Bush-bashing: Kenya's answer to conservation

Tuesday, May 28, 2002
By Isa Omok, Reuters

NAIROBI, Kenya — Crashing through the Kenyan bush in a four-wheel drive, scaring off elephants, being winched up steep cliffs, and plowing through swamps and rivers is not everyone's idea of a fun day out.
But year after year, 55 teams of daredevil drivers head to Kenya's wildest regions to compete in the Rhino Charge, using compasses, axes, ropes, and a lot of ingenuity to navigate the shortest distance around a course revealed only the night before.

Yet the Rhino Charge, to be held this year on June 1, is not only about adrenaline and bush-bashing. The event began in 1988, the brainchild of conservationists wanting to raise money to keep poachers away from rhinoceros and marauding rhinoceros away from nearby farms.

Its focus is the Aberdare Conservation Area in central Kenya, home to several thousand elephants, buffalo, leopard, forest hogs, and one of the last remaining strongholds of the black rhino, poached mercilessly for its horn in the 1980s.

The Aberdare mountain range is also home to more than a million farmers who use its rich soils and rainfall to grow 70 percent of Kenya's coffee and 30 percent of its tea. Rhino Charge set out to raise money to build a 200-mile, game-proof fence around the entire Aberdare Conservation Area, intended to keep poachers out and animals, who were threatening crops close by, in.

"Not only could poachers have easy access, but game was able to maraud at night into the park border farms, destroying crops and creating fear and loss of both revenue and, on occasion, lives too," said Colin Church, chairman of the Rhino Ark management committee that runs the Rhino Charge. "The situation fueled an already volatile community who saw no value in conserving either the wildlife or the forest habitat."

PUNISHING TERRAIN

The location of the Rhino Charge changes every year but is always guaranteed to be one of the most rigorous tests of navigation, driving skills, and improvisation in the world.

The aim of the game is to get from A to B via numerous checkpoints, covering as short a distance as possible. Crews have to coax their vehicles up cliffs, through bogs, and around bushes covered in thorns. Scouts run ahead to check if the route is viable, though many choose to proceed even if it is not — pushing, winching, chopping down small trees, sometimes virtually defying gravity. The course, though it may be less than 25 miles, can take up to 10 hours.

Each vehicle taking part in the Charge, several of which come from overseas, must raise as much money as it can with a bottom limit set at 100,000 shillings (US$1,280). The number of entrants is limited to 55 to minimize environmental impact.

To date, Rhino Charge has raised $1.5 million, and by October the fence will cover 100 miles, half its projected length. According to Church, the project needs another $2.25 million to complete the fence, which is electrified and strong enough to resist elephant pressure. Rhino Ark also wants a further $2.5 million to set up a trust to manage it.

As well as the Rhino Charge, there are several other fund-raising events organized by Rhino Ark, including the Hog Charge, a children's mountain biking event, and Rhino Charge U.K. — a British, slightly toned down version of the Kenyan challenge. All money raised goes into building the Aberdare fence.

PROJECT HAILED A SUCCESS

A report by Zoo Atlanta, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and the Kenya Forest Department suggests the project is working. "As a method of discouraging conflict between wildlife and humans and especially the damage to crops caused by larger mammals, the fence has proved to be a very effective tool," the report said.

Local farmers agree. "When wild animals are on their side, there is no longer a problem," said Felicitus Nyambura, whose farm runs alongside the fence. "It will be good when everyone has a fence like the one along my farm. Just killing animals is no answer. And we must not let our forests be destroyed."

As well as boasting abundant wildlife, the Aberdare Conservation Area is a major water-catch area, supplying water to the 2 million residents in the capital Nairobi, 60 miles to the south. Deforestation would threaten that supply, and on top of reducing human-wildlife conflict, the fence is also intended to keep out loggers.

Church says the fence, already the longest conservation fence in east Africa, has brought harmony to the area, letting farmers sleep easy at night knowing no animals can come to destroy their crops.

"The project is a pioneer in the concept that both humans and wildlife can live in harmony from shared natural resources, brought together by a common fence boundary," he said. "Once complete it will protect for posterity one of Africa's greatest conservation regions with its abundant wildlife, indigenous forest, and mountain upland."

Copyright 2002, Reuters
All Rights Reserved