13 Jan Five Threatened Species that Benefit from Your Travels
When the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2014 came out on September 30, it was staggering news. Between 1970 and 2010, population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by 52 percent.
Added to that are the many recent headlines about rampant wildlife poaching and the destruction of habitats, as the exploding human population demands more and more space and resources. It’s enough to make us feel that there is nothing we can possibly do to protect the animals that we still do have.
But there is. Several species have benefitted — even, perhaps, been saved from extinction — by your traveling to see them, as evidenced by the five below:
1. African lion
Maasai Mara Safari by MudflapDC is licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
It’s hard to imagine the Africa savannas without prides of wild lions. But in the last thirty years, lion numbers across the whole of the continent have been decimated. Listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, African lion populations have plummeted by an estimated 30 percent in the last two decades. Now, fewer than 25,000 lions remain in Africa. The top threats to the big cats include loss of habitat, reductions in prey, and defensive killings by humans to protect livestock.
Going on a lion-viewing tour, however, can help protect these animals. Traveling to Africa to see lions demonstrates to people in local communities that conserving the wildlife that surrounds them can provide income and create jobs. Local residents then become interested in keeping their lions safe and in minimizing human-animal conflicts.
For example, Kenya owes its status as a popular eco-destination — it hosts more than 500,000 tourists per year — to its megafauna, which includes the Big Five wildlife species: Cape buffaloes, elephants, leopards, lions, and rhinoceroses. Because of robust tourism, the country now has fifty-four national parks and reserves for wildlife, as well as an increasing number of private and community-owned ranches and sanctuaries.
In South Africa, Kruger National Park beckons more than 1.4 million visitors per year, and a big draw is the park’s lions. Because of its popularity, the park, in turn, employs around 60,000 people. Each of those employees uses goods and services from the surrounding region, so it’s estimated that Kruger as a whole supports somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 people. Your visit there, then, helps ensure that South Africa keeps its wildlife populations and ecosystems as healthy as possible.
A low human-population density along with an immense tract of well-preserved parklands has made Zambia a main refuge for the African lion. Located in the center of the country is Kafue National Park, one of the largest in Africa. In recent years, the number of safari camps and lodges in the park has grown in order to accommodate those on Zambia wildlife-viewing tours. That has brought with it more financial investment in the area, notably with the building of a number of roads and airstrips. As a consequence, wildlife here is beginning to enjoy an increased level of protection from the Zambian Wildlife Authority.
2. Monarch butterflies
Monarchs in motion by Tarnya Hall is licensed by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Every fall, tens of millions of monarchs undertake a remarkable, 3,000-mile journey from the northeastern U.S. and Canada to their wintering grounds in the volcanic mountains of central Mexico. But in the highlands where the butterflies gather, poverty is the norm. To make ends meet, many locals have turned to illegal logging. Because of this habitat destruction, the continued survival of the monarch butterflies is threatened. The thinner the forests become, the more vulnerable the monarchs.
The Mexican government has sent federal marshals to thwart the illegal logging, but it’s hard for locals to care about butterflies when their families are hungry. Logging is lucrative, and farmers can use cleared land to raise crops.
Monies generated by ecotours to see the migratory phenomenon of the monarch butterflies can be used to incentivize farmers not to log their property. Instead, they gain financially from reforestation efforts, and the butterflies benefit from an undisturbed habitat.
3. Mountain gorillas
Photo by Eric Rock, courtesy of Natural Habitat Adventures.
Capture for the illegal pet trade, destruction of its forest habitat, disease, and uncontrolled hunting have plagued the mountain gorilla for at least a hundred years. The most serious of these threats is habitat loss due to extensive deforestation in order to create farmland.
In the past few years, the popularity of “gorilla tourism” has become a vital conservation fundraising tool and important source of revenue for local people, making them less dependent on subsistence farming. The need for new farmland has decreased due to gorilla-trekking tours, and the rate of deforestation has dramatically slowed.
In Uganda, for example, income from tours to see mountain gorillas accounts for approximately 80 percent of the national wildlife authority’s overall budget. In fact, the presence of mountain gorillas finances the bulk of wildlife and habitat conservation throughout the country. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that annually every gorilla brings in $1 million in revenue for Uganda. And in Rwanda, according to the Rwanda Development Board, tourism revenues have almost doubled in the last five years, now accounting for 7.8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.
While a typical tourist’s main objective is to encounter a mountain gorilla, he or she usually ends up visiting other parks and attractions in the region, as well. So, gorillas provide a source of employment on both the local and national levels. Because of mountain gorilla tours, local communities and governments now see the animals as a valuable commodity — one that needs to be protected. The population of mountain gorillas has increased from 620 individuals in 1989 to around 880 today.
4. Rhinoceroses
Pair of rhinos by Chris Eason is licensed by CC BY 2.0.
Another of Africa’s Big Five wildlife species is the rhinoceros. These animals are endangered as a result of habitat loss and, more significantly, poaching for a market in Southeast Asia that believes rhino horn can cure a variety of maladies — a notion for which there is no medical basis. In order to save the ever-dwindling population, education and a large amount of money are required.
Luckily, as it is with lions, many people travel to Africa expressly to see a rhino. The money that rhinoceroses bring in through ecotourism helps parks such as the Mokolodi Nature Reserve in Botswana, Kruger National Park and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, and the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Indonesia to conduct research on rhino populations and habitats, create large natural areas in which to breed and rehabilitate rhinoceroses, and enforce security and enact legislation that will prevent or deter illegal poaching and excessive habitat destruction.
The Kenya Wildlife Service recently re-introduced twenty black rhinos into Ruma National Park for the sole purpose of promoting tourism. The animals had been removed from the park in the 1950s due to poaching.
5. Spirit bears (Kermode bears)
Photo by Elise Lockton, courtesy of Natural Habitat Adventures.
The Great Bear Rainforest encompasses twenty-one million acres of fjords, ocean channels, rainforest, river valleys, and thousands of islands on the north and central coast of British Columbia, Canada. This roadless place is home to populations of black bears; grizzly bears; salmon-eating coastal wolves; humpback whales; orcas; and the rare, white black bear known as the spirit bear.
In fact, there are only about 400 spirit bears left in the world today, and they all live on British Columbia’s Princess Royal Island or on surrounding islands.
Unfortunately, the spirit bears’ home is in danger. Industrial logging, mining, and oil pipelines in the forest could contribute to the extinction of this rare and endangered animal. But these industries provide jobs for the local communities, many of which are indigenous First Nations. Until recently, it was the only way for rainforest residents to make a living.
In 2001, First Nations representatives, the British Columbia government, environmental organizations, and industry stakeholders met to discuss future governing and protection of the Great Bear Rainforest. A moratorium was adopted preventing logging in still unlogged rainforest valleys, and First Nations communities signed several agreements establishing their own ecotourism ventures as further sources of income. As the British Columbia government has stated, ecotourism will be “key for the conservation of this rainforest and the Kermode bear.”
When you begin planning your next adventure, be sure to check out Adventure Collection’s wildlife trips. It could be the most important thing you can do to protect the wildlife you love to see.
Here’s to your adventures, in whatever corner of the world you find them,
Candy
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