Conservation on Game Reserves in Africa

Conservation on Game Reserves in Africa

By: Arabella

My family and I recently embarked on an incredible month-long journey around east Africa. We started in Kenya, gradually made our way down to Tanzania, and then returned through the breathtaking Serengeti.

During our travels, I dedicated time to ask questions and discuss what differentiates a high-quality game reserve from a not so great one, conservation wise. My goal for this essay is to highlight the importance of wildlife conservation and explore effective methods used. I want to share the key factors that contribute to the quality of conservation in a game reserve, drawing from my experiences and learnings I gained during our trip. I want to explore aspects such as the reserve’s commitment to conservation, including how they protect the animals, stop illegal hunting and educate local communities about the wildlife.

In many of the game reserves we went to, their concentration was on protecting threatened and endangered species, with a common focus on rhinoceros. One great example is in Segera. They will hopefully successfully integrate 30 black and white rhinos into their ecosystem in January. To ensure the rhinos feel secure and remain within the reserve, Segera has put up a large, fenced-off area, a safe space. While the fence allows other animals to move freely in and out, the rhinos are encouraged to stay within its boundaries until they set their territory. This approach not only provides a safe habitat for the rhinos but also helps prevent conflicts with local communities. The reserve reduces the likelihood of actions against these animals by stopping the rhinos from wandering onto neighboring lands and damaging their crops.

The Rothschild giraffe, a subspecies of the giraffe, originally faced a significant decline in population due to habitat loss and poaching. In the early 2000s, their population was estimated to be around 500 in the wild. Thanks to conservation efforts, including those at Giraffe Manor in Kenya, the population of Rothschild giraffes have increased to approximately 2,000 today. Giraffe Manor plays a big role in the conservation and rehabilitation of these giraffes, spreading awareness of this to all their customers.

One of the biggest, if not the biggest threat to Africa’s wildlife is poaching. Poachers hunt animals for items such as ivory, fur, bones and even their entire head. Governments in both Kenya and Tanzania have put up strict rules, including a ban on any sort of hunting. The penalties can range from ten years in prison to life sentences for those caught hunting any animal species or possessing animal products.

However, my research has revealed a troubling truth. It is rare for poachers to receive any jail time, and the fines are often drastically lower than what they should be. This motivates poachers, who find that the profits they can earn from poaching outweigh the risks of getting caught. In some regions of Africa, poaching is worse because of poverty and lack of opportunities. This pushes local communities to hunt and exploit wild animals as a mean of survival.

Poaching not only threatens the survival of individual species but can also lead to changes in the entire ecosystem. What would happen if the African elephant were to be wiped from the face of Earth? Local economies that rely on tourism from elephants would suffer, and many communities might turn to poaching for income. Many plants that depend on elephants to spread their seeds would disappear, and efforts to fight climate change would be of no use, as elephants are a big part of keeping forests healthy. The population of African elephants have already decreased by over 30% in the past decade. These changes could happen very soon if we don’t help spread awareness of poaching problems.

Poaching is hard to stop, but many game reserves have started introducing hounds to try and capture the poachers. In Segera, they have started training hound dogs to identify their scents and chase the poachers down. They had a program to show us how they did it.

First, we were introduced to the dogs, they were beautiful and clearly agile. Then, my dad ran off with one of the rangers, to go hide somewhere where the dogs “wouldn’t” be able to find him. The ranger handling the oldest dog went forward and rubbed a piece of cloth into the dirt where my dad once stood. He then put the cloth against the dogs nose for a couple seconds and the chase was on. We followed the hound far far from where we once started, through thick grass and sticky mud. I was beginning to speculated, the absurdity that a dog could hold a scent through thick deep mud was beyond me. The dog finally stopped and we looked around. There my dad was, In the bush beside us, and I stared in awe at what this dog could accomplish.

If more reserves did this or tried other anti-poaching efforts, we could really make a difference for the poor animals whose life is sold for other people’s furniture. Poaching not only hurts the animal species, but also creates hateful relationships between people and the animals. This makes them more aggressive to humans and makes it more difficult than ever to protect them. Creating awareness of poaching and the consequences of poaching helps push saving these animals, one step at a time.

Sometimes these animals get killed for no reasons at all. Not for poaching, not for food, and not for money. For fun.

When we were staying at Cottars, we followed a group of vultures to where we thought a carcass would be at. The carcass was there, but the animal it belonged to left everybody speechless. A giraffe lay dead on the ground, surrounded by dozens of vulture. We watched as the vultures gruesomely carved her eyes out, trying to got get to the soft flesh inside. We watched and inspected the giraffe trying to find a cause of death, for example, bite marks on the neck. But there was nothing.

Just then, we saw a couple of the vultures abandon the giraffe and fly less than 100 meters away from it, landing in the nook of a bush. We went to investigate what was going on, and found something equally horrible. There lay a baby giraffe, only a couple days old, vultures drilling into her beautiful skin. It was later discovered that this calf was the previous dead giraffes baby, which made the scene even more mysterious and disturbing. I sat, raking my brain, trying to figure out how this happened. A mother and daughter, laying dead, no normal signs of death. It’s straight out of a murder mystery.

Our ranger was upset; He knew how this had happened and it was not one of nature’s anomalies. His hypothesis was a couple of local children shot them with poisonous darts as a game. I could tell by his expression that this had happened many times before. When these kids kill the fauna, they do it for fun and from watching other adults do it. They don’t understand the impact and consequences of their actions. Educating these communities about their wildlife is crucial for changing this mindset. By sharing the importance and roles of each species, we can help people understand the negative impacts of hunting for fun or as a sport. When communities engage in conservation efforts, they not only learn to care for their environment but also help the conservationists learn more about the animals. The local communities have lived there for centuries and know more from past generations about how these animals behave and act. This teamwork can lead to better protection of wildlife and better sustainable practices that benefit both the environment and local livelihoods.

While it is crucial to save and protect wildlife, this goal should not come at the expense of the well-being of local tribes and communities. It is essential to find a balance that respects both conservation efforts and the rights of the people who live in these places. The term “poaching” has, at times, been misapplied to criminalize the traditional practices of indigenous people. Labeling these activities as something as bad as poaching completely disregards the many decades they have lived on that land and with that wildlife, as well as framing these practices as illegal without considering that that’s the nature of them. This can lead to even more tensions between conservationists and indigenous populations.

While learning more and more about all these beautiful animals, I have also grown aware of how we’ve been treating native communities. In helping the animals, providing them safe spaces, the government has taken away land rightfully belonging to the indigenous tribes. Coming back to balance again, without it, everything would fall apart. By building barriers that weren’t there before between the communities and the wildlife, it makes it almost inevitable for conflict to arise. Conservationists have to try and respect both sides of the issue, and try to form a common ground between them.

My trip to East Africa really opened my eyes to how much wildlife conservation is connected to the people living there. I learned that to protect animals, we need to work together and also think about what the local communities need. If we want to stop poaching and the problems that come with it, we have to find ways that help both the amazing animals and the people who live near them. If we do that, we can create a better future for both wildlife and the indigenous communities.