*,M--. ',. : +- , :.: ..c.p . .I population in the Garaniba .' A point or two about US 1 : NatronalL' Park, close CO the DR ' Congo's northern border with We offer- [he Sudan. Guaranteed safari departures The figurcs, made publ~cIn Tailor made itineraries a July by experts from the World Flying safaris Conservation Un~on(IUCN) and the Worldwide Fund For Balloon flights Narure (WWF), arc seen as an encouraging sign that the Black Rhino may ar lasr be on the road CO recovery, although cer- rain populations, [he report On the Up concedes, are still vulnerable to We've been in threats of increased poaching. the safari business for atesr estimates put Africa's And in Cameroon, the report over 30 years - plenty of rocal rhinoceros popula- adds, only a few scattered v4~ [ion at 14,720 animals. Of Wescern Black Rhinos are now time to iron out the wrinkles! L b these, 3,630 are Black Rhinos, believed to remain. !Q get in touch with US and we'll let you know how we which have shown an increase Across Africa, the Black m so / can make your trip to a safati to remember. of at least 500 animals (15 %) Rhinoceros suffered a calami- over rhe past nvo years. tous decline from abouc 65,000 The number of White animals in the 1970s to jusr 1,400 in che mid-1990s. Yet, #rhino safaris-- p Rhinos, which had fallen to xs------just 50 individuals in the early despite the recent gains, there NAIROBI: Rhino Safaris building, Ngong Rd., PO Box 48023 Natrob~. Tel. 27206101 611 Fax: 2720624, e-mail: [email protected] 1900s, now stands at 11,090, are still reclconed co be 90 % MOMBASA: Rhino Safaris building, Nyere Avenue. PO Box 83054, Mombasa according to the new figures. fewer Black Rhinos today than Tel. 311141. Fax: 315743, mail: [email protected] ARUSH*: Kudu Safaris buildng, 11\4Themi InduYMI Estale W BOX 1404, Of these, however, as few as 20 here were 30 years ago. Kenya, Njiro. Arusha Tel. 007 - 57 - 81931 6065 Fax. 8139. are Northern Whirs Rhinos, a which has 458 Black Rhinos e-mail: [email protected] race now reduced ro a single riny and 221 (Southern) White

La Seule Table Francaise De Nairobi , the Mara We rhoughc she might be going Kikemade famous in the BBC down to che river, to cool off Big Cat Diary TV series and perhaps and to get her breach Transport will br provided featured recently in Swara back after the chase. But she for any diners from any hotel [26:3&4], separated from her kept going, crossing the stream within the CBD cubs on 12 June after making a and heading north. *er nvo kill near che Nciakitiak stream, kilomeues she found - and NE of blara Inrrepids Camp. killed - a Thomson's Gazelle Ciurlda House Koir~agedtrcct She had lcilled a Thomson's fawn, which she proceeded ro P 0 Box 44991, Nairobi, Kenya Gazelle, and when [he cubs feed on herself, nor even calling Tclephones: 336952/226027/224945 joined her she let them ear as the cubs. Afrer this meal she usual. Then she nralkcd away. just kept on going, not even UP FRONT

scill have rhino populations. enya's Nat~onalEnvironmen! Management a source of both fuel wood security and future The imrncdiare target ilo~, KAuthority (NEMA) earlier this year used the income for the~rcommunities, while also according ro Kenya Wildlife occasion of World Environment Day - 5 June - improving the productiv~tyand health of their local environments. Service (KWS) Phino Pro- to present two 'Exemplary Achievement' awards for environmental conservation to the giant In the run-up to 2004's World Environment gramme Co-ordinaror hlartin cement producer. Lafarge East Africa. Day, 3,000 trees were also planted at Bamburi Mulama, is for Kenya to have a The NEMA Chairman, Professor Ratemo Cement's Nairobi Grinding Plant in a ceremony minimum of 500 Black Rhinos Michieka, cited the ongoing expansion of attended by senior provincial administrators, by che end of 2005. Lafarge's pioneering work in rehabilitating used national environment regulatory authorities. and "To rhis end," Mulama quarries mined by its Mombasa subsidiary. representatives of the local community, as well as the company's own top brass. says, "we are going to have to Bamburi Cement, as indicative of the group's continuing commitment ro excellence in both The NEMA awards ceremony, held at maintain a ner rare of increase nature conservation and environmentally Lafarge's Baobab Farm in Mombasa, culmi- for the rhinos of at leasr 5 % responsible industrial practice. nated in another tree-planting ceremony - at per annum." In rhe Nairobi Also singled out for praise was the Bamburi Bamburi's South Ouarry. and officiated by Dr National Park, now home to subsidiary's Green Schools Project, a new Newton Kulundu, then Kenya's Minister for the 70 Black Rhinos, the annual reforestation ~n~tiativefor creating woodlots in Environment, together with the UN Environment Programme's Deputy Secretary-General. Seka rare stands ar a healthy impoverished arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya. now in its p~lotphase at 12 rural schools In Toure, and leading NEMA representatives. 90. Mulama says, 6.7 "This,'' remote parts of the country's Eastern Province. among a host of other dignitaries from both "coupled wirh successes in the Under this project, schools benefit from government and industry. Lake Nakuru National Park tanks buitt for them by the company to hold Six baobabs were planted in a ring, in what and on some private Rhino fresh, clean water for their drinking and cooking - in years to come - is expected to become a Sancruaries, has so far enabled needs. Water prev~ouslyfetched for their own striking focal point for the company's recla~med consumption by the schoolchildren and the~r South Ouarry. us ro sray on course, despite families was of very poor quality and is now some reversals suffered else- being used instead to water plantations of - reported by Dino J Martins where in the counrry." tree-seedlings established on and around the For more on the environmental rehabilitation - GB respective school compounds. The growing projects undertaken by Lafarge Ecosystems, trees being cared for by the children represent see pages 18-22. For more on the work of the KWS

looking back ro see if the cubs were following. The cubs, when they had 1

headed south ro che main road benveen Mara Intrepids and Talek Gate. On 14 June, the cubs managed on [heir own to kill a young hartbeest. which they fed on. The next day rhcy crossed

Rongai River on 17 June. back. Thcy are currently [as of Kike herself. meanwhile, (which is probably no bad The grass in the h/Iara was mid-September] in the Olkeju ventured as far as rhe Airong thing). In anorher few months, then quire [all, with few ani- Rongai area. Sdll together, they Plains (this year more than usu- however, when (we all hope) nlals around for the to are reporred recenrly ro have ally thick wirh livesrock) before she bears another liner, people hunt. Making a kill tinder these killed a duiker. A week earlier, returning to che Rhiio Ridge may srarc flocking ro see Kike conditions would cerrainly test they killed a young . area, benveen Governors Camp all over again. the skill and resolve of rhe They seem ro be doing xvell, and hfara Intrepids. by Paul Kbui, KPSGA-S grown, yet inexperienced cubs, now rhar there is more for thcrn Kike's sister, ensonced near - which - sensibly perhaps - CO ear. We are watching rheni rhe old Mara River airstrip and remained rogerher. with interest, to see what hap- the Aitong Plains, seems for For more on Kike, and other enigmatic Mara big cats, past The cubs got alniost as far pens once they roo decide to go now to have assumed Kike's as well as present, see pages as Keskorok before heading their separate ways. starring role. Her rhree cubs are 59 - 65.

I SWARA July - September 2004