Our Wild World

It’s the Big Six: Wildlife, People, Conflict, Ivory trafficking, transnational crime and climate change. How do you protect one of the oldest migration routes of one of the rarest elephants and some of the oldest cultures caught in the crosshairs of all this? Meet Rory Young and Chengeta Wildlfe, helping the communities whose history and future is entwined in living with the Desert elephants of Mali, as they make their 3000 mile circular trek around Timbuktu that has existed in an exquisite dance of survival for centuries. The speeded up human world and global pressures has dramatically affected the traditional cultures who live alongside these elephants and these corridors have become a locus for transnational crime, ethnic wars, and political agendas and extremism from all sides in extreme conditions. The evolution of the world has changed, and conservation models must also adapt and evolve, and our worldview evolve, adapt and take action.

In today’s globalized world little now stays local- from tourists to terrorists – can reach almost anywhere. From headlines of S. Africa ruling for rhino horn trade, to recent reports of thieves breaking into a French zoo and into a South African rhino orphanage to kill captive rhinos for their horns. may suggest a renewed surge in demand for rhino horn and similarly, the killing of a famous bull elephant in Kenya has depressed wildlife advocates. Although appalling incidents, there are many positive signs in the fight against poaching, trafficking and consumption of wildlife products, a massive shift in attitudes among governments, transnational law enforcement, and people, in favor of reducing the demand and closing the illegal wildlife trade markets.. Today WildAid Exec. Director Peter Knights, Hong Hoang, WildAid Vietnam and Alex Hofford, WildAid Hong Kong, highlight just how massive these shifts are as we attempt a prognosis for the future, and the solutions at hand.

My guest Ashwell Glasson and I take a deep look into the disturbing headlines that South Africa has legalized trade in rhino horn. Today we delve deeply into variety of perspectives- from financial value to market value; industrialized farming to conservation-and how we will choose to translate ‘value’ of wildlife, and all life, beyond human desires and the dollar, into a belief system in support of critical earth functions and her inhabitants as a whole greater than sums of parts. The ruling to open trade in rhino horn has created deep grey areas, from incomplete guidelines to law enforcement to legal parameters of how trade would commence, to our human consciousness. We have just upped the ante and pressure of rhino’s survival in the wild and their conservation champions, for whom ‘value’ is based upon rhino’s role in keeping ecosystems functioning and healthy for- for us and the numerous other species that depend upon them.

As we’ve been discussing over a long period of time, conservation models must change. We’ll be spending several episode highlighting just how this is happening on the ground and the new faces and people that are coming up the ranks, picking up the torch from the old guard and adding the new components, skill sets and tools that are required in a very changed landscape- from climate shifts to shifta, terrorism, and transnational wildlife criminal gangs. My guest today is Nigel Kuhn, who you’ll remember from WildiZe’s Observer Team at CITES CoP17. Nigel brings us an understanding of not only what it’s like to have grown up during some of Zimbabwe’s most troubling times, but what it’s going to take, and the people who are picking up the front lines of Conservation 2.0 World Version update, across the African continent and the world as a global community.

Today’s conversation with my guest Ashwell Glasson gives provides us with a view of the scale and scope of the challenges we are facing in securing biodiversity. What is being called for is an overhaul of the current models and mindsets driving conservation efforts in global landscapes under multiple pressures, including transnational wildlife crime at unprecedented levels. For the sake of frame of reference, our discussion is focused around rhino conservation as it holds markers of all that is changing and is at stake. The conversation takes multiple twists and turns as we unravel layers and identify the players toward new world vision that can redefine the benchmark of health and wealth in passing the torch to new generations. Rather than a revision of what doesn’t work; solutions that resonate and engender cross-cultural participation at all levels of society, augmented with new tool kits and skill sets for an holistic–earth one-health operating system.

Right now rhino are at the razor edge of existence on Earth. Since the CITES CoP17 decision of ‘No Trade”, South Africa has hit the headlines big time with the announcement by the Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa publishing her notice of intention to amend the Invasive Species List, to delisting of Diceros bicomis michaelii (Eastern black rhinoceros) from the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act of 2004; and The Protected Species in of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act of 2004. My guest today, Loraine Liebenberg of Save Our Rhino, lay open a scathing indictment of what is happening at the highest levels across the board of the sub-context that surrounds rhino conservation and rhino horn trade in contemporary South Africa in a world that is politically charged globally, at the height hard fought success, there is a reverse trend down a path that seeks to put a price on everything

Extinction Countdown: RHINO A Round Table Discussion CITES CoP17 ran high with emotions, politics and decisions of magnitude. Yes or No vote to legalize or ban trade in rhino horn. Pro and anti- trade stakeholders of politicians, breeders, conservationists, scientists, and NGOs riding on the decision. “No Trade”. Now, just four months on, the South African Dept. of Environmental Affairs Minister, Edna Molewa formally announces intention to delist S.A’s Eastern Black Rhino, ostensibly to open up a legal trade in horn. Today’s round-table discussion is right on the crosshairs of our history: Witnessing CITES play while the clock counts down to extinction of the species in the wild. My guests Lorinda Hern, Rhino Rescue Project innovators of horn infusion; Loraine Liebenberg, Save Our Rhino the first and largest comprehensive rhino social media hub; journalist Jamie Joseph Saving the Wild on corruption, politics, power and crime impacts the legal justice system; and Damien Mander, IAPF

A critical component of any discussion in wildlife trade that is glaringly missing from major decision making processes such as CITES, is the real-world understanding wildlife markets and pricing. My guest, economist Alejandro Nadal, leads us into deep research on the shifting connections between macroeconomics and the environment, working toward new models reaching crucial objectives of trade in wildlife and endangered species: This concerns the survival of the entire biosphere, including us. With so much at stake, these vital connections have so far received little attention by both the academic and policy-making communities. Major transformations are required in economic structures and policy recommendations, in conjunction with deep and sweeping economy-wide reforms and shifts. The elephant is standing in the room, with ‘Macroeconomic Policies’ stamped on its forehead- while to our detriment and peril, we continue spending billions ignoring it.

“For the worst possible reasons, elephants and rhinoceroses are front-page news today, the poster children for the worst excesses of organized wildlife crime. The present crisis is the outcome of some 40 years of history, some of it acted out in nature and some at international meetings where the rules defining the fate of species are endlessly fought over.” What has changed dramatically is the landscape of highly organized crime, of which the sole purpose is economics: get rich. When at the CITES level, focus is brought to the true costs of illegal trade and wildlife crime, we do have, in place, through CITES, a binding international system and mechanisms to buttress participatory working groups, creating solutions and enforcing them. And this is where we, through our member nations laws and the work of public NGOs, to reflect changes in the overarching the landscape relevant to our times.

The recent trend is that CITES is outdated, that it has no teeth, that the very trade in endangered and threatened species is causing them to slip toward extinction. On the face of it that would seem a compelling argument., WildiZe Observers had the opportunity roam the halls, and like many others; we came away with more questions than answers. I felt it imperative to better understand CITES from those more knowledgeable than myself. Dr. Ronald Orenstein is a highly involved participant and Observer at CITES since 1987, a member of Board of Directors of the Species Survival Network (SSN), the Elephant Research Foundation (ERF), author and prolific writer- So who better to ask? Today we start from the beginning as Ron guides us through the layers, intricacies and inner workings of CITES in ariveting, in-depth conversation about What is CITES? What makes it unique? Does it provide a framework for the future? And provide some clarity and answers.

Trade in endangered species is about money and politics, and everything can be had for a price. Is the ultimate price the loss of the very definition of ‘wildness’ when trade models based on privatized farming and domestication of the wild? When the poaching of wildlife happens inside the private fences and the breeders have blatantly stated that conservation is not their goal? Can breeders credibly cry wolf and animal cruelty when the value of the animal is only tallied upon its worth as a carcass or its parts? We’re now seeing in earnest both the expected and the unexpected acid fallout and backlash of CITES resolutions and the interests at heart in predator breeding facilities. The way it’s going so far, once again, it seems money will win the day as politics and trade negotiations put our earth and its living biosphere on the table to the highest bidders and the depth of what is wildness becomes sidelined.

There is a huge market in South Africa for dead or soon to become dead lions, from an industry where the value in these spectacular creatures lies in their demise: What they will look like as trophies on the wall, a mats on the floor, or their carcass for the bones. We’ve discussed the canned lion industry from all sides except one: The lions themselves. Today with my guest Andi Rive we talk about the lions she has rescued from the breeding industry, because for her, their value is in the fact that they are vital living beings with character and personality and deserve a life of dignity, living as free as possible within captivity, and further, to die naturally. Love Lions Alive is a project aimed at creating awareness and an appreciation for live lions, and an opportunity for our listeners to contribute toward the fulfillment of individual lion’s life, to thrive, and create relationships amongst themselves. lovelionsaliveproject.com

As the dust just begins to settle from CITES, the veil lifts and the shock waves of the decisions ripple across the world- through the conservation communities and the ‘industry’. The other side altruism is business, and philanthropy and conservation today has become very big business indeed, when model base is ‘utilization’, ‘consumptive’ and a flip definition of ‘sustainable use’. There is a disturbing trend with far reaching consequences when wild life becomes, as my guest Chris Mercer calls it, Alternative Livestock. Domestication of once wild animals as commodity, spin it into something appealing and call it conservation. The general public is being misled. In shiny halls and cafes back room deals political favor and alliances are being made, and at this level it’s about trade, and trade is about money. New boundaries are being crossed, losses expanding, and the last frontier, wild life, is under siege.

With the CITES CoP17 trade resolutions voted upon, now it’s time to look that the ramifications of conservation by committee based upon the utilization model pressure of supply vs demand. With my guests Dex Kotze we can a real world idea of actual numbers, how many real world animals it takes to provide for an ever increasing demand in a legalized trade and the arguments that a legal trade can out compete an illegal trade. Pippa Hankison, the force behind Blood Lions, the film that blew the lid of the Canned Hunting Industry and Trade, the effects, fate and future of farmed ‘wild’ life that lurk in the dark corners of unmonitored, unregulated, legal and illegal trade –the loss for lions out of CoP17 is the epitome of breaking down the value of the whole of nature into commoditized parts, available to the highest bidder. No matter how much we sell, nature cannot fulfill the demands of an ever increasing human population.

br Today we are back on the trail of the canned lion breeding with guests Drew Abrahamson and Paul Tully of Captured In Africa, who’s mission is to bring awareness through safari, the tourism sector and through schools, of canned lion industry and its spin-offs of urban 'lion safari parks', the cub-petting and lion walking 'parks' which on the whole are a cover for the insidious canned hunting of lions who’s sole purpose on earth is to raise profits to breed more lions for the trophy hunting industry which insidiously feeds the illegal markets in lion bone trade and trafficking. Drew and Paul take us through the chain of events of captive lions vs. 'reserves' in a country where wildlife is completely fenced in, and the campaigns and advocacy work in educating 'voluntourists' and school children toward advocacy for Africa’s dwindling wild lion populations.

Wildlife and the environment are the silent victims of any land in turmoil. With my guest Lisa Hywood, The Tikki Hywood Trust, we discuss the plight of the pangolin, and what Zimbabweans and the world, are doing about it. Over the past 15 years, little remains of Zimbabwe untouched by man. Socio–political upheaval, coupled with economic distress have contributed to the plunder and decimation of this natural heritage. Human need and greed has surpassed the capacity of the country to give, resulting in the suffering of both the environment and its inhabitants. As a nation, Zimbabweans need to react quickly and decisively to preserve what’s left. The Tikki Hywood Trust and stakeholders have joined forces to plan and implement solutions and protection of the environment and wildlife via strategic partnership with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Decades of data tells us our world is quickly sliding past tipping points to points of no return. In just the last decade viable populations across the board have or are disappearing. That we not reaching global sustainable development and environmental goals compatible and conducive to the continuance of life as we know it. We must take action now to implement multilayered solutions, options and alternatives. The decisions of trade in endangered flora and fauna is CITES. CoP17 is happening right now. So what is CITES? How will the decisions made there affect life as we know it? To better understand what is at stake, today we have Nick Lynch and Tim Gorski,two of a team of four WildiZe Observers to CITES reporting direct from Johannesburg. Stay tuned over the coming weeks unfolding proceedings as we hear from experts and attendees around the world, deciding whether we trade-in and commodify or protect Life as we know it.

From our previous episode, we discussed wolf reintroduction and it’s history and where and how wolves are doing now, 20 years on. Today, we delve a bit deeper into some of Carter’s personal journey, discuss his two books, Wolfer -2010- and his newest book, Wolf Land -2016-, some of his experiences and, wolf advocacy- the many groups purporting to support wolves- are they effective or does it fracture and deter from the on-ground effectiveness where your voice and contributions actually make a difference for wolves. Wolves are here to stay. Coexistence is key. They are not mythical l, they are evil incarnate, nor indiscriminate killers of livestock to be feared by either ranchers or hikers, as they reclaim their once and future homes across North America- they are resilient and coming back. Oh, to once again hear the howls in the night, telling us that wilderness is alive and well.

We’re all very aware of the multitude of changes and challenges our wildlife and wild places are facing – right now and into the near and far future. From climate change to political change, huge shifts are afoot challenging every level of systems… from increased encounters between humans and wildlife - particularly with large carnivores, occurring more frequently in urban, suburban, exurban and rural landscapes, to the political shifts affecting our national parks, federal and state public lands, while as we expand ever outward, the boundaries between us and them get fuzzier. This requires that we pay attention and understand the rules, laws and protections that are in place, and do our part protections and wild places remain intact. To help us navigate how this pertains to wolves, we welcome back Carter Niemeyer, and get up to speed on wolf recovery and the challenges we face today.

Today we cap off the trilogy of Big Life Foundation, with my guest Richard Bonham, co-founder and keystone of the trio of creators in the model of Big Life’s structure. Richard grew up in Kenya, witnessing first-hand the increase in human population closely followed by changes in land use, and thus the wildlife, coupled with the increase in human-wildlife conflict. By creating clear links between land use, value and benefit, turned into an economic model where community ‘buy-in’ is critical to the success of any program, Big Life is a lesson in contemporary conservation- which is to bring innovative strategies and collaborative partnerships between communities, NGOs, national parks and government agencies, that the underlying vision and mission is one where resources- people and wildlife and land use-support and elegantly engage locals and visitors alike toward meeting term conservation.