The Nazinga Game Reserve is just south of Ouagadougou, where I worked in Burkina Faso, West Africa. It was founded by 2 Canadian brothers, Clark and Robert Lungren. They believed that when human prosperity is generated through sustainable management of natural resources, both people and environments win.
The wildlife in the area had been decimated by poaching and drought. So they built dams to maintain the water supply and roads to access the area. Then they hired the best poachers as game wardens. Even before the herds began to recover, they started culling them and selling the meat in the local markets.
By providing jobs to the local villagers and allowing hunting, they got the cooperation of the local municipalities and with the large amount of meat becoming available at reasonable rates in the markets they effectively put the rest of the poachers out of business.
Although they took a lot of criticism for the dams, roads and culling of the herds (including elephants), this is what allowed them to manage the resources and make them profitable. The result was that within 10 years the herds had increased ten fold including 800 elephants and 5000 warthogs. The local communities also benefited and the children were healthier due to the better meat supplies and reduced poverty.
The success of the Nazinga Game Reserve demonstrates that if we want to preserve our natural resources, the best way is to develop them. When they are profitable, they can be protected. If they are not profitable, they will be neglected.
The BC Conservative Party believes in managing our natural resources through environmentally sensible development. This will provide jobs for British Columbians, taxes to support our social structure and value that will allow our natural resources to be protected in perpetuity.
In light of the recent moves by the current BC government to overharvest the provincial forests for short term fiber supply I must clarify that sensible develpment does not mean doing anything you want.
ReplyDeleteThe Burkina Faso government took over the Nazinga Game Reserve and started to over cull the herds for profit. The 2 Canadians were removed and the successes were significantly reduced. There is a lesson in that as well. Management of a resource, whatever it is, is a high responsibility and we must not treat our natural resources as though they were the US mint.