Category: In the News | Date: Jul 23 2008 | By: William

A great big thank you to David Mackenzie and Fabien Muhire who were here last week to cover our story for CNN. You can read about it here, watch it here, and comment over here on Anderson Cooper’s blog.

The story went out on Friday, and since then we’ve had almost $3,000 in donations which is going to help tremendously. Thank you to all of you who have donated so far.

As requested, today I sent an email out to the managers of camps and lodges who use the Mara Triangle with regards to their involvement in local conservation. Once we have more information we will share this with you.

For those in Nairobi next Friday, if I was there I would definitely be going to the opening night of Kwani Literature Festival with the brilliant Ugo and the first live performance of the outstanding Just a Band; browse their site and watch their videos now.

If anyone knows of a ride going from Mara to Nairobi, let me know.

9 responses so far

Category: In the News, Maasai Community | Date: Jun 27 2008 | By: William

After being in Nairobi and listening to the BBC piece on animal poisonings in Kenya I must say that I’m more than disappointed on the way that the story was reported.

First, let me say, that there is not one false fact within the piece, however there is a combination of stories that when woven together create a false impression of the local Maasai and their involvement of the poisoning of lions here in the Mara Triangle.

The overall story presented by the BBC was that pastoralists in Kenya are using carbofuran to poison wildlife in Kenya, and within that story the Mara Triangle is used for ‘human interest’ as lions were poisoned here recently, and because they were also able to talk to pastoralists who live along the Northern border of the park.

Yet the two are entirely unrelated. We have absolutely no evidence that incriminates or even suggests that local people were responsible for the poisoning of the lions.

There is a single disclaimer in the BBC piece which says that the use of poison in the Mara Triangle was through ‘accidental misuse of the poison’, but this does not make it clear that it was not the Maasai. I spoke to Adam Mynott on the phone yesterday and he argued that at the end of the piece they did interview a chap up on the escarpment who made it clear that he would not use poison to kill a lion, and so removing from the story any accusation towards the local population of the Mara:

On the edge of the Maasai Mara a young herdsman, Ndigwa, said he lost many cows every year to lions and leopards, but he said he would never resort to poison to take revenge on the predators.

Others do not hesitate.

Quoted from BBC website.

I tend to disagree with Adam. Who is implied by this vague ‘others’? There is a big difference in other Maasai of the same village, or just other pastoralists in Kenya.

The article is not inaccurate in its facts, but it is padded with generalities that associate local pastoralists of the Mara and the lion poisonings in the Mara Triangle. Especially when the piece is introduced as “Why are lions and leopards being deliberately poisoned in Kenya? From the Masai Mara game reserve, Adam Mynott reports..” 

It would take a discerning viewer or listener to disassociate the two stories from the tiny disclaimer that the poisoning was because of ‘accidental misuse.’ Here is the reaction by one of the commenters over at the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Blog:

“The report also included footage of lions close to death due to ingestion of this chemical, it was utterly sickening. It also interviewed a Masai farmer, but he obviously denied ever using or knowing of such a thing as Carbofuran. I’m disgusted, I truly am.” (emphasis mine)

I am worried about how this will affect the relationship between the Mara Conservancy and the local Maasai, who have not only been hospitable and open with all of the journalists who have visited the Triangle, but they have also been mostly patient throughout this crisis and, despite there not currently being a cattle compensation scheme in place, no predators have been killed in their area.

The story is about the poisoning of wildlife in Kenya as a whole and refers to many incidences of poisoning, and it is likely that in most of these other cases poison was used deliberately by pastoralists to kill animals. However, what do those people who live next to the park have to do with this apart from the fact that they are also pastoralists? Pastoralists who have suffered the problems associated with living among predators, and yet have worked with the Conservancy to protect these animals.

Ben Ramet, who is part of the Mara Triangle Maasai Village Association, and is from the village where the BBC did the interview, is currently in the UK and saw the pieces when they aired. He was surprised and dismayed to see fellow villagers included in such a story, especially as, dependent also on tourism, it has always been in their best interests to protect the wildlife.

The guys up on the escarpment have absolutely nothing to do with this story, and have been used by the BBC to give their story that bit of ‘extra colour’, the human interest to the piece.

Unfortunately the BBC are not the only ones, today I received a forwarded email from National Geographic who are currently fundraising to help pay for a cattle compensation scheme in Amboselli:

Just a few weeks ago, at least four lions in Kenya’s famed Maasai Mara National Reserve died after ingesting a powerful insecticide.  The Maasai are increasingly using poisons to kill the lions and it has become one of the greatest threats to their survival.

Nancy E. Rehman, Vice President, Development, National Geographic.

Although both sentences on their own are not untruths, placed together like this the impression is unquestionable.

I know it’s not a good story, and I know it doesn’t help with fundraising efforts, but I’m pleased to report that the Maasai are NOT poisoning lions in the Mara Triangle.

28 responses so far

Category: In the News | Date: Jun 10 2008 | By: William

Many thanks to Emily Meehan for her piece on Wired.com; Life, Death and Twitter on the African Savannah. It was great fun having Emily here at the beginning of last month, and the article is also a very enjoyable read.

After the article appeared online the number of people following Kimojino on Twitter rocketed, and then again some when Twitter featured Kimojino on their blog.

Thank you to all of the team at Twitter for your kind words, and also for your support - you helped save us a lot of time.

Last month we also enjoyed the company of Richard Lough who did a couple of radio pieces for Deutsch Welles. Thank you Richard for coming out to see us, it was great to have you here.

You can listen to Richard’s piece by clicking below, and also make sure you check out Richard’s Blog.

dw_kenya_mara_crisis.MP3

Also, before I forget, you can click below to listen to Richard Leakey’s interview about the Mara Triangle on National Geographic:

Leakey discusses Mara on Nat Geo.

Thank you also to BBC Online for covering our story, and also to BBC World, Radio BBC Glasgow and BBC Radio 5 who were all kind enough to do interviews when I was in the UK. Also thank you to the BBC team in Nairobi, Nawaz Shah & Adam Mynott, who came here twice to cover two stories -the collapse in tourism and the poisoning of the lions. The poisoning of the lions will come out in the UK on the 17th June, on BBC News at 6.

Also a great big thank you to the team from the German Channel ZDF, who also covered the story.

We would also like to thank all of the bloggers who have recently written about the Mara Triangle, your support is greatly appreciated. Thanks to Search Marketing Guru, Wandering the World, 120% New, The Charity Place, Problem Girl, A Californian Living Down South, Knowledge Cafe, Beyond 90 Seconds, Random, Nekonekoyashiki, Eye Dull Musings, Hans Watson, Esmon Net, Waving or Drowning, Itshee, Tuphat and losing it, jcsb, Lasagne and Chips, MGH Word of Mouth, Arikfr, Something Simple, Faster Future, Terrible Swift Word, GiroPais, Kenya Pundit, La maquina del tiempo, Sciblog, Much Todo About Nothing, Ethics and Animals, Cybersoc, Podnosh and Nothoney.

You’re all doing a great job in getting the story out to as many people as possible. Thanks again to each and every one of you.

Kimojino is still posting excellent photos over on Flickr. Click here.

Thank you everyone for all the great coverage, despite these efforts donations dropped last month to half what they normally are and to be honest, I can’t for the life of me work out why. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

And if anyone has a dollar spare that they want to put towards the rangers’ work in the Mara, please do! Thank you.

Interesting Links:

Emily’s Blog: African Heroes: stories of brave badasses

Richard’s Blog: Nairobi Notebook

Kimojino on Twitter: www.twitter.com/maratriangle You will also notice that these updates now appear in the sidebar, just under all the banners of Friends of the Mara.

7 responses so far

Category: Donations, In the News | Date: Apr 11 2008 | By: William

Open Donations:

Allison S. - $50; Anon - $25; Anon - $100; Anon - $200; Carol C. - $50; Carol T. - $100; Cheesemans’ Ecological Safaris - $1,000; Cornelius D. - $100; Cynthia N. - $100; Dominique S. - $50; Dorothy D. - $25; Eileen C. - $40; Howard H. - $150; Judith B. - $50; Judy B. - $100; Laurel R. - $75; Lisa R. - $20; Mary K. - $50; Megumi Y. - $30; Paula B. - $20; Paula M.- $100; Phyllis S. - $100; Robert M. - $25; Sheryl B. - $25; Stephanie M. - $100; William C. - $5,000; William M. - $100; World Wildlife Photos - $200;
Monthly Donations:

Kumiko Y. - $20; Miho H. - $100

Total for 1 - 7th April: $8,105

Please, if you have made a donation and you don’t see it on the list, get in touch: wdeed at wildlifedirect dot org

Thank you to Cheesemans’ Ecological Safaris who have sponsored ranger Joseph Ntiwuas, and also to William C., who heard of the Mara Triangle through Cheesemans’ and has donated $5,000; $2,000 of which is being used to sponsor rangers Johnson Leyian and Wilson Kamai.

Wilson Kamai in front of poached hippo meat on Wednesday.

Thank you also to every one of you who has donated. We are very worried about this month and so if you have any ideas or contacts who you think could help, please get in touch: wdeed at wildlifedirect dot org

A great big thank you to Dan, Robert and Radu for their article, and also the post that Dan did on Reuters blogs. Thank you also to anyone who may have read the article and has now come to the site for the first time, your interest is very welcome and please leave a comment if you have any questions or want to find out anything more about the Conservancy.

I’ve also just five minutes ago received the good news that our 12th ranger, Patrick Ngilai, is now fully sponsored. I will update the Sponsor a Ranger page shortly to show this.

Rangers from Ngiro-are and Serena Patrol Posts

3 responses so far

Category: Cattle Compensation, In the News | Date: Apr 07 2008 | By: William

Kimojino has gone to Kisii Town today, and so I thought it probably best if I updated you all on the meeting with the Maasai elders last Thursday, when we went up with the guys from Reuters.

Beginning of meeting.

I’m afraid I don’t speak any Maa, but it seemed to me that this meeting went a lot better than the one on Tuesday. There have been less cattle killed here than where we were before, and also the Reuters crew may have helped, but the meeting to me seemed far more calmer and I didn’t have a stick waved at me this time, not even once.

Kimojino translated most of the meeting for me and for Reuters; the elders said that they did understand that there was no money right now to compensate for cattle killed by lions and leopards, but that they were still suffering losses in cattle which they could not afford.

Kimojino talks to elders after the meeting.

Although they may have lost less cattle than the other village we met with, this particular village used to be frequently visited by tourists who would come for a cultural visit, and so they have also seen great losses of income in this way since the collapse of tourism in January.

After the meeting we took the team from Reuters to the village we visited on Tuesday, to interview the Mzee who had lost the most cattle.

Ben Nechalla translates interview between Mzee and Reuters

The elders seemed a lot happier to see us this time, especially as we had come with Reuters. They said that they now see that the Mara Conservancy are doing what they can to help, and are grateful for the interest shown by outsiders.

Reuters film elders.

The following day, on Friday, I took Reuters to visit the rangers at Ngiro-are outpost, where we went with rangers on patrol; this is the patrol post that is on the border of Tanzania and is where there is a high concentration of poachers, it is also where cattle rustlers pass on the way to and from Tanzania, and you can see bullet holes in the main gate where once rustlers tried to stop rangers from leaving the compound.

Sargent Olarikoni being interviewed

The story will cover all angles of our plight and the wide reaching affects of the post-election violence in Kenya, which we have experienced here and around Mara Triangle. Tourists are not expected to come back for at least two months and, as you all know, we are dependent on a percentage of park entrance fees to manage the Triangle, and are using this blog as a way to raise funds for critical park operations.

This month we are also looking for the money to pay the salaries of rangers, and so we hope that very soon more people from around the world will be able to offer their support - Reuters have said that the piece, both in television and in print, should be out some time this week.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you from all of us here, to Dan, Radu and Robert for taking the time to come and cover the story, it was truly a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you also to all our supporters, we wouldn’t have made it this far without you.

8 responses so far