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As part of a scheme to revamp its national parks to promote tourism and protect wildlife, Kenya on Thursday launched a new project to conserve the famed Tsavo East and West National Parks, home to the country's largest populations of elephants. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said the 1.25-million-dollar (1.02-million-euro) project would enhance park operations, rehabilitate infrastructure, improve law enforcement, research and conservation as well as reduce human-wildlife conflicts. KWS said it needs more funds to protect the 21,000-square-kilometer (8,100 square-mile) Tsavo parks, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of the capital, which is regarded as a nexus for human-wildlife conflict. "Bandits, bushmeat hunters and human-wildlife conflict pose a serious threat to biodiversity within this ecosystem," KWS chairman Daniel Ndonye said. "To manage these threats, KWS needs rangers, fuel, aircraft and field worthy vehicles for effective patrols and anti-poaching operations," he said. Currently, KWS is moving 400 elephants from an overcrowded reserve near the Indian Ocean coast to Tsavo, to add to the estimated 10,581 already there. But a survey carried out last year found that more than 90,000 livestock from farms on the edges of the parks were encroaching into the protected space and possibly affecting the elephants living there. Created in 1948, East and West Tsavo - collectively known as Tsavo ecosystem - are home to the largest single populations of elephants and rhinos in Kenya in addition to 60 other mammal species and more than 400 bird species. All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links TerraDaily Search TerraDaily Subscribe To TerraDaily Express 
Grand Banks' Cod Stocks Being Decimated: WWF
Ottawa (AFP) Sep 20, 2005Mostly foreign trawlers, but also some Canadian fishing vessels have indiscriminately devastated fish stocks in the Grand Banks, off Canada's east coast, the World Wildlife Fund Canada said Tuesday. |
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