Conservation profitable in South Africa By Steve Mitchell United Press International Published 4/15/2004 7:45 AM
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, April 15 (UPI) -- Private game reserves and national parks in South Africa are helping restore once endangered species and at the same time proving conservation can be financially viable. As the parks reintroduce species such as elephants and lions that were endemic to the area 150 years ago, they also are learning valuable lessons that will improve conservation efforts in the future. But in some cases this information is not being documented and shared with other parks, a situation that concerns those involved in the efforts. "We proved it can be financially sustainable," Johan Joubert, director of wildlife at Shamwari Game Reserve located just north of Port Elizabeth, told reporters during a recent meeting. Shamwari, one of the premier game reserves in South Africa, opened just 12 years ago, but in that short time it has enjoyed enormous success, seeing its African elephant and black rhinoceros populations grow at record rates and building a model for acquiring farmland that is economically beneficial to the surrounding community and helps prevent wildlife poaching. In this way, they are helping revert the land back to its original condition, when species such as elephants, zebras, lions and cheetahs thrived on it. Anban Padayachee, senior section ranger at nearby Addo National Elephant Park, said tourism has been proven to bring in nearly double the amount of money that could be produced by the same amount of land used for agriculture. On average, tourism brings in about $12 per hectare, while farming earns only about $7 per hectare, Padayachee said. Addo recently began a campaign to expand its territory, with the goal of ultimately encompassing 400,000 hectares, including a 120,000 hectare marine reserve on the coast. The economics of the game reserves might even be driving conservation unwittingly. Kariega Game Reserve plans to introduce lions and elephants into its park next month, and Louis Bolton, a game ranger there, said it is being done not so much for conservation reasons as it is for the necessary "financial reality that they have to keep up with nearby parks" such as Shamwari, which host lions, elephants and cheetahs and as such can draw more customers. Shamwari also charges more money per customer. A one-night stay at Shamwari's high-end lodge runs about $900, while a comparable stay at Kariega goes for $350. The downside is much of the economic success of these reserves is dependent on the global financial climate. The prices for accommodations at the lodges are so high most South Africans cannot afford them, so the parks' main customers are tourists from overseas. John O'Brien, group ecologist at Shamwari, noted the catastrophic terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, "really hurt the parks because tourism went down." One park was forced to close due to lost revenue, O'Brien said. Shamwari has carefully monitored and studied each new species it introduced to help guide it in future efforts. But other parks are not being so meticulous and may be losing an opportunity to acquire crucial information for conservation efforts. "It's very, very frustrating" these reintroduction efforts are not being carefully documented and studied, a game ranger at a major reserve, who requested anonymity, told United Press International. "I don't think (management) realize the magnitude of what they're undertaking," he said. "This is their future." O'Brien said sharing what they learn from both the successes and mistakes is essential to improving conservation techniques in the reserves. "We mustn't hide our failures," he told UPI. "We learn more from those than from successes." O'Brien recounted a recent learning experience they had trying to reintroduce black rhinos to the reserve. The population was increasing with few losses, but one bull reacted negatively to this and "went on a rampage and killed some of the members of the herd," apparently to create a deficit so his reproductive efforts and resulting offspring would be successful. "We went public with that and once we did, other parks said that had happened to them but they had been keeping it quiet," O'Brien said. Padayachee said Addo publishes and shares its research, and that it was important the reserves do the same to monitor their reintroduction efforts carefully. "Not just for research purposes," he said. It also is crucial for good management practices. Careful monitoring provides game managers with the information they require to determine if they should sanction or condone a proposal. The anonymous ranger said another pitfall is that management of the reserves often fails to request input from rangers when deciding which species to introduce and how to go about it. Even rangers with 15 years of experience or those who have worked at bigger parks such as Kruger National Park are left out, he said. This is unwise, he commented, because management often is not familiar or knowledgeable about wildlife and their decisions are driven more by economics than effective game management practices. Padayachee said if this were true, then it would have been incumbent upon the game rangers to develop a research program on their own. After they had collected enough information to support their case, they then could go to management and say, "this is what we're doing, this is what works," and in that way have enough ammunition to persuade management that their approach is more feasible. Currently, there are about 40 parks in South Africa and more are coming, O'Brien said. That could be bad, however, because the parks eventually could reach a saturation point, where the supply of tourists would not be adequate to support all the parks, he added. Right now, however, the conservation picture in South Africa is positive. Just last July, Shamwari became one of the first reserves to introduce a pack of wild dogs, one of the most endangered predators in Africa, and in less than one year, they've already expanded their pack by one. "As long as there's a financial benefit to game parks, things are looking good," O'Brien said. -- Steve Mitchell is UPI's Medical Correspondent. He has been on assignment in South Africa. E-mail sciencemail at upi.com Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20040415/3b824477/attachment.htm>