image: Sean Delonas
With a picture like this to open the article and an ill-conceived headline (“Africa’s Future? Go Now, Before It’s Too Late”) on the cover of the December 2015-January 2016 addition of Petersen’s Hunting magazine, I definitely had to pick it up and read the article.
David Hart wrote the article to make the argument that, in order to practice healthy sustainability practices for endangered species in Africa’s current economical state, hunters must hunt so that trophy fees and other astronomical extortions go to African landowners and communities. Hart claims it is incentive to practice sound conservation. Blaze says it’s a lack of respect for our planet and it’s inhabitants.
Let’s get a little deeper into the problem: I watched a Ted Talk where Mikkel Legarth explained how the lion hunting ban in Botswana “killed the lions”. He spoke in detail how his trip to the country allowed him to learn first hand how cattle farmers in the area grew to view lions as pests, and they were free to kill the lions that trespassed onto their lands with no limits. This directly ties in to what David Hart’s addition to the Petersen’s Hunting publication stated about conservation: “Hunting is an economic trade. It works best in Africa where the landholder or community owns the wildlife. They receive money for an animal in the form of a trophy fee, so they have an interest in protecting it.”
A fart on Petersen’s, and a fart on short sighted Legarth, who was apparently ignorant to a very nifty solution created by Richard Turere (Wild Knights salutes him). At the age of 11, Richard invented “Lion Lights”, which he originally powered with a solar panel. The flashing light repels lions and other wildlife including elephants so effectively that he’s been involved in installing them in many communities in Kenya and received a scholarship to the Brookehouse International School in Kenya for his achievements.
I know this is a fraction of the problem. They are still poachers and other lesser problems like subsistence killings in Africa. Poaching is an inexcusable offense, but supporting yourself from your kills is not malicious. With education, hunters supporting themselves and their families could make better choices when finding food for their family. So for the poachers and other malicious offenses against African wildlife, we need smart, deliberate solutions. If an 11-year-old can solve a huge part of the problem while harboring ill will for lions who killed off his father’s livestock, then any one of you reading this article can come up with logically sound ideas based in your good will.
This isn’t just about conservation of lions or elephants or any wildlife anywhere in the world. This is about a mindset that needs to die. Treating our world like a free-for-all looting party doesn’t progress or add to the world. In fact, it takes away from something that the thieving individual can enjoy too. How many places of almost supernatural beauty have been ruined in pursuit of a fleeting financial or personal gain? How many species have died out as a result of irresponsible hunting habits? Why do some think they own the land or own the animals on our planet when it’s obvious that paper deeds are decomposable, files are corruptible, and Darwinism takes care of obsolete beings and, in this case, mindsets.
-Blaze
P.S.
image:Chen Hualin
I’m just going to leave this Lion Tree budding with cuddly fruit.
Wild Knights 