Bush Warriors Founder, Dori Gurwitz, was only a teenager when he personally witnessed Kenya’s first burning of ivory stockpiles 22 years ago–an experience he will never forget.
Photo credit: Tony Karumba
In 1989, African wildlife conservation saw a historical event–one that many people did not think would happen. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) lit aflame a massive ivory stockpile, underscoring their zero tolerance for the illegal ivory trade. No matter what political thoughts people and governments around the world had about Kenya at that time, one thing was very clear: the government was seriously committed to the preservation of its wildlife, at all costs. It got to a point that game wardens were given permission to kill, should they confront a poacher. This zero tolerance policy worked and, despite all of the challenges associated with being a new and developing nation, Kenya rose as a leader in wildlife conservation. The eco-tourism industry exploded! Continue reading →
The Asian Elephant, Elephas maximus, is listed as ‘ENDANGERED’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. It is found in isolated populations in 13 tropical Asian countries. The Asian Elephant is smaller than its African savannah relative; the ears are smaller and the back is more rounded.
There was a shootout. Andy and I weren’t there, but we learned through satellite text messages that Colonel Gui and his soldiers from the Congolese army ran into the bandits somewhere between Kisangani and Obenge—likely the brothers of Colonel Toms, a convicted war criminal and poacher. A gunfight ensued. One poacher was injured and two others were apprehended. Colonel Gui, with his prisoners in tow, is still coming to Obenge to route out poachers in the region. We should see them tomorrow.
I got the news during a four-day sampling hike through TL2 with Andy and the scientist John Hart [http://www.bonoboincongo.com]. But let me back up. After Kisangani, which is where I last blogged, we flew to Kindu, a town on the border of the 25,000 square mile jungle known as TL2. It’s the region Elephant Ivory Project-lead Samuel Wasser [http://depts.washington.edu/conserv/Director.html] wants elephant dung samples from most (read the previous posts to understand why). From Kindu, the three of us spent two days on the back of motorbikes, riding dirt paths notched into the jungle and savannah. These paths are arteries out of the bush. We saw locals pushing bicycles loaded with everything from pineapples to bush meat in the form of monkeys and okapi, a striped cousin of the giraffe. At the Lomami River, we loaded into motorized pirogues for a supposed two-day trip north to Obenge, the Hart’s research camp in the northern part of the proposed Lomami National Park. John stopped at every riverside village—about a dozen–to explain what the national park meant for the locals.
‘Moses’, a suspected poacher in the Congo jungle, is burning crosses as death threats to National Park supporters, but it’s not enough to derail the Elephant Ivory Project team on to their mission to stop elephant poaching.
We just arrived this morning and I already want to leave Kisangani, a city of 700,000 in the center of Congo’s jungle. A cholera outbreak started in the city last week and left 27 dead—200 more cases have been reported. Andy and I are with Terese and John Hart, conservationists who have been working in the DRC for 30 years (check out their project Bonobos in Congo). They’ve agreed to help us plan our mission. But the question of where to start sampling elephant dung isn’t simple. The region Dr. Wasser wants us to sample most, the proposed Lomami National Park in the 25,000 square mile jungle known as TL2, has become even more dangerous.
It’s been a fortunate few days. We arrived in Kinshasa on Monday, exhausted from 36 hours of transit, and found the Congo just as hot as we left it two years ago. On Tuesday morning, we met with Dr. Teresa Hart, a 30-year veteran of conservation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Teresa first came to the country as a Peace Corp volunteer in 1974. She’s now in her tenth year studying bonobos, an ape found only in the DRC, in a 25,000-square mile block of forest known as TL2. The region is an elephant sanctuary on paper, but animals are disappearing there faster than ever.
“Research here leads to advocacy because it’s all being destroyed,” says Hart.
Today, I’m packing. After two years in the works, we’re kicking off the Elephant Ivory Project in earnest on Sunday morning, when Andy Maser and I fly to Kinshasa–the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)–with a case of collection vialsand the goal of saving a species. Here’s the back story: Continue reading →
Note: Please play this MUST SEE video and enjoy. This is what is at stake!
A year ago on November 13th, Bush Warriors was first launched into to the world. This was my attempt to put the truth out there of what is really going on with our world’s wildlife. Everyone loves nature and wildlife. We all love lions, tigers, bears and dolphins. We even love sharks, though we were taught to be afraid of them. Wildlife and nature is gaining more popularity than ever, everywhere you look “a green lifestyle” is the new trend. ‘Organic’ and ‘nature’ are buzz words surrounding corporate board rooms, the way we live, and the food we eat. It’s all about ‘going back to nature’.
The sad and unfortunate reality is that we are just about as far from nature as we can get. In fact, we, as humans, are getting further from it by the minute. Despite the growing popularity of the ‘green revolution’, species continue to be lost at unprecedented rates. The fight to save species is not small or easy. Many challenges block the path to success, including corruption, economics (both poverty and wealth), overconsumption of our natural resources, consumerist demand, and societal values.
Photo by Takeshi Igarashi
We live in a world where biodiversity is given due attention only when it is deemed profitable or there is some underlying financial interest in saving it. Some even say, “What is the point in spending well needed funds on animals we know will be extinct from their natural habitat in a generation or two?”
If we truly open our eyes to see what has happened to the world around us, we will not be able to live with ourselves and the destruction of our planet that we cause on a daily basis. Plastic bags that help us carry food from stores are killing our sea turtles, as they are being mistaken for jellyfish. Palm oil, as harmless as it sounds, is a real killer to many of our earth’s forests and all that inhabit them. Yet it is widely used to give our foods a longer shelf life, so that we may enjoy our microwave popcorn. The cost of palm oil is not just the cost of cheap, processed foods. It is also costing us majestic creatures, like orangutans. Valuable components of an ecosystem that also display many similar emotional and social behavior as us humans. Now they slip into the brink of extinction and are being used, abused and slaughtered, while their natural habitat is replaced by palm oil plantations.
Rhinos and elephants, animal icons that we love so much, are systematically being murdered for their horns and tusks. In fact is its estimated that 102 elephants are being killed a day. That is almost a kilometer (over half a mile) of dead elephants on a daily basis.
Photo Credit: Michael Nicols
Since 1997, 353 new species have been discovered in the Himalayas, 1,220 in the Amazon and 1,231 in the Mekong region. Our world has such a rich biodiversity, and yet, with all of our knowledge and growing understanding of how fragile our ecosystems are, we are losing species before they are even discovered.
We citizens of the world must unite in a unified global voice saying, “Enough is enough.” We must put a stop to the war taking place on our wildlife and natural world. If we don’t, it will be lost for good and we will also lose ourselves in the process.
We need your help is educating and spreading the word. Please join our growing Bush Warriors global tribe in spreading the message. We have created the Bush Warriors Ambassadors program that gives you tools for five second online advocacy. All you need to do is paste our blurbs and links on your Facebook, Myspace, email, or any other social platform, and you are done. By doing this you have become an ambassador for change.
We have already grown so much in our first year, and plan to push harder and reach more people in our coming years. Join us in our efforts and step up to be a voice for wildlife today!
Africa’s largest-ever investigation of wildlife crime has unearthed a ton of illegal African elephant ivory, several animal pelts, and hippopotamus teeth, the Kenya Wildlife Service and INTERPOL announced this week. The undercover operation, coordinated by INTERPOL—the world’s largest international police organization—booked more than 60 alleged criminals in five African countries.
A victim of poaching
Among those caught were four Chinese nationals attempting to smuggle ivory curios out of Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The rapidly growing presence of China in Africa is seen as a major driver of the ivory trade, experts say. Between 1998 and 2006, Chinese authorities seized an average of 39 tons of ivory each year, according to the United Nations Elephant Trade Information System.
Hippo’s have not only been a target of Bushmeat but their teeth and bones are used for carvings and jewelry
But wildlife authorities who participated in the sting—code-named Project Baba for Gilbert Baba, a Ghanaian ranger killed in the line of duty—say small-time traffickers arrested in recent weeks will lead them to bigger players.
During the 1970s population of black rhinos had dropped from 20,000 to fewer than 300, putting these animals in danger of becoming extinct. Since then, thanks to the Lewa Conservancy, over 40,000 acres has been dedicated to over 70 different animals. Since the 1970s Lewa has been able to double the population of rhinos! Lewa also lends a helping hand to the surrounding communities.
Their annual safaricom marathon has helped raise over 2,000,000, they have been able to build over 10 schools, establish forestry programs, support hospitals, provide free treatment to those injured by wildlife, as well as put projects in place such as tracker dog units to help the conservancy. They have even started a womens micro-credit program. The surrounding communities are impoverished and this program gives these women a chance to become more independent. They are given the chance to train and become entrepreneurs, hoping to reduce poverty and facilitate gender equity. Lewa’s efforts not only help out the animals in need, but the people as well.
Rangers in Kruger National Park managed to shoot and wound one rhino poacher in an exchange of gunfire that occurred after a dead rhino was found early Monday morning. The rhino had been shot and its horns were still intact.
Although two poachers managed to escape, the other is hospitalized and will appear in the Saselamani Periodical Court following recovery. Park spokesperson William Mambasa said via The Independent that the group of three poachers were wearing ranger uniforms as a disguise. The shooting occurred between Punda Maria and Shingwedzi Camp.
Photos of poached Rhino found in Kruger (Separate Incident)
Photo Credit: Michael Nicols
Bush Warriors 
