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SPRING 2011 Billy Dodson Home to elephants, rhinos and more, African Heartlands are conservation landscapes large enough to sustain a diversity of species for centuries to come. In these landscapes— places like Kilimanjaro and Samburu—AWF and its partners are pioneering lasting conservation strategies that benefit wildlife and people alike. Inside THIS ISSUE cover Saving Rhinos in crisis — can we keep decades of progress from being overturned? the Rhino Peter Delaney/Nature’s Best Awards 2010 t is a devastating and unsustainable situation for any of the affected populations,” says “IPhilip Muruthi, Director of Conservation Science at AWF. “I didn’t think we would see these kinds of numbers ever again.” Muruthi is referring page 4 to the surge in illegal rhino killings that is occurring in southern and parts of East Africa. In Pictures are worth a thousand words — 2010, more than 300 rhinos were poached in South Africa alone. Across the continent and great pictures are worth even more. over the past five years, the number rises to 600, a statistic that reflects a new and worrisome increase in an old hunger. Rhinos have been hunted for thousands of years for their horn, which in some cultures is believed—incorrectly—to have medicinal value. In Africa, poaching gangs may get $200 or $300 for each horn, a fraction of the tens of thousands of dollars a single horn can fetch on the black market when it’s been ground up and mixed with other materials. It is demand page 7 in countries like Vietnam and China that is fueling the illegal rhino slayings in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and other African countries. New gorilla babies in the Virungas. This resurgence in poaching could be the tipping point in the long battle to save rhinos. Africa’s population of the two species has shrunk 92 percent since the 1960s, and for the continent’s estimated 4,275 black rhinos in particular, the current spate of poaching could mean that they disappear from the wild in a matter of years. The gains made by conservationists in recent times are suddenly being overturned. After decades of hard work and dedicated effort, the decline in the black rhino population was finally beginning to page 8 reverse, and by 2009 the species’ numbers had risen markedly from a low of 2,140 in 1995. The Indianapolis Zoo supports Africa’s lions. (continued on page 6) 2 African Wildlife News www.awf.org BOARD OF TRUSTEES Dennis J. Keller chair Myma Belo-Osagie Visit secretary awf.org/africancats Paul Campbell Payson Coleman to learn more about Lynn Dolnick “See ‘African Cats,’ Lisa Firestone Save the Savanna” Donald C. Graham Heather Haaga and how you can help Mona Hamilton conserve the Amboseli Christine Hemrick William E. James Wildlife Corridor. Adrian M. Jay William S. Kalema Walter H. Kansteiner III Rahim Khan Robert E. King Denise Koopmans Shana Laursen ©2011 Disney Enterprises, Inc. Victoria Leslie Ann K. Luskey James F. Makawa A Whirlwind Week Jimnah Mbaru Benjamin W. Mkapa want to thank everyone who took their News will not only Festus G. Mogae family and friends to see “African Cats,” inform but encourage Razan K. Al Mubarak Ithe latest Disneynature film in a stunning you to act. Only with Kristina Persson lineup about the natural world that has your support can Elizabeth Robertshaw included “Earth” and “Oceans.” Through AWF ensure the recent Stuart Scott a creative partnership titled, “See ‘African success in pulling the Aggie Skirball Cats,’ Save the Savanna,” Disneynature black rhino back from Thadeus Mulengeki Binamungu David Thomson Veronica Varekova made a donation to AWF on behalf of the the brink of extinction John R. Walter millions of moviegoers who saw the film will not be overturned. Richard W. Weening during opening week, April 22-28. (For In this issue we also profile a partnership Maria Wilhelm those who missed opening week, visit awf. with the Indianapolis Zoo that is benefiting org/africancats to learn more about the film trustees emeriti Africa’s lions and promoting conservation E.U. Curtis Bohlen and how you can help Africa’s great cats). more broadly. And I think you’ll enjoy the Joan Donner The funds are supporting AWF’s critically center spread, which features a selection of Leila S. Green important work to create and protect the John H. Heminway winners in the African Wildlife category of Amboseli Wildlife Corridor in southern the prestigious Nature’s Best Photography George C. Hixon Kenya. Henry P. McIntosh IV Windland Smith Rice International Awards. Sally Pingree As AWF’s CEO, I spend a lot of time AWF is the proud sponsor of this new Stuart T. Saunders, Jr. thinking about the threats facing Africa’s Nature’s Best category, which is designed Russell E. Train wildlife, so it was great to spend an afternoon to generate awareness and support for with friends seeing “African Cats,” a terrific conservation in Africa. story about two lion prides and a cheetah Enjoy all the great articles and photos WASHINGTON CENTER AFRICAN WILDLIFE FOUNDATION family in the Masai Mara — all while still 1400 16th Street, N.W. AWF Conservation Centre in this issue — they are a reflection of the Suite 120 Ngong Road, Karen benefiting our cause. I guarantee this terrific important work you are doing through AWF. Washington, D.C. 20036 P.O. Box 310, 00502 movie will both inspire and move you. 202-939-3333 Nairobi, Kenya Thank you for staying committed to our 202-939-3332 (fax) Tel: +254 20 2765000 The AWF-Disneynature partnership has 1-888-494-5354 Fax: +254 20 2765030 mission. email: [email protected] email: [email protected] understandably generated a lot of buzz; but there are other equally exciting developments unfolding across the Heartlands. AWF African Wildlife News is proud to be among the conservation is published four times a year. organizations that for 50 years has worked to Patrick J. Bergin, Ph.D. ©2011 African Wildlife Foundation protect the rhino, a species urgently in crisis, Chief Executive Officer Website: www.awf.org with hundreds of rhinos killed in the past CFC# 11219 year. This simply cannot continue. I hope the Printed with soy-based ink on recycled paper cover article in this issue of African Wildlife www.awf.org African Wildlife News 3 Elliott Neep/Nature’s Best Awards 2010 A ROAD NOT YET TAKEN? The Call to Save the Serengeti May Still Be Heard, But Time Is Running Out hat began with science-based opposition by AWF and Traffic volume estimates have also alarmed conservationists: other conservation groups has grown into a grassroots by 2015 more than 800 vehicles a day would travel the Serengeti Wmovement playing out across social media outlets and route; by 2035, that number would be 3,000 vehicles a day. The echoed by global influencers such as the World Bank, UNESCO, effects of the road could also reach far beyond the park’s borders. and most recently, the Government of Germany. This diverse “A reduction in the migration in the Serengeti would lead to impacts coalition of scientists and conservationists, economists and on the Masai Mara and bordering wildlife areas, with consequent development experts has coalesced around a singular message: the impacts on tourism and the Kenyan economy,” the report states. construction of a road through Serengeti National Park would “If you consider the sheer volume of traffic alone—separate gravely threaten the last great migration of hundreds of thousands of from the effects of construction activity and barriers like rails and wildebeest and erode one of the most pristine landscapes on earth. markers—it is impossible to conclude that there would be no It would also establish a damaging precedent that Africa’s ecological deleterious effects on the ecosystem, the wildlife, and the people who and wildlife assets hold little long-term economic value. rely on tourism for their livelihoods,” says AWF’s Director of Land Migration Detour Conservation, Kathleen Fitzgerald. Learning of the road proposal last June, AWF issued a formal letter In addition to pollution, habitat fragmentation, and the of opposition to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, setting forth introduction of invasive plants and disease vectors, vehicular a scientifically and commercially sound alternative plan. Although collisions and increased poaching would likely rout wildlife a small minority of commentators has argued that the ecological populations. Research and experience have also shown that the significance of the Serengeti ecosystem is being overstated, such physical barrier of roads and the added traffic and human intrusion statements have been easily refuted. Supporting over 2 million large they support inevitably put an end to large-scale wildlife migrations. ungulates, Serengeti National Park contains one of the last intact refuges for migratory wildlife on the planet and is home to one of A Dead End? the world’s largest lion populations. By some estimates, more than Insistence by the Tanzanian government that the road be built $500 million in tourism revenue and 200,000 jobs would be lost if has left some observers perplexed. Proposed alternative routes that the road is built through the park. circumvent the park would connect major cities, a goal touted by Tanzanian officials, without carrying environmental risk. And Claims that the environmental impact of the road would be while construction of one of the alternative roads would be more minimal have also been disproved. Indeed, an environmental impact expensive, the World Bank and others have offered to help finance assessment released by Tanzanian officials in February 2011 cites the an alternative southern route that would circumvent the park. increased risk of pollution from the effects of fuel, oil, and asphalt; greater likelihood of vehicular accidents and wildlife poaching, Despite the global call to abandon the Serengeti road proposal, especially of the mostly sedentary and endangered rhino; and issues the Tanzanian government has shown no signs of retreating from of water scarcity related to the road’s construction.

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