On Safari: The Romance and the Reality

"Africa is a paradox: a savage land, a sensitive land, a fragile land. The continent is where our journey began, where humans developed a brain-to-body ratio out of all proportion to that of any other creature in this living world. Yet it is a place where time stood still for hundreds and thousands of years." So begins Molly Buchanan's ode to --- and chastisement of --- a continent. Or, more precisely, the wildlife conservation efforts of a continent. Many of us like to indulge in a sort of collective fantasy, one where Africa reigns as the final bastion of diverse animal and plant life. To some degree, this was true until the late nineteenth century. Then, over the next fifty years, a complex combination of land mismanagement, human encroachment, civil strife, and indiscriminate hunting permanently destroyed many species while bringing others to the threshold of extinction. In an effort to halt this negative eco-publicity, countries like Uganda and Kenya outlawed professional hunting in the 1970s. The results were unexpected and appalling. According to Richard Bonham, owner of the Ol Donyo Wuas Lodge near spectacular Mount Kilimanjaro, "When the hunters moved out, the poachers moved in. Nearly 90 percent of Kenya's elephants were slaughtered in the following decade." The clash, as always, involves human economics vs. animal need. Fifty-three African nations are, like much of the world, trying to buy into The Great Dream symbolized by our Western lifestyle standards. The Masai farmer/ cattle rancher wants greater wealth for his children. Accordingly, he is willing to set out poison for the lions that prey upon his livestock. One method of bridging the gap between the needs of man and nature is ecotourism. Preservation of wildlife is necessary to bring in tourist dollars. Where once the wealthy few went on safari (with the express purpose of killing) today's travelers are from a broad cross-section of middle and upper class households. Thankfully, the emphasis has shifted to image capture, the deathless commitment of picture to film or digital memory. But things are rarely that simple, are they? Even with the assistance of notables such as Nelson Mandela, Dave Varty, Richard Leakey, Valli Moosa, Ian Player, Colin Bell and many others, the issue retains its barbed intricacies. There is a section on the excesses of ecotourism. Buchanan offers an example of how even good intentions can be overwhelmed by the "too muches." As thousands of people climb Kilimanjaro each year, pathways are being worn into the mountainside. During frequent rainstorms, the paths become funnels carrying topsoil into the Pangani River whose source is on Kilimanjaro. "It has recently been discovered that the coral reefs on the stretch of coastline where the Pangani . . . reaches the sea are dying because they are covered in silt." Despite the brevity of this book, Buchanan manages to state succinctly the myriad problems facing attempts to preserve this continent's uniq