AFRICAN WILDLIFE News SPRING 2020

Page 3 New Study on Elephants THE BENEFITS & Carbon-Storing Forests

Page 5 OF HEALTHY Fighting to End the Illegal Wildlife Trade in Ethiopia

LION POPULATIONS Page 6 Read story on page 4 A Lodge Helping to Save Rwanda’s Gentle Giants

YOUR SUPPORT AT WORK ACROSS AFRICA’S LANDSCAPES THE PRAGMATIC ELEPHANTS HELP SHAPE

CONSERVATION Miller Bruce CARBON-STORING FORESTS ARGUMENT Lending new insight into the complex releasing oxygen. They act as a natural interdependencies of rainforest “carbon sink,” performing a vital Our mission is to ensure wildlife and ecosystems, researchers have found that ecosystem service and slowing the rate of wild lands thrive in modern Africa. elephants help forests store carbon. climate change. Dear AWF Friends, AWF SENIOR STAFF Kaddu Sebunya The discussions and the debate about conservation in Africa The researchers modeled the effects of The study was led by Stephen Blake of Chief Executive Officer encompass ideals, values, and even moral beliefs, but there forest-elephant extinction and found that, Saint Louis University and published in Richard Holly without elephants, western and central Nature Geoscience. “The simulation found Chief Financial Officer are also pragmatic considerations such as the benefits that ecosystems provide. We can’t survive without the water or African rainforests would have much less that the slow-growing plant species Craig Sholley Senior Vice President food security that healthy ecosystems support, without the aboveground biomass. This deficit would survive better when elephants are present,” Eric Coppenger plants and fungi that give us life-saving medicines, the trees lead to the release of billions of tons more Blake said. “These species aren’t eaten Vice President, International that sequester carbon, their roots that keep our soil intact. carbon into the atmosphere. by elephants and, over time, the forest Policy & Government Relations becomes dominated by these slow-growing Charly Facheux Vice President, Conservation Strategy, Ecosystems also support sustainable livelihoods, especially The researchers say that when elephants species. Wood (lignin) has a carbon Knowledge Management & Impact tourism-based enterprises, that are aligned with many are gone, smaller, fast-growing tree species backbone, meaning it has a large number of Lindsay Hance Kosnik Africans’ dreams of continued progress on the continent thrive. But when elephants are around to carbon molecules in it. Vice President, Development feed on these trees, larger trees with high- & Public Engagement without a sacrifice of biodiversity. density wood are more prevalent. These “Slow-growing high wood density species Brian McBrearity Vice President, Technology & Innovation In this newsletter, you’ll see a few of the many ways in which wildlife support ecosystem slower-growing trees are better at contain more carbon molecules per unit services. Research shows that elephants shape forests in a way that aids carbon Philip Muruthi storing carbon. volume than fast-growing low wood Vice President, Conservation sequestration, and a recent report details how lions, as critical apex predators, keep density species. As the elephants thin the Science & Planning landscapes healthy and productive. The elephants represent a carbon storage forest, they increase the number of slow- service of $43 billion, the researchers said. growing trees, and the forest is capable of EDITORIAL STAFF But, as you know, the endangered species that help sustain our life-giving landscapes are Trees take in carbon dioxide from the storing more carbon.” David Onate under threat. Habitat destruction, poaching, human encroachment on protected areas, Director, Marketing & Creative atmosphere and use it in photosynthesis, human-wildlife conflict — all put Africa’s wildlife at serious risk. Jacqueline Conciatore Writer & Editorial Manager While conservation in Africa requires global participation, it ultimately depends on Laurie Channer Print Marketing Manager Africa itself. This means drawing on the cultural value that elephants, lions, and other wildlife have in African society and building consensus about the importance of species’

Jim Louden Billy Dodson Design & Digital Development Manager survival. Success depends on people, governments, and industry recognizing that Global body CITES Sonia Ebong conservation imperatives are not just about the innate worth of species and wild lands, Design Assistant but also about a range of other values that are at risk. Rebecca Wesloh approves first-ever Print Marketing Associate Africa’s economic development and conservation are convergent, not conflicting goals. It Contributors giraffe protections Peter Chira, Harleen Sehmi is a misleading dilemma, supposing that wildlife and wild landscapes must be sacrificed for the continent to modernize and maintain its economic growth. The challenge is, how Threats such as habitat loss and poaching Scientists are calling KENYA - HEADQUARTERS do we align today’s development goals and blueprints and marshal the various interests jeopardize the future of Africa’s giraffes. giraffe population Ngong Road, Karen they represent to ensure wildlife has a robust future in modern Africa? P.O. Box 310, 00502 Late last summer, member nations of trends a “silent Nairobi CITES (the Convention on International extinction” occurring Phone +254 (0) 711 063000 AWF is tackling this challenge. But ultimately the commitment must come from a Fax +254 20 2765030 multitude of stakeholders — governments, industry leaders, the private sector, and civil Trade in Endangered Species) transferred right under our noses. society — all working with groups like ours. all nine subspecies of giraffe to Appendix Africa has lost 40 UNITED STATES II, which means that trade in giraffe percent of its giraffe 1100 New Jersey Avenue SE, Ste. 900 I urge everyone to raise their voices for a green, sustainable, creatively inclusive future. hides and other parts will be regulated herd in three decades and now has a Washington, DC 20003 Let’s demand and fight for a vision of the possible — for yourself and the great for the first time. It should now be much total population of less than 100,000. AWF GLOSSARY Toll Free +1 888 494 5354 Phone +1 202 939 3333 continent of Africa. harder for countries to import or export Fax +1 202 939 3332 giraffe products. “We note that, compared to other species, range state giraffe conservation and management [email protected] Sincerely, The proposal to start regulating giraffe is relatively poorly understood,” said \ rānj stāt\ trade received overwhelming support Philip Muruthi, AWF’s vice president for African Wildlife News is published quarterly. A country in which any given © 2020 African Wildlife Foundation from CITES Parties gathered in Geneva, species conservation and science, and Switzerland. It was put forward by the leader of AWF’s delegation to CITES. He species lives, or through which

Front cover photo: Andy Rouse Central African Republic, Chad, Kenya, urged giraffe range states to strengthen it travels as part of its normal Kaddu Sebunya Mali, Niger, and Senegal, who argued protection efforts and to learn from the migration. Kenya is a giraffe Chief Executive Officer that all nine subspecies of giraffes must experiences of Angola and South Africa, range state, for example. be protected to counter the species’ fast- which have managed to increase their plummeting numbers. giraffe numbers.

2 AFRICAN WILDLIFE News | SPRING 2020 WWW.AWF.ORG 3 AWF ROUNDUP

HEALTHY LION IN ETHIOPIA, FIGHTING TO END POPULATIONS VonHoffmann Barbara THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE Over the last several decades, traffickers AWF will provide training and equipment PROVIDE have steadily robbed Ethiopia of its to support officers, prosecutors, and judges wildlife heritage. Where tens of thousands in wildlife crime detection, investigation, SIGNIFICANT of elephants used to range throughout prosecution, and sentencing. The goal is Ethiopia, save in the remotest highlands, to ensure traffickers face penalties that BENEFITS today elephants occur only in a few match the seriousness of their crimes. A GOOD PARTNER FOR areas and number 1,500 or less. This We also will train customs and security AWF'S CANINES FOR decline represents a 90 percent loss of the officers in contraband detection and CONSERVATION One of Africa's most iconic country’s elephants. concealment techniques. Royal Canin recently donated 36,000 species represents a range of euros’ worth of food to AWF's Canines Addis Ababa Bole International Airport The canines project involves selecting for Conservation program. A healthy diet life-giving ecosystem services. is a transit point for much of the illicit handlers from the Ethiopian Wildlife is essential for our detection dogs, who cargo leaving Ethiopia. In recent years Conservation Authority (EWCA), training

Paul Runze Paul perform a critical task: sniffing thousands authorities have arrested hundreds of them at our canine center in Tanzania, and A new report supported by AWF and And yet, lions are in trouble. Africa's of pieces of luggage and tons of cargo for individuals smuggling ivory and other helping EWCA establish the unit at Bole. others details the valuable ecosystem populations have declined by half in 20 smuggled wildlife goods such as ivory and contraband to China. AWF has Africa’s leading canine detection services provided by "lionscapes," or years. Threats include habitat loss, human- rhino horns. With their powerful noses, our program, with highly skilled dog-and- landscapes in which lions thrive as apex wildlife conflict (as people kill lions that dogs can sniff out even the tiniest amounts In 2019 the US State Department’s handler teams and a culture of care for predators. Lionscapes offer a larger than attack their livestock), and poaching — of hidden contraband. Also critical to the Bureau of International Narcotics and the dogs. Deployed and maintained in average share of: including hunting for a growing lion-bone fight are the program’s tracker dogs, who Law Enforcement awarded AWF funds partnership with wildlife authorities, our trade driven by demand for traditional- track down offenders from kill sites and for fighting the illegal wildlife trade in canine units not only help nab smugglers — direct benefits such as water and medicine products in Asia. other crime scenes. Ethiopia. The project has two emphases: they also serve as deterrents. food security to strengthen wildlife law enforcement/ "Lions will not survive the 21st century on prosecution and to intensify screening at supporting services such as goodwill alone," said AWF CEO Kaddu Bole via a Canines for Conservation unit. photosynthesis, soil formation, Sebunya in the report's foreword. The

and nutrient cycling status quo, which affords lions some Kim Wolhuter protection as a center of wildlife tourism, regulating services such as soil stability obviously will not save the lion either, and carbon storage he said. Instead, the survival of big cats "depends on Africa itself," he said. Wildlife Watch: HYENA cultural value in the recreational, "This means drawing on the huge historical, aesthetic, and even cultural value that lions have in The hyena is Africa’s most common large carnivore, spiritual realms African society to build consensus known for its distinctive appearance, vocalizations, about the importance of their 370,460 The lion is an indicator species: Those survival in the wild." and strong jaws AWF supporters’ online actions in healthy populations often correlate for wildlife and wild lands in 2019. Did you know hyenas are not dogs? They are members of their own to healthy landscapes, which typically Numerous conservation See back cover for information family, Hyaenidae, but belong to the Feliformia suborder of the order provide a range of benefits not only to organizations contributed to from direct kills. They’re not picky and will hunt animals large and about one of our recent Carnivora, making them more closely related to cats than dogs. human communities but to other species the report, produced by the Lion small, aided by their superb hearing and night vision. Known as “bone campaigns on behalf of lions. of flora and fauna. Healthy landscapes Recovery Fund and titled The New crushers,” hyenas’ bite force is among the highest among mammals. Hyenas are the most common large carnivore in Africa and are found maintain essential water sources, support Lion Economy. Their scat has such a high calcium content that it is chalky white. throughout the continent. Adaptable creatures, they live in a wide food security, mitigate climate change, variety of habitats: grasslands, woodlands, open savannas, forest edges, and create resilience to flooding and other AWF's work on behalf of lions is as varied In Manyara and Kenya's LUMO The leading threats to hyenas are human-wildlife conflict and habitat deserts, and even low mountain ranges. They live in large clans (up to 80 weather-related events. as the landscapes in which lions are Conservancy, we have worked with loss. Farmers will kill hyenas, often through poisoning, for preying on individuals), which have a strict social hierarchy — females rank higher found. In the Manyara-Tarangire communities to protect livestock from livestock. And hyena habitat is shrinking due to agriculture expansion, than males, and an alpha female dominates each clan. As one of the "big five" iconic mammals landscape in northeastern Tanzania, lion attacks through predator-proof, human settlement, and infrastructure development. in African cultures and throughout the AWF tracks the status and movements metal, portable corrals known as bomas. Hyena subspecies include the spotted, striped, and brown hyenas. (The world, lions also are a significant draw for of radio-collared lions to understand In tandem with community outreach to What we do for the hyena: AWF’s Large Carnivore Project mitigates smaller, insect-eating aardwolf is also in the family Hyaenidae.) Spotted tourists. The lionscapes report cites a their needs better, monitor their health sensitize communities to lions as critical human-wildlife conflict by working with communities to construct hyenas are the most common and largest, and the only ones that make study that estimated that each lion in and welfare, and intervene if lions to healthy landscapes, these efforts predator-proof bomas (livestock enclosures) that protect livestock. the famous “laughing” vocalizations. They “laugh” to alert their clan Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park approach human settlements. are changing minds and helping shift Throughout Africa, we support holistic conservation solutions such as to a fresh kill or food source — a sound that can be heard up to five generates close to $19,000 annually in historical narratives about lions. community land-use planning and sustainable agriculture practices that kilometers away. Spotted, striped, and brown hyenas do scavenge, but tourism revenue. help maintain all-important habitat and wildlife corridors. they are fearsome hunters, and about 70 percent of their diet comes

4 AFRICAN WILDLIFE News | SPRING 2020 WWW.AWF.ORG 5 A LODGE THAT HAS HELPED SAVE RWANDA’S GENTLE GIANTS Anna Behm Masozera Governors Camp Governors

to experience mountain gorillas up close in in the early 1990s have been forced to banks, two of which SACOLA helped the Virunga’s Volcanoes National Park. In exploit natural resources for subsistence. construct. total, the permits were worth $19.2 million. With income from the SACOLA trust, the economic pressures to clear forest for The ultimate goal is to restore the

Annie Katz Sabyinyo Silverback, which hosts many small farms or to hunt bushmeat for local resilience of a critical ecosystem and get such trekkers, celebrated its tenth markets are lessening. a community back on its feet. Apart from anniversary in 2018. Developed by AWF supporting an electrification program and and partners, the world-class lodge was SACOLA helped create two villages for the building a water supply system that serves Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge has been built to support gorilla conservation area’s most marginalized people, including thousands, SACOLA subsidizes school while improving the lives of local genocide survivors, providing new housing fees so more children can get an education. community members. to allow them to reintegrate into the It also recently purchased land for a new central to a community's renewal wider community on a better footing. So technical school to train community Governor’s Camp Collection operates far, SACOLA has constructed 44 houses members in conservation-friendly Though they live in protected areas, has hosted an annual “Kwita Izina” population surpassing 1,000 individuals. the lodge, but it is owned by the Sabyinyo and donated cows to families with the livelihoods. The trust has also provided mountain gorillas were until quite recently celebration in which newborn gorillas are The enterprises that contribute to this Community Livelihoods Association (or greatest needs. Lodge guests, inspired by capital investment to local pig and sheep on the edge of extinction. In the early formally named. Every September, tens of conservation success include Sabyinyo SACOLA), which is comprised of people the relationship between ecotourism and businesses, in addition to donating over 1980s, at their lowest point, they numbered thousands gather in Kinigi town, where Silverback Lodge. from surrounding communities. Through community development, often volunteer 100 animals outright. perhaps 550. But they’ve rallied, thanks in Mt. Sabyinyo forms a majestic backdrop, the SACOLA trust, Sabyinyo Silverback to provide funds for cows after visiting part to an important ally: Rwanda. to celebrate the gentle giant’s return from Lodge has delivered over $3.3 million in the community. With revenues from the Sabyinyo the brink. A BIG DRAW revenue since 2006. Silverback Lodge, the SACOLA trust will The east African country has made Mountain gorillas help to drive Rwanda’s Without the burden of rent, new continue to diversify sustainable livelihood mountain gorillas the centerpiece of Today, mountain gorilla numbers are economy and also generate revenues for Over the years, SACOLA has reached homeowners can invest their money opportunities for community members a thriving tourism economy, and the on the rise, with populations in one their own conservation. In 2018 alone, the more than 5,800 households in villages collectively through savings & credit that, in turn, remove the burden from the Rwandan people take conservation of their primary habitats, the Virunga Rwandan government issued more than outside Volcanoes. Many people displaced cooperatives administered by community park's natural resources and its iconic seriously. Since 2005, the government mountains, at over 600, and the total 15,000 trekking permits to tourists looking by the impacts of the Rwandan genocide mountain gorillas.

AFRICAN WILDLIFE News | 6 AFRICAN WILDLIFE News | SPRING SPRING 2020 2020 WWW.AWF.ORG 7 Asia there’s a growing market for lion bones and other products. I have spent 25 years As the number of tigers left in the wild dwindles, talking in circles with lions have become the next target. They’re being “ slaughtered for their bones, claws, and teeth. Only politicians, trying to to be turned into jewelry, traditional medicine, explain the complexities even bone wine, which is believed to have health of our poaching war. benefits. Between 2013-2018, about 150 lion Now, I can show them claws and teeth were taken from South Africa to Sides of a Horn, and Vietnam and China in legal exports — sadly, the number of illegal exports is thought to be even 17 minutes later, we are higher. In November 2018, over just 48 hours, 40 having a productive STAND UP FOR LIONS! lions were killed by poachers from Vietnam. conversation. That is the power of this film. Over the past two decades, the number of lions in The slaughter needs to stop. Stand up for lions Africa has dropped by 43 percent. Estimates place – Kaddu Sebunya, speaking to and sign AWF’s petition telling Vietnam that the number left at fewer than 25,000 individuals. deadline.com about the film, Sides wildlife laws must be enforced and the killing of of a Horn, which was made by AWF The situation is dire; habitat loss and human- Council Member Toby Wossko lions in the wild must end: wildlife conflict continually push lion numbers lower. But a new threat is mounting and silencing secure.awf.org/tell-vietnam-to-stand-up-for-lions Learn more at rhinomovie.com lions’ roars: In Vietnam, China, and southeast

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