Botswana’s Okavango Delta Is Created by a Delicate Balance, but for How Much Longer?

Botswana’s Okavango Delta Is Created by a Delicate Balance, but for How Much Longer?

The Okavango Delta in northern Botswana is a mosaic of water paths, floodplains and arid islands. The delta sits in the Okavango river basin, which spans three African countries: Angola, Namibia and Botswana.

Because it’s an oasis, in a semi-arid area, it hosts a rich array of plants and attracts a huge variety of wildlife.

As a unique ecosystem, in 2014 it was placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list and it is an iconic tourist destination, which generates 13% of Botswana’s GDP.

But it’s a fragile natural area. It’s controlled by deformations of the Earth’s crust over a long time (thousands to millions of years) and by annual water flows and evaporation. The size of the flooded delta from year to year varies between 3,500km² and 9,000km² because of weather fluctuations which control its water supply.

Any change to the processes that form the delta will have an impact on the wildlife and local economic activities. Its grassy floodplains are food for grazing animals in the dry period. Losses of this habitat will cause declines in wildlife and livestock. It’s therefore imperative to understand what creates and sustains the delta for the future management of the system.

One of the Largest Subspecies of Giraffes Is Declared Endangered: the Masai

One of the Largest Subspecies of Giraffes Is Declared Endangered: the Masai

Conservationists have been sounding the alarm bells on giraffes for several years. In 2016, the IUCN listed giraffes as a whole as vulnerable, the status just above endangered after finding that over three decades giraffes suffered up to a 40 percent population drop, plummeting from an estimated 157,000 individuals to 97,500.

Currently, two of the nine giraffe subspecies—the Kordofan and Nubian—are critically endangered, while the Reticulated is endangered. Now, after a recent assessment, the Masai subspecies has also been listed as endangered. It’s the first time the population has been analyzed on its own, and the status is a big deal since there are an estimated 35,000 individual Masai left, making it one of the largest-remaining subspecies of the gentle giants and, therefore, a key population for keeping the species numbers up.

Previously, the Masai subspecies was the most-populous group of giraffes, with an estimated 71,000 individuals. That drop of 49 to 51 percent of the subspecies in the last 30 years was what prompted the listing, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Red Sea Stone Tool Find Hints At Hominins’ Possible Route Out of Africa

Red Sea Stone Tool Find Hints At Hominins’ Possible Route Out of Africa

Lupita Nyong'o Set To Narrate US Version 'Serengeti' For Discovery Channel Wildlife

Lupita Nyong'o Set To Narrate US Version 'Serengeti' For Discovery Channel Wildlife

Beloved actor Lupita Nyong’o is already an award-winning narrator devoted to protecting wildlife in Africa. the short documentary, supported by The Tiffany & Co. Foundation won top honors in the Virtual Reality/360° Storytelling category at the 2018 Jackson Hole Science Media awards.

Now the articulate, multi-dimensional, Oscar winner, currently making headlines for her role in Jordan Peele’s latest movie ‘Us’, has signed on to narrate the American version of a new “innovative series” ‘Serengeti’ for the Discovery channel. The six-part series, a joint venture of Discovery Channel and BBC One, is the vision of ‘American Idol’ creator Simon Fuller and Emmy winner director John Downer. ‘Star Wars’ actor John Boyega will narrate the British version.

Damien Mander Creates Female 'Akashinga' Anti-Poaching Force In Zimbabwe's Phundundu Wildlife Park

Damien Mander Creates Female 'Akashinga' Anti-Poaching Force In Zimbabwe's Phundundu Wildlife Park

Faye Cuevas is not alone in recruiting women as wildlife rangers, responsible for patrolling and even shooting if necessary, ivory poachers. In September 2018, the BBC featured former Special Forces sniper, Australian Damien Mander, who says he found his ‘higher calling’ protecting wildlife in Africa. Knowing what key global military experts, including America’s own top military brass believes, Mander specifically focused on creating a female anti-poaching force in Zimbabwe’s Phundundu Wildlife Park nature reserve a 115 square mile former trophy hunting area that is part of a larger ecosystem home to some 11,000 elephants.

Though women rarely serve as rangers in Africa — a reality that Faye Cuevas also confronted in Kenya — Mander believes that putting the well-being of wildlife in their expertly trained hands could usher in a new way of carrying out conservation. In Mander’s vast experience, he believes that women rangers will create conservation practices that are far less violent, while empowering women and improving communities in the process.

“There’s a saying in Africa, ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation’,” Mander says. “We’re seeing increasing evidence that empowering women is one of the greatest forces of change in the world today.”

Mander is hitting roadblocks, especially in his vision for 4,500 female rangers protecting wildlife across Africa. You can imagine the havoc he’s creating!

Kenya's US Anti-Poaching Expert Faye Cuevas Announces 'Team Lioness', 8 Young Maasai Women Rangers + Plans For Many More

Kenya's US Anti-Poaching Expert Faye Cuevas Announces 'Team Lioness', 8 Young Maasai Women Rangers + Plans For Many More

Team Lioness, a team of eight young Maasai women is one of Kenya’s first all-female ranger units — and the direct result of Faye’s consultations with the Masaii women leaders. Officially announced on March 6, 2019, Team Lioness joins the Olgulului Community Wildlife Rangers (OCWR) who protect wildlife across six bases and one mobile unit in OOGR through IFAW’s tenBoma, an innovative wildlife security initiative. Team Lioness is operating in this precious natural corridor created by Kenya and Tanzania under the majesty of Kilimanjaro.

“In the larger Amboseli region, out of almost 300 wildlife rangers, to my knowledge there was only one woman,” Faye explained, in introducing Team Lioness. “The need was apparent.”

 The women of team Lioness were selected based on their academic achievements and physical strength, as well as their demonstration of trustworthiness, discipline, and integrity. Typically, a Maasai girl leaves school around age 10 and have few opportunities to achieve a higher education.

“It’s very rare that Maasai women achieve a secondary education,” says Cuevas. “But all of team Lioness have the equivalent of a US high school education, and none of them have had a paying job before this. It’s breaking barriers.”

“As the first women joining the OCWR Rangers, each of the team Lioness recruits brings a new perspective and a different experience with wildlife than her male counterparts,” Faye continues. “They are important voices in protecting wildlife and reconnecting communities to the benefits of sharing land with the magnificent big cats and other wildlife that call OOGR home.”

A Jewelry Design Journey From Fashionable Omo Valley Arbore Women To Mario Gerth To INIVA Miami

A Jewelry Design Journey From Fashionable Omo Valley Arbore Women To Mario Gerth To INIVA Miami

Serendipity seems to be always at play at Anne of Carversville and in my GlamTribal Jewelry. Close friends think the powers are actually stronger than serendipity in my case, but let me stick with the facts here. The DNA of my GlamTribal collection lies in East Africa, in an area extending from southern Ethiopia’s Omo Valley into the Lake Turkana region, South Sudan and northern Kenya, with a final destination in Nairobi and specifically Kibera. This is not to say that there aren’t more pieces in my puzzle, but my life has wound in and around these pillars for decades.

Hans Silvester’s monumental book ‘Natural Fashion’ (2009) introduced me to the Omo Valley people in 2012, inspiring the first major turn in my vision for GlamTribal. These precious people are living in grave danger of extinction in a modern world, In particular the Gilgel Give III damn threatens their very existence. For five years Italian photographer Fausto Podavini has charted the progress of the damn and its impact on one of Africa’s most remote frontiers. National Geographic updates the story of perhaps epic change in the Omo Valley.

New Survey Raises Concerns About Elephant Poaching in Botswana

PHOTO BY DIGITALARBYTER :) ON UNSPLASH

New Survey Raises Concerns About Elephant Poaching in Botswana

By Ross Harvey, Senior Researcher in Natural Resource Governance (Africa), South African Institute of International Affairs. First published on The Conversation

Botswana has an elephant poaching problem. The numbers far exceed previous years according to a new survey. The survey was conducted between July and October 2018 by conservation group Elephants without Borders, in collaboration with Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks.

The survey reported a total of 1677 observed carcasses in the survey area of northern Botswana. The surveyors visited carcasses that were of concern – reported as possibly poached – which numbered 104 out of a total of 128 “fresh” carcasses.

Are CZ-USA, Kansas City, KS Made In USA Rifles The Top Gun Used To Poach Big Game In Africa?

Kathi Lee Austin of ConflictAwareness.org

Are CZ-USA, Kansas City, KS Made In USA Rifles The Top Gun Used To Poach Big Game In Africa?

Now that all the holiday food is settling into our fat cells for a long winter's nap, and Trump has pissed all over our country in the worst Christmas Day message I've ever heard, let me begin by saying that I did not just like the FB page for “CZ-USA, Kansas City, KS,” rifles, thinking that my closest friends might have a total meltdown.

If I liked the company, them this post would tag their wall, but then I would be bringing down a hornet's nest of gun lovers on my wall, and -- in retrospect -- I don't really want to do that. Elephant killer Donald Trump Jr -- or just 'Junior' as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls him -- would probably show up in person to give us all a big lecture on the thrill of killing wild beasts. Speaking of wild beasts, his father is absolutely behaving like one. Sorry, I digress.

However, this New York Times article How Did Rifles With an American Stamp End Up in the Hands of African Poachers? hit me between the eyes this morning, and they were barely open. NOTHING IS DEFINITE YET, and of course, the gun manufacturer 'CZ-USA' denies, denies, denies that they have anything to do with the reality that their rifles -- not the ones manufactured by their parent company in the Czech Republic -- are being investigated as being the #1 rifle poachers are using to kill the elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers -- you name it -- in Africa.

Like somehow “CZ-USA, Kansas City, KS,” got carved into the metal. It's a branding mistake. You know . . . like Trump makes major branding mistakes every day. This is just all about bad marketing.

While this is not a girl's only investigation, one lady in particular is in the lead: Kathi Lynn Austin.

Five Reasons Why 2018 Was A Big Year For Palaeontology

Five Reasons Why 2018 Was A Big Year For Palaeontology

By Julien Benoit, Postdoc in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand. First published on The Conversation Africa.

A lot happened in the world of palaeontology in 2018. Some of the big events included some major fossil finds, a new understanding of our reptile ancestors and a major controversy whose outcome could rewrite human history. The Conversation Africa asked Dr Julien Benoit to discuss five important moments in palaeontology you may have missed during 2018, and what they mean – particularly for Africa and its place in the story of human origins.

Elephant Conservation Update From Botswana Includes Pending Prince Harry Transfer Of Elephants To Zambia

Elephant Conservation Update From Botswana Includes Pending Prince Harry Transfer Of Elephants To Zambia

PORTER escapes to Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge, an adventurous tented hideaway in Botswana’s Savute Channel, part of Chobe National Park and boasting the highest concentration of elephants in Africa.

Belmond Savute prides itself on a “happy marriage of style and substance; for the eco-conscious traveler”, offering “the tents’ sustainable design features (that) include the removal of all concrete, the use of eco-friendly composite bamboo decking in the principal areas, and a 95% solar-grid system for power.” 

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Elephant Deaths in Botswana

Since September 2018, controversy has swirled in Botswana around the story that 87 elephants were reported to be “killed by poachers’ in Botswana. The high-impact story originated with “Elephants Without Borders,” an NGO in the USA and Botswana surveying the elephant population.

Under the new government of Mokgweetsi Masisi, Botswana’s parliament is exploring its ban on trophy hunting, citing the large size of Botswana’s elephant population and the growing issue of human-elephant conflic (HEC) in the country.

Politicians have quoted the Botswana elephant population to be as large as 237,000. However the African Elephant Status Report (AESR) estimates Botswana’s elephant population to be 131,626 individuals migrating across an area of 228,073 square kilometres. The vast majority of these elephants occur in the northern region that includes Chobe, Moremi, and the Okavango Delta.

How We Arrived At A $1 Billion Annual Price Tag To Save Africa’s Lions

How We Arrived At A $1 Billion Annual Price Tag To Save Africa’s Lions

By Luke Hunter, Chief Conservation Officer of Panthera, Research Associate, University of KwaZulu-Natal Research Fellow; originally published on The Conversation

A billion dollars. That’s approximately what it would cost, to save the African lion. That’s a billion dollars each year, every year into the foreseeable future.

The startling price tag comes from a calculation we did, starting with a new database we compiled of available funding in protected areas with lions. To our knowledge it’s the most comprehensive and up-to-date database of its kind.

Protected areas are the cornerstone of conservation yet we found that most of Africa’s extraordinary parks face grave funding shortfalls. Parks without funding often become protected in name only. Their staff, including the rangers and guards on the frontlines, simply cannot function without funds that pay for working equipment, rations, petrol and to keep the electricity running. Sometimes even salaries go unpaid.

Using the conservation needs of lions as a proxy for wildlife more generally, we compiled a dataset of funding in Africa’s protected areas with lions and estimated a minimum target for conserving the species and managing the areas effectively.

Empowering Women Is Key To Planned Population Growth in Africa, Educated Citizens, Good Health and Economic Development

Empowering Women Is Key To Planned Population Growth in Africa, Educated Citizens, Good Health and Economic Development

By Alex Ezeh, Dornsife Professor of Global Health, Drexel University

I think about the future of my continent in terms of three questions: Are Africans healthy? Do they have access to a good education? And do they have opportunities to apply their skills?

Millions more Africans have been able to answer yes to these questions in recent years. But there’s an elephant in the room. One of the keys to keeping this progress going is slowing down the rapid rates of population growth in parts of the continent. But population issues are so difficult to talk about that the development community has been ignoring them for years.

Population growth is a controversial topic because, in the not-too-distant past, some countries tried to control population growth with abusive, coercive policies, including forced sterilization. Now, human rights are again at the centre of the discussion about family planning, where they belong. But as part of repairing the wounds created by this history, population was removed from the development vocabulary altogether.

For the sake of Africa’s future, we should bring it back. Based on current trends, Africa as a whole is projected to double in size by 2050. Between 2050 and 2100, according to the United Nations, it could almost double again. In that case, the continent would have to quadruple its efforts just to maintain the current level of investment in health and education, which is too low already.

But if the rate of population growth slows down there will be more resources to invest in each African’s health, education, and opportunity – in other words, in a good life.

Tanzania's Selous Safari Company Recycled Their Taka Taka Long Ago With Minimal Footprint Policies

Tanzania's Selous Safari Company Recycled Their Taka Taka Long Ago With Minimal Footprint Policies

I've been on the hunt for bamboo tubes used in our GlamTribal jewelry and this gorgeous image from Tanzania's Selous Safari Company is causing me to have a eureka moment! I'm probably finding them to be so scarce because larger bamboo tubes are now being used as straws. 

One of the core values and main objectives of Selous Safari Company is its commitment to have minimal impact on the environment. 

Long before it was mainstream practice, SSC stopped using plastic bags, started using solar power, set out to recycle all their "taka taka" (Swahili word for garbage) and ceased using plastic bottles. Selous Safari Company also stopped using plastic straws… without a firm plan for their replacement.

A bit of creative meditation, most likely accompanied by a delicious cocktail or two on their magnificent beach, produced the answer: Bamboo straws! And NOT delivered by Amazon. REAL, AUTHENTIC bamboo straws. 

SSC's beach lodge, Ras Kutani, on the Swahili Coast has plenty of bamboo, and the creative minds went into high gear. Read their blog post for further instructions.  Here in America, GlamTribal will order our own bamboo straws, treat them with only eco-friendly varnish, perhaps even decoupage them. Who knows what ideas will be inspired by the bamboo straws created by Tanzania's Selous Safari Company!

PS250 Woolly Mammoth Bone Bamboo Tubes Black Lava Pendant w/Earrings

$85.00

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Tanzania's Elephant Population Hit Extremely Hard, Losing About 70% In Last Decade

AFTER BEING COLLARED AND REVIVED AN ELEPHANT MAKES ITS WAY BACK TO ITS HERD IN SELOUS GAME RESERVE, TANZANIA

Tanzania's Elephant Population Hit Extremely Hard, Losing About 70% In Last Decade

The global elephant populations is in a state of crisis in many countries. Tanzania is now a key center of Africa's poaching crisis, after a government census analyzing the nation's elephant population from 2009 to 2014 revealed a catastrophic loss of 60% of its elephants in just five years. 

Revealing elephant declines far greater than expected, the census estimated Tanzania's elephant population in 2014 at 43,330, down from 109,051 in 2009. Fast forward to 2018, and Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve has lost almost 90% of the park's elephants over the past 40 years. Forty years ago, 100,000 elephants roamed Selous, located in southern Tanzania, and today the number is estimated to be 15,200. 

"Tanzania has been extremely hard hit by the latest elephant poaching crisis that has hit the African continent for 10 years," Bas Huijbregts, WWF's African species manager, told CNN.

Tanzania's Southern Selous Game Reserve Is An Unexplored Safari Adventure Waiting For Us

Tanzania's Southern Selous Game Reserve Is An Unexplored Safari Adventure Waiting For Us

The Serengeti's wildlife sanctuary is a vast expanse over 5,700 square miles and its otherworldly animal migration is one of the New Wonders of the World, writes Vogue.com. According to the Tanzania Tourist Board, nearly 1.3 million people visit the country annually, with about two-thirds of visitors heading for the Serengeti. The others stick close to the north—the Ngorongoro Crater, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and Lake Manyara—and also the island of Zanzibar.

This reality leaves the southern half of Tanzania perhaps the best-kept Safari secret with untouched terrain and the Selous Game Reserve, twice the size of the Serengeti. 

Comparing the two, Ruaha houses 10 percent of the planet’s lion population, as well as one of the largest elephant populations on our planet. Selous is home to the world’s largest population of wild dogs, is nicknamed Giraffe Park because of the density of these long-necks animals, and is home to some of Tanzania's last remaining black rhinos. Not only is nature's extraordinary wildlife abundant, but seeing it is an almost solo experience. 

GlamTribal 6" Art Tiles/Trivets Sets

Sets of 2 or 4 Coasters w/Art Tile $40 and $55

My GLAMTRIBALE Jewelry & Gift Collection is inspired by and committed to Africa, the ancestral home of humanity. 10% of our revenues support elephant conservation and The Kibera School for Girls in Nairobi. 

Our ceramic 4" coasters and sets w/6" art tile for flowers, a bottle of wine or wine bucket keep table surfaces safe while drenching our eyes with oil-painting-like images, printed on art canvas. Here's a sampling:

In Burkina Faso, French President Macron Addresses Restitution Of African Heritage From Museums

In Burkina Faso, French President Macron Addresses Restitution Of African Heritage From Museums

In a speech delivered on a visit to the West African republic of Burkina Faso, French president Emmanuel Macron has promised to make the restitution of French-owned African heritage a priority over the next five years.  Saying that he wants “the conditions to be met for the temporary or permanent restitution of African heritage to Africa”, Macron also spoke to the audience of about 800 students at the University of Ouagadougou about his desire to promote the mobility of talented people between Europe and Africa.

Notably, Macron's comments are at odds with a formal request made in March 2017 to then French President François Hollande, writes artnet News. Lawmakers and civil society groups from Benin wrote an open letter asking for the return of a host of "colonial treasures" 

Faye Cuevas Brings Higher Intelligence To Africa's War On Elephant Poaching

Faye Cuevas Brings Higher Intelligence To Africa's War On Elephant Poaching

Calling herself "the accidental conservationist," (Faye) Cuevas can pinpoint the moment she realized that she wanted to fight poaching.

"The first time that I saw an elephant in the wild was in Amboseli National Park here in Kenya two years ago," she said in Feb. 2016. "It was life-changing."

"At the current rate of elephant decline, my 6-year-old daughter won't have an opportunity to see an elephant in the wild before she's old enough to vote," she said. "Which just is unacceptable to me, because if that is the case then we have nothing to blame that on but human apathy and greed."

"The Kenya Wildlife Service and other many conservation groups are doing fantastic conservation work," Cuevas said. "However, the reality is that there are other challenges — from a cyber perspective, from a global criminal network perspective — that really necessitate security approaches integrated into conservation strategies."

Enter tenBoma -- or '10 homesteads' -- which uses technology to pull together diverse sources of information, from rangers to conservation groups. She analyzes the data to "create value in information in ways that it rises to the level of intelligence."

Can A White Cube Museum & Conference Center In Lusanga Redress Economic Inequality In The Democratic Republic Of Congo?

A RENDERING OF THE WHITE CUBE IN LUSANGA (IMAGE: © OMA)

Can A White Cube Museum & Conference Center In Lusanga Redress Economic Inequality In The Democratic Republic Of Congo?

With the establishment of LIRCAEI, the iconic modernist White Cube will be recontextualized in the setting that has historically underwritten its development. In economic terms, plantations have funded not just the building of most European and American infrastructure and industries, but also that of museums and universities. On an ideological level, the violence and brutality unfolding on one side—the plantation zones—has informed and haunted the civility, taste and aesthetics championed at the other: the White Cubes. By colliding these two opposite poles of global value chains with each other, LIRCAEI aims to overcome both the monoculture of the plantation system—that exhausts people and the environment and the sterility of the White Cube—a free haven for critique, love, and singularity, that, more often than not, reaffirms class divides.

A RENDERING OF THE WHITE CUBE IN LUSANGA (IMAGE: © OMA)

Doutzen Kroes Leads Knot On My Planet, Igniting Fashion Industry For Elephant Conservation

Doutzen Kroes Leads Knot On My Planet, Igniting Fashion Industry For Elephant Conservation

Sadly, new reports suggest that we are losing ground in the battle to save elephants. The goal of the Knot on My Planet campaign is to raise $15 million for the Elephant Crisis Fund. In addition to Tiffany & Company and these models stepping up for elephants, superwomen Candice Swanepoel, Adriana Lima and Cara Delevigne are on board -- joining Miranda Kerr, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell. These leaders of the campaign will incorporate a knot into their photos on social media to remind people to donate.