The Bush Bloggers

Submitted by dpinkenya on 25 February, 2008 - 07:22.
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When Bob Dylan was singing about the times changing, I doubt he had in mind a Maasai Moran or a Turkana pastoralist in full traditional regalia negotiating the price of cattle on the international market with a mobile phone in some distant arid landscape.

While mobile phones are undoubtedly the greatest technological revolution in Africa, the next wave of communication technology is grounding itself well beyond urban centers. Like mobile phones which have empowered marginalized communities across Africa, the internet is quickly beginning to bridge that huge gap between those that have access to information and those that don’t. Ironically, the further we get away from traditional social necessities, the more we strive to recreate them in a virtual world. Simple human needs like shopping, dating, chatting and now “blogging”. Blogs, or interactive online diaries, may certainly be new but the practice is as old as keeping a journal. They are actually one and the same thing – the only difference is that it’s public!

Today, there are over 72 million blog sites, making the practice of sharing your daily life and thoughts with the rest of the world one of the fasted growing areas on the internet. Interestingly, the impact of blogs on our world stretches beyond our immediate needs to be heard and is being used more and more to effect change. For example, the first blog-driven political controversy led to the eventual downfall of a U.S. Senate Leader exposed for his white supremacist sympathies.

And it’s not just humans that stand to benefit from access to virtual communication. Dr. Richard Leakey, a household name to anyone with an interest in conservation, has focused his efforts on the power of the medium to address one of the biggest problems in wildlife conservation: “After spending many years struggling to improve wildlife conservation in Kenya, I decided to start WildlifeDirect to solve a very real problem in Africa, the lack of adequate funds to protect our wildlife heritage. Persuading individual donors to give support was not easy because most people are unaware of what is going on in conservation until there is a crisis. I needed to find another way to raise awareness and funds on a continuous basis.” Hence, WildlifeDirect was born. The first of its kind, the organization was conceived as a way of facilitating exchanges between the front lines of conservation and the rest of the world. It brought two worlds together: a global community of sympathisers with good African conservationists.

Take the case of Atama-to Madrandele, a park warden who, in 2005, started working at the Ishango, sub-station of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He carried out his work in almost complete physical and financial isolation. In February 2007, Atamato began to blog on WildlifeDirect about his work. Through this blog he was able to raise some funds to help pay for patrol rations and equipment, as well as salary supplements for his five underpaid rangers (the official pay for a Congolese ranger is about three US dollars per month). From August this year, Ishango has become a fully functional park station, thanks to the donations received through his blog. His men are now fed and have enough fuel to be able to carry out regular patrols.

The previous issue of Swara featured the gorilla crisis in Congo. This was one of several stories written about this critically endangered species in the international television, print and radio media. The daily blogging on WildlifeDirect from rangers working on the ground stimulated a global drive to cover the story. Global awareness about the gorillas in the Virungas has never been so strong. The blog also provided an immediate avenue for desperately needed funding for the rangers who have virtually no support from the national authorities. After the slaughter of the Rugendo gorilla family, the donations reached reached $66,000/ in in the month of August -. The gorilla blog currently earns $18,000/- monthly in direct donations. WildlifeDirect has also managed to bridge the pitfalls of bureaucracy and crippling bank procedures to allow people to donate no matter how small the sum is and to allow the recipient to receive almost instantly. Moreover, for those who work in conservation and development, we all know how hard it is to raise funds for day to day items, salaries and other overheads. The bottom line is people need to eat and we tend to forget this. WildlifeDirect provides a platform for conservationists to raise funds for whatever they need, be it a pair of boots or medical supplies for rangers.

The early success of www.wildlifedirect.org whose operations began in the fall last year, has led to a 10 fold increase in blogs over the last few months with over 40 conservationists from all over Africa and beyond using the blogs to communicate their work and needs. Everyone around the world can play an interactive role in conserving the planet’s endangered wildlife. As Dr. Leakey states, “Not only have we enabled a number of interesting and courageous conservationists to write blogs from the frontline, but I am encouraged that the world is reading, listening, and taking action.”

This article originally appeared in Pambazuka 

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