF served as technical adviser for various work-shops and organized an information booth withInterAction, an international development andrelief coalition, and other members of the AfricaBiodiversity Collaborative Group.

R. Michael Wright, president of AWF, moderated

the workshop on “A World Connected:Why Africa’s Environment Matters,”which addressed biodiversity’s impor-tance, desertification and climatechange, security and conflict, trade andthe environment, and governance andthe environment.

“Discussion between our panel ofexperts and the workshop audiencewas spirited, and the audience raisedmany tough issues,” notes Wright. “Theworkshop and the summit were valu-

able tools for raising public awareness of the impor-tance of Africa’s biodiversity—and its effects onhuman development on the continent.”

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AWF Participates in Summit on Africa

Is Renaming for the Birds?

If birdwatchersin southernAfrica are con-

fused, you can’tblame them. Whatused to be a dab-chick is now a littlegrebe, the dikkophas been rechris-tened the thick-knee and widow-finches have beentransformed intoindigobirds.

Those are just a sample of the 2,000 birds orgroups of birds whose names will have changed whenthe next edition of “Robert’s Birds of SouthernAfrica,” the birding handbook, is published in 2001.The renamings are based not on whim but on the sci-entific discovery of several new species and varietieswithin a single species. When researchers at thePercy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology inCape Town examined Karoo larks, for example, theyfound not one but four different species.

The changes are ruffling more than the birds’feathers, according to WildNet Africa News. Birdexpert Gerhard Verdoom says he thinks they areunlikely to be accepted by the birding fraternity.

Reclassification is designed to bring the birdnames in line with usage worldwide.

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ou can help secure their homes forgenerations to come—by remember-ing African Wildlife Foundation in

your estate plans. Your bequest or lifeincome gift will directly benefit Africanwildlife and their habitats. And you willbenefit too—by increasing yourincome and reducing your estate,capital gains and income taxes.Please call Nancy Miller, toll free

at 888-494-5354, ext. 3327,return the coupon below or email her at nmiller@awf.org to

find out more about how you can maketax-wise gifts to AWF through yourretirement and estate plans.

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■■ PLEASE send me information on including African WildlifeFoundation in my ■■ will, ■■ life income gift, ■■ retirement plan

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Please return this form in the enclosed envelope or mail to: Nancy Miller, Gift Planning Officer, African

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nmiller@awf.org

South Africa has asked the Convention onInternational Trade in Endangered Species(CITES) for approval to sell stockpiled raw

ivory. South Africa has proposed to CITES that itselephant population be moved from Appendix Oneto Appendix Two in order to permit trade under anexperimental quota of 30 tons.

The decision on South Africa’s proposal will bemade at the eleventh meeting of the CITESConference of Parties (COP 11) in Nairobi, Kenya,April 10–20. Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwehave proposed that their elephant populations bekept on Appendix Two in order to continue theirlimited trade in raw ivory begun in April 1999.

At the 1997 conference, the three countries con-vinced CITES to downlist their elephant popula-tions to Appendix Two because they were stableand growing. CITES’ executive body, composed ofrepresentatives from 146 countries, approved aone-time, limited international and experimentalsale of ivory stocks to Japan by the three countries.

Hoping to ensure that the decision would notharm elephant populations elsewhere, the CITESconference insisted on safeguards, including com-mitment to international law enforcement andagreement on an international system for reportingand monitoring legal and illegal hunting.

As a result, ivory trade is to be monitored by theElephant Trade Information System (ETIS), man-aged by TRAFFIC and a new proposed system. TheMonitor of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) pro-gram is designed to track elephant populations andpoaching in 39 African and Asian countries.Opponents to renewed trade are concerned thatneither system is yet operating.

Fiery opposition is coming from Kenya, which,together with India, has proposed that the Africanelephant populations of Zimbabwe, Botswana andNamibia be returned to Appendix One to preventfurther poaching of African and Asian elephants.The countries claim that the 1997 CITES decision

to downlist elephants in southern Africa toAppendix Two has been a failure and there is not asufficient monitoring system to detect increases inpoaching. Kenya refers to the MIKE system as “tooextravagant” for countries with under-resourcedlaw enforcement.

Since 1975, CITES regulations have sought toprevent international commerce from threateningflora and fauna species with extinction. A total of146 countries have joined this international conven-tion banning international trade in certain endan-gered species and regulating trade in species at riskof becoming endangered. Whether to trade in prod-ucts of mega fauna, such as elephants, has domi-nated conservation deliberations at the last fiveCITES conferences.

A F R I C A N W I L D L I F E F O U N D A T I O N

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Please use my contribution to help protect Africa’s wildlife.

Enclosed is my check for $________________________

Mr./Mrs./Ms./Miss _____________________________

Address _____________________________________

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Conflicting Positions on Ivory Put Forward at CITES

Former TanzaniaPresident JuliusNyerere Dies

Former president of Tanzania Julius K.Nyerere, fondly known by his constituents as“Mwalimu” (the Swahili word for teacher),

died in London Oct. 14, 1999, while undergoingemergency treatment for leukemia.

A devoted conservationist, he was the architect ofthe Arusha Manifesto, which set the pace for con-servation in Tanzania after independence, layingthe groundwork for creation of the country’s largenational park system.

“He was loved and respected by the majority ofTanzanians from all walks of life,” according to AWFSenior Project Officer James Kahurananga, Arusha.“He had a profound influence on both political andcivic matters.”

Nyerere led his country to independence in 1961and presided over it until 1985.