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By Pat Graham
July 24, 2009
It’s easy to be inspired by Namibia’s alluring landscape and its storybook wildlife. But I’m realizing it’s the people here who will leave the most indelible mark on me.
Today is perfect example.
The first light of dawn paints a light blue hue against the plateaus and the white shimmer of the grasslands. Fortunately, the east winds blew throughout the night and held back the heavy fog that that was pressing up from the Skeleton Coast.
We climb into the Toyota 4x4 and bump and bounce back up the main road from Wereldsend (the “w” is pronounced like a "v") translated as “the end of the world”, a rustic camp created by Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation.
IRDNC is a field-based organization working to improve the lives of rural Namibians by diversifying their livelihoods in sustainable ways that benefit both people and nature.
It’s a vision that fits hand-in-glove with the Conservancy’s approach to conservation.
On the Road with Boas
I’m headed out to visit one of the communal conservancies. Boas (pronounced Bo-ahs) a young Namibian who works for IRDNC, is my guide and driver.
We hope to see elephants, and maybe even the elusive black rhino, in a nearby river bottom.
Weaving in and out of the dry river bed, through sand, over rocks and springs, we finally spot elephant tracks pressed deeply in the sand. There are at least two.
Judging by the size of the prints, one is an adult and the other younger. They left an unmistakable trail through the spring, trampling down bushes and sedges.
Boas has worked with IRDNC since 2000. He trains game guards for the communal conservancies. These are people who work to prevent poaching, count game and deal with human-wildlife conflicts.
Lessons Passed Along
Boas’s uncle was a game guard before there were conservancies. Boas went along on patrols as a young boy. Sitting around the campfire he learned about the behaviors of animals and of poachers.
In turn, Boas taught me a lot in our day together. I learned that mountain zebra, Oryx, and springbok come to the springs, drink and then leave, always wary of predators. If they hang around the hills above a spring, it usually means there is a predator nearby and they’re waiting for it to leave.
He taught me that baboons leave a sentinel high on a hill to watch for approaching predators. If the sentinel spots one, he makes a racket like only a baboon can do, sending an alarm to the others. When the baboons scamper off, the other wildlife has learned to scatter as well.
Donkey Carts and Other Dangers
We round the corner and see a group of eight elephants, young and old moving through the trees. Boas said there was another group of elephants further east in the conservancy that had been chasing tourists who stopped to watch them.
Game guards are not only concerned about the safety of tourists, but for the local people who use donkey carts to get around. The tourist four-wheel-drives make for a much faster escape.
The elephants’ aggressive behavior is believed to be rooted in the fact that they came from commercial lands where they were likely harassed and shot at by farmers trying to chase them away.
This is one of the challenges of their successful efforts to restore the wildlife populations: The same elephants that are sought out by tourists can damage to farms and villages.
The Charge and the Tracks
We push up the road until we’re even with the elephants on the other side of the river, probably 75 yards away. The lead cow turns toward us. She is huge. Magnificent. Others move through the trees behind her.
Then, her large ears flare out. Boas and I look at each other and he puts the truck in gear. She starts down the river bank toward us.
Have you ever seen an elephant charge?
It’s a sight I won’t soon forget. I’m glad we didn’t bring the donkey cart.
We cross the river again and see black rhino tracks. They’re large, yet only about half the size of an elephant track.
The three toes on the front point to the direction the rhino’s going. It’s hard to know how fresh these tracks are. Two move in one direction and one track in another. We follow each set, checking broken branches for freshness as we weave through huge bushes, one eye always watching for movement on the other side of the bush.
No rhino today.
With the potential of charging animals, predators and poachers (there are two types of poachers—those looking for rhino horn who hire locals to track them down and kill them and, more frequently, people snaring them for food), you would think the game guards carried guns. Boas said they don’t. The poachers themselves often use snares and other means to catch game, not guns. He teaches guards how to confront a poacher so as not to provoke a confrontation.
“Better yet,” he adds, “I tell them to walk around so they can be seen. The poachers will stay away then.”
Poaching has all but ceased in these communal areas. In part due to the good work of Boas and others like him. Also, many realized they could benefit as a community from bringing back the herds of wild animals for tourism and to feed those in need.
It’s a change of perspective we can all learn from and be inspired by. I’m inspired by a bright young man like Boas, who has such a thirst for knowledge and a passion for his work.
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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Sanjayan/TNC (Black Rhino); Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (Pat Graham in Namibia); Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (Boas the guide); Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (Black rhino tracks in the sand).
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