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THE NORTHERN WHITE RHINO

The northern white rhino (ceratotherium simum cottoni) is greatly endangered in comparison to its relative the Southern white rhino which is the most abundant. The Northern white rhino once roamed huge tracts of Africa ranging from The Sahel region to the Congo forests. But that was centuries ago, the remaining wild population of the white rhino was last sighted in Garamba national park in the Democratic republic of Congo in 2005.( An mature male, young male and two females) but as from 2006 no sightings have been confirmed this can be attributed to the political upheaval in eastern D.R.C.
Rebels and fighters like the intarihamwe, lord resistance army, SPLA fighters and the janja wid militia have been the main culprits found in poaching of the northern white rhino. Despite the set back measures are being put in place to protect the few remaining rhinos by reviving of the anti-poaching unit with support from UNESCO, Rhino Foundation, Save the Rhino intyernational ,ZSL and Frakfurt Zoological Society.
Possibilities of the few remaining rhinos to be transported to a rhino sanctuary in Kenya flopped due to political infighting hence leaving the rhinos in a very vulnerable state. The future remains bleak for the Northern white rhino in the D.R.C. 
I dedicate the international rhino day to the northern white rhino in the D.R.C

THE POACHING NETWORK

Poaching is a multi billion dollar dirty industry that involves many players and driven by greed for money among others. Poaching majorly involves involves illegal killing and harvesting of wild flora and fauna. In Africa the illicit trade started a long time with the arrival of the Greek, Romans, Persians, Arabs, British, Belgians,French,Portuguese,Spaniards and off late the Chinese. The Romans poached wild game from Africa for recreational purposes in their many auditoriums in the vast empire,Arabs poached elephants and Rhinos for their horns and tusks. The rhino horns was used as dagger holders while the elephant tusks were used to make beautiful carvings. All this happened under the full knowledge of the African rulers like the Kabaka of the buganda kingdom. The Arab traders were given exclusive rights to poach this wild game in exchange for gifts like mirrors,guns, clothes among others. In other words the genocide had begun, the Arabs exploited the  weakness of the African rulers to get what they want. With the entry of the monetary economy globalization, poaching took a new twist, huge masses of the African population which constituted the youth lacked jobs and with the biting poverty the far East countries took advantage of the arena. The Chinese with their belief that rhino horn acts as an aphrodisiac and the Thai and Japanese population view the possession of a curving from an elephant tusk as a status symbol then the rhino was nearly brought to extinction. Government officials,the community living with the fauna, business people, airlines, ship companies and consumers have become the driving force to an ever increasing demand of the illegal wild game products.
The local people clearly know the location of this wild flora and fauna and the presence of poachers in the area, the poachers will bribe them for a safe passage, the police officers will allow them to drive past the several road blocks and this is with the help of their local master who has an understanding of the system. The mafias in the overseas countries will see to it that the loot reaches them by bribing the airport, airline, port and shipping companies officials. The consumers finally rush to get the loot and the cycle begins again.
So how can this be stopped? Empowering the local community to financially independent, to inform the local community on the importance embracing transparency, the government to invest back the millions of dollars it generates from game related tourism back to the community, this will make the community appreciate the wild flora and fauna. Stiff penalties should be put in place to curb the vice by strengthening the judicial law systems,
adoption of modern technologies like scanners in all ports of entry and exit, poaching should be made an international crime, consumers of this products should be informed on the harm they are putting unto this wild game and the economies that depend on it to survive.
What do you think?

SPORT HUNTING

It beats my understanding as to how a tourist would pay nearly US$ 300,000 to kill a rhino or a rich Arab who come and disposes people in order to be to hunt the wild game. By the way how do you value an animal like a rhino in monetary terms? Though the money involved is lucrative but are the consequences to biodiversity. The rhino population has been declining every year due to various factors like poaching and so by allowing sport hunting i reckon it will be like adding an insult to the injury.
Game hunting should be banned completely though an exemption could be made on the cultural grounds, though this should be closely monitored to avoid exploitation. Our governments should avoid being greedy and be innovative enough in finding new avenue of raising funds and game hunting should not be one of them.

COMMERCIALISATION OF WILD PLANTS TO SAVE BIODIVERSITY FROM EXTINCTION

Plants of various species like the mondia whitei, ocimum kilimanscharicum and aloe vera have been over exploited in the recent past by the communities living around them and the middlemen who benefit a lot from the sale of this plant extracts.
Domestication of this plants is the way forward in protecting them from extinction, this could be done by teaching farmers on how to cultivate this wild plants commercially, this would reduce a scenario of people extracting the plants directly from their habitat and would help to prevent species loss. The other advantage of commercializing wild flora is that enterprises will earn more money through value addition. Example is of Aloe vera which can be added to various  beauty products among others. So the need of the farmers to directly harvest the plants directly from their habitat reduces and provides them an alternative source of income hence prevent them from becoming extinct.
Though the possibility of loosing plant diversity remains high, because once the plant has been domesticated it becomes different from its wild counterpart. So more research needs to be done to find the best way to domesticate this wild plants.

THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

An increase in temperature by only a few degrees has been discovered to have a link in the increase in the levels of malaria infections. A case in point is Nairobi and Eldoret which stand at altitudes of over 1500 meters above sea level. A few years ago cases of malaria were only restricted to the warm low lands of the coast and the lake Victoria basin.But with the increase in temperatures the anopheles mosquitoes have been able to adapt and multiply spreading the plasmodium which causes malaria.
The onus is on every individual to do there part by planting trees, reduce environmental destruction and nations to come up with policies that will promote clean technologies and cut green house gas emission. The situation is worse especially in developing countries where the mortality rates due to malaria is high and due to financial constrains the battle to fight the vector is proving to be difficult.

ECO-POLITICS

Politics has taken over conservation matters, climate change and habitat degradation. political leadership has failed to deliver on this matters. develop nations don't want to cut on green house gas emission for fear that there economies will stagnate. Developing countries on the other hand are saying that their economies can never industrialize implying carbon emission to them is very justified. But the real reason is that this leaders fear to loose their political office. To reverse the effects of climate change and habitat degradation,politicians have to put aside their selfish interest and save planet earth by passing laws that will help to curb green house gas emissions.
Nations should encourage the use of clean technologies by ensuring their is technology transfer between nations, organizations and people found degrading the environment should be heavily punished. As we are heading towards the world environmental day, let the political leadership of the world take a meaningful step to save the world from an ecological disaster. Less talk and more action.

MUTUALISTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORESTS AND MAN

Forests and and humans cannot do without each other, this is because they are mutually related and benefit from each other in a number of ways;ecological, socially and economically.Humans have to protect and conserve the forests in order to derive benefits from the resource. An example is of the medicinal herb found in Kakamega forest called Mondia whitei; this climber has several medicinal components used to treat sexully transmitted diseases, anorexia, stomach ailements, it is an aphrodisiac and treats many other ailements. This has resulted to the forest being conserved and declared a national reserve.
Forests have also contributed economically to the economies of varoius African countries, example Uganda benefits alot from eco-tourism by tourists visiting the endangered mountain gorrila in bwindi impenetrable forests in south west uganda, this has seen the forest being declared a biosphere due to its importance ecologically and hence benefiting by not being destructed.
Forests are also a habitat to forest based communities, example the ba'ka in congo forest and the Okiek communities in Mau forest. This communities have been known to be the keepers of the forests and there lively hoods is entirely dependant on the forests. From food, worship and getting treatment from medicinal trees and herbs in the forest.
Humanity cannot afford to destroy this age long relationship with the forest because we are bound to suffer. Let us nature this relationship for our mutual benefit.

GALLERY OR RIPARIAN FORESTS

Gallery or Riparian forests are type of forests that grow adjacent to rivers, streams or lakes. Example include the Amazon gallery forests that grow adjacent to the Amazon river. Locally here in Kenya we have Bura gallery forests, lower Tana river forests and Tana river nature reserve among many others. This forests play important role in ecology, example they act as wildlife corridors and are home to endemic and endangered flora and fauna. The endangered red colobus monkey(procolobus ruformitratus) is found in Lower Tana  river gallery forests.
The forests also act as bio-filters by preventing sediments from reaching water bodies and trap chemicals from overland water flow contributing to down stream water quality .
Gallery forests stabilize stream banks by providing deep root systems which hold sol in place and provide a degree of roughness capable of slowing run off velocities and spread flow during storm surges.
Riparian forests today face a number of threats most of them being anthropogenic or human caused like vegetation cutting, burning, grazing, mining among others. Let us protect the gallery forests, they are an important component of the riverine ecosystem.

SOCIAL CULTURAL IMPORTANCE OF FORESTS

For thousand of years, forests have been associated with various communities as part and parcel of their lives. Take an example of the Ogiek community in Kenya who live in the Mau forest. The name Ogiek means ''care taker of all plants and animals''. Implying the Ogiek are foresters and conservators of nature. The sacred Kaya forest in the Kenyan coastal forest is used by the Mijikenda community in the worship of ancestors. The Ba'ka people in the Congo forest are traditionally hunters and gatherers living on bush meat, honey, wild fruits, honey, medicine among others. The Tacana people of Madidi forest in Bolivia depend on the forest for food and medicine. But these importance is on the verge of extinction due to illegal logging, poaching, climate change, construction of dams among other vices. Let us be on the fore front to protect our forests in order to safe guard our cultures for the sake of the present and future generations.

DESTROY FORESTS AT OUR OWN PERIL

Forests play an important ecological role besides the economics as we have known them for. In Africa and Kenya in particular forests have been reduced to a mere one percent and the effects are starting to be seen. Example river Mara which is home to the annual wildebeest migration is threatened of drying up because the mau forest has been degraded a lot and politicians have not spared it either. The riparian forests and vegetation along river have been cleared at an alarming rate that the rates of eutrophication are self evident with the water hyacinth increasing coverage on lake Victoria. This is because the gallery forests that used to trap the sediments are no longer their. Forests are a habitat to wild animals like the black and white colobus monkey, but it is a sad story when you visit Saiwa swamp national park, the forest coverage is so small, that the whole forest has been fenced to reduce a possible human wild life conflict. The onus is on you and me to reduce the impacts on the forests and promote sustainable development.OPTIMIZATION AND NOT MAXIMIZATION IS THE KEY.

WHO OWNS WILDLIFE?

The local community when invaded by wild animals like elephants or lions. They usually say that the goverment should come and pick their animals. The goverment on its side says, all the flora and fauna belongs to it. So am wondering if the community feals alienated in the management of wildlife resources and also in enjoying the benefits, how shall conservation take place. Help me out in this puzzle

HOW SHOULD THE WORLD TAME CHINA'S APPETITE FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES?

Currently the demand for ivory,rhino horn,pangolins,lizards among others is driven by china. what do you think can be done before its too late. Its now too much to bear.

DEVELOPMENT IN CONSERVATION

Development and conservation are mutually exclusive, since natural resources are required for development to occur. But development has to be controlled with necessary laws. This is to prevent development  interceding into conservation. And if the worst occurs then disasters are bound to happen, take an example of the proposed serengeti highway,if the project takes place, then an ecological disaster of bibilical magnitude will occur. The onus is on you and me to controll our apetite for development.

SHOULD PROTECTED AREAS BE FENCED IN A BID TO KEEP AWAY THE POACHERS AND REDUCE HUMAN WILDLIFE CONFLICTS?

WHAT ROLE CAN TECHNOLOGY PLAY IN CONSERVATION OF WILDLIFE?

ARE YOU OF THE OPINION THAT WEAK LAWS ARE A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO AN INCREASE IN INCIDENCES OF POACHING?

In Uganda recently suspected traffickers of bush meat were offered a 7 month jail term or a fine of US$350. While their loot was worth US$3500. Should the penalties be made stiffer to scare away potential poachers?

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POVERTY/AFFLUENCE WITH ENVIROMENTAL DEGRADATION?

HOW CAN PEOPLE ASSES THE BENEFITS OF A CONSERVATION PROJECT?

It becomes very important for the masses to be able to tell wether a particular conservation project has been of benefit to them. Oddly the mannner at which the management gauges the acrued benefits of the project is absolutely different from what the person on the ground would asses the whole initiative. So how would you asses if a conservation project has been of benefit to you?

BESIDES ENGANGING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN CONSERVATION RELATED ACTIVITIES IN PROTECTED AREAS. SHOULD THE SAME GESTURE BE EXTENDED IN REVENUE SHARING?

In many protected areas around the world, the local communities living around them are urged to participate in the management of this areas, but when it comes to sharing the revenue generated they become excluded. Yet management expects them to flush out poachers among activities. What is the way forwad to ensure equity and justice is achieved?

DO YOU THINK CONSERVATION HAS A PLACE IN THE 21st CENTURY?

With current trends globally of nations working towards industrialization at all cost and increasing agricultural productivity, construction of dams in conservation areas and giving out of wetlands to developers, encroaching in conservation areas . What happens to conservation? is it dying a natural death or there is room for change?

SAVE OUR NATURAL RESOURCES

With the rapid depletion of natural resources in the world today, what are you doing as an individual to reverse the trend and what do you think should the policy makers do to contain the situation before it's to late?