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A 30-tent camp lodge operated by Somak Holidays and owned by Olkeju Rondkai will soon be open for business – right in the middle of critically endangered black rhino habitat.
Conservationists are furious over the planned opening of a safari lodge in Kenya that is likely to push critically endangered black rhinos closer to the edge of extinction.
Short-term profits vs. the critically endangered black rhino
News of Somak’s rhino-threatening project is circulating fast via social media. The following excerpt from The Sunday Times, 17 January 2010 (UK) is currently posted on Mara Triangle’s Facebook® page:
Leading conservationists have joined in a call to boycott the top safari operator Somak. Jonathan Scott, presenter of the BBC’s Big Cat Diary, and Brian Jackman, the veteran safari writer and Sunday Times contributor, have added their names to a petition on the Care2 campaign website after the company started taking bookings for a controversial hotel that, they argue, will jeopardise the future of the critically endangered black rhino.
In response to the Times, Somak Holidays was quick to issue a press release of the their own, saying if the area was indeed built on a black rhino breeding ground, the company would “act appropriately and withdraw [safari holidays] from sale.”
However, acting on “comprehensive information” provided by Masai Mara National Reserve’s Chief Game Warden, Somak’s PR statement went on to say the camp would not affect the area’s black rhinos.
Also on Thursday 14th January we received a complete document with comprehensive information that claims that the camp in no way affects the rhino population of the Mara …
The report clearly states: None of the rhino population is in the area of the camp … It concludes that the camp will have ‘no significant negative impacts on ecologically significant features in the Mara’.
The “comprehensive information” referenced in Somak Holiday’s press release is actually a 2008 assessment – The Proposed Olkeju Ronkai Camp Development in Masai Mara – apparently written in order to support development of the camp: The document concludes that the lodge site will not affect the small population of 20 – 24 critically endangered black rhinos currently living in the area.
Taking a closer look at the ‘assessment’
The Proposed Olkeju Ronkai Camp Development in Masai Mara is worth a closer look.
The assessment includes a reference that approximately 108 rhinos lived on the reserve in 1972, and that they were “distributed away from the mara riverine forest” at that time. It is then briefly noted that a decline in black rhino population occurred during the period 1972 – 1995.
In 1995, Morgan Davies carried another study on the status of Black rhinos in Masai Mara and he recorded 40 rhinos in 5-home ranges within the reserve. This study revealed a decline of 73% rhinos in the reserve between 1972 and 1995. The results of this study are consistent with the previous finding by Mukinya in 1972, that rhinos were avoiding the mara riverine vegetation.
And the 40 black rhinos have now been reduced to just 20 – 24.
Effects of poaching on black rhino populations: 1970 – 1993
However, what is glaringly absent in the assessment is the fact that during the same time period, Africa’s black rhino population overall suffered a devastating 96% decline in population due to a massive illegal slaughter for rhino horn.
During the last century, the black rhino has suffered the most drastic decline in total numbers of all rhino species. Between 1970 and 1992, the population of this species decreased by 96%. In 1970, it was estimated that there were approximately 65,000 black rhinos in Africa – but, by 1993, there were only 2,300 surviving in the wild.
Apparently, the assessment‘s position is that although black rhinos were being exterminated throughout the rest of Africa, this particular population of black rhinos remained unscathed – and even had the luxury of “deciding” where they would live.
It is indeed troubling to review a black rhino population “assessment” that makes no mention of the effect of poaching, which is acknowledged by conservation experts as the primary reason for the decimation of African rhino numbers.
Before accepting the conclusion that “the present location of Olkeju Ronkai Lodge does not in any way affect the Mara black rhino population as the lodge is sited in an area avoided by the rhinos”, one must stop for a moment and consider the following:
- What would the Mara black rhino population look like without the effects of the poaching rampage in Africa during the early 1970′s through the mid-1990′s?
- Is the riverine vegetation really being “avoided” or has the black rhino population dropped to such a low that any area could be construed as being “avoided” (particularly from 1970 onward)?
- Why is the subject of poaching and its well-documented effect on African rhino populations left out of The Proposed Olkeju Ronkai Camp Development in Masai Mara?
Perhaps the answer lies within the second paragraph of the assessment’s introduction: Tourism in the Reserve is now a major business.
Take action for critically endangered black rhinos
Sign the petition to boycott Somak:
Sources:
Image: istock.com
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