Periyar Tiger Reserve.
A Trendsetter in Converting Poachers to Protectors
Themes: Conservation, Poverty, Poaching, NGOs, Indigenous people, Parks
Then a range forest officer with Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Kerala, Raju K. Francis still remembers that distant afternoon in 1994, when he arrested elusive forest brigand Aruvi from a hideout near an ancient cave in Theni district of Tamil Nadu, where local gangs used to hide smuggled sandalwood. Aruvi was the leader of a 23-member team of wildlife poachers and sandalwood smugglers operating from K.G. Patti, Varusanadu and Lower Gudalur regions of Theni, which were around 20 kilometres from PTR.
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Mar 10, 2020
Cornered by PAs:
Adopting rights-based approaches to enable cost-effective conservation and climate action
Themes: CBD, Conservation, Indigenous people, Parks, Poverty
Progress on many commitments made in past decades to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples in conservation is too limited.
Rights violations affect IPs culture, well-being, livelihoods, and security without evidence of resulting conservation outcomes. Protected Areas Financing is limited and heavily public spending, not support of Indigenous and community conservation. Regular global monitoring of progress and access to grievance are key to accelerate progress or secure conservation outcomes.
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Mar 10, 2020
Poaching and the problem with conservation in Africa (commentary).
Across Africa, state-led anti-poaching forces, no matter how well funded and equipped, have been unable to curtail the high levels of poaching currently observed.
Themes: Conservation, Parks, Poaching,
Poaching is a complex topic that cannot be solved by myopic, top-down enforcement approaches. Crime syndicates may be fuelling the poaching of elephant and rhino but they are not the source of the problem. Rather than treat the symptoms by spending millions on weapons and anti-poaching forces, which experience has repeatedly shown does not stop poaching, there is a need to understand the underlying causes of the poaching problem if it is to be solved.
Devolving power and benefits to local communities will enable local communities to acquire full responsibility for anti-poaching operations, which they are much better positioned to do than external agencies who do not have the social networks and local knowledge needed to effectively perform oversight functions in the local area. As witnessed in the Luangwa Valley and Namibian conservancies, there is every likelihood that there will be a significant decline in poaching once community conservation is properly implemented.
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Mar 09, 2020
Armed ecoguards funded by WWF 'beat up Congo tribes people'.
Exclusive: Inquiry into $21.4m conservation project reports ‘credible’ evidence of abuse.
Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, Human rights, Parks, UNDP, Poverty
Armed ecoguards partly funded by the conservation group WWF to protect wildlife in the Republic of the Congo beat up and intimidated hundreds of Baka pygmies living deep in the rainforests, an investigation into a landmark global conservation project has heard.
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Feb 10, 2020
The Masoka Community in Zimbabwe speak out.
The Masoka community, on behalf of communities in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, add their voices to the current global media debate on trophy hunting and sustainable use.
Themes: Conservation, NGOs
This is a letter that adds the voices of rural communities to the current global debate on trophy hunting. This letter is informed by those who live with wildlife and who are concerned that their livelihoods are protected and their rights upheld. These voices are rarely heard but they are vital to any healthy debate about conservation.
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Jan 23, 2020
Perfidious Albion
Moves by the United Kingdom to Ban the Import of Hunting Trophies - An Analysis by Rowan B. Martin.
Themes: Conservation, Policy, NGOs
This document reviews a debate which took place at Westminster Hall in the UK Houses of Parliament on the 2nd October 2019 in which the advocacy by Animal Rights parliamentary members was extreme. In this document I challenge some of the misinformation that was prevalent. Much of the ill-informed debate was taken up with trophy hunting of lions while ignoring the social, ecological and economic realities of the rural population and their resource base in Africa.. Zac Goldsmith (Minister for DIFD (Department for International Development) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) has initiated a ‘consultative process’ which closes on the 25th January 2020. This paper will be submitted to the Committee responsible for the consultations.
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Jan 07, 2020
Thailand's disappeared Karen activist.
Billy and the burned village.
Themes: Human rights, Poverty, Parks, Indigenous people
An oil barrel discovered at the bottom of a reservoir in a nature reserve in Thailand in April 2019 has cast a light on a story some would rather stayed hidden. It is a tale of powerful men and the lengths they will allegedly go to keep their crimes covered up. But it is also the story of one woman's determination to get justice for the man she loved and the community he was fighting for.
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Jan 04, 2020
Why are people killed for protecting their natural lands?
Stories from Colombia, Indonesia and India
Themes: Indigenous people, Conservation, Human rights
“Each year sets a new record for the murder of people defending their lands and the environment,” says Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples. “And thousands more are victims of violence or criminalization.”
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Dec 31, 2019
