Tuesday October 14, 2008

Defeated. That's how I feel today. This morning, for Tome's Env. Policy class, we went and talked with local farmers and asked them about conflicts they've had with wildlife. We asked about what type of animals they have to scare away from their crops, what crops they grow, if KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) or any other organization compensates them for crop loss or helps them keep animals off their property. We asked about how they feel about wildlife and what sort of future they see in human-wildlife conflicts. Most of the farmers grow maize and tomatoes. A few grow coffee, beans, onions, and I saw some watermelon, cabbage and soybean plants.

At a certain point I felt ridiculous asking them about what wildlife they scare away because as we were standing in the field zebra, wildebeest and baboons were standing alongside the fields just waiting for a farmer to get occupied with something else so they could sneak in. One farmer also showed us his maize which was nothing but green, two foot stalks: the rest was stripped down, cobs and all. It was the handy work of elephants.

So the solution that farmers repeatedly referred to: fence the sanctuary and the parks that the wildlife move in from. However, as fenced parks across Africa already show, that's no solution. All it does is create more problems. Sure the fences keep the animals in (if maintained), but at the same time they create environments that can be quickly degraded as wildlife populations become unsustainable within the fence.

So it's hopeless, isn't it? Part of me just wants to shout at the top of my lungs, "Stop doing agriculture on marginal lands!" Of course that's not going to solve anything either, and I could never tell someone to stop growing food for themselves. We all need something to sustain ourselves and there's a connection with food you've grown yourself that's undeniable and deeply rooted. (No pun intended.)

What's the way forward then? How do you conserve wildlife and conserve livelihoods and a way of life? I don't know. I don't know anyone who does know and I'm not sure a solution exists. That sounds defeatest, I know, but it's been a long week and it's only Tuesday!! Although in my defense we don't have weekends here and we had six hours of class on both Saturday and Sunday.

Anyway, I think the best thing I can take away from all of the above ranting is that I obviously need to come back here and help with the move towards a solution. The only thing worse than feeling defeated would be not doing anything to help out. So for all of you faithful readers, beware, I will leave you again and come back to Kenya sometime in the hopefully near future!!

Besides that, on Friday, Daniel, our Swahili instructor did the Gallon Challenge. For my fellow Wisconsinites I hope you know what it is, but if not the challenge is: Drink one gallon of whole milk on one hour! Sounds easy, but it's difficult!! Daniel of course rocked it probably because he's Maasai and a total bad ass! It was definitely the highlight of the past week!!

Well, I gotta go finish my fifty millionth paper now and then I have to turn 22 in a few hours!! Whoo 22?!?! I'm not sure how I feel about that, it's a pretty uneventful age to reach!

Over and out!