A Home for Wildlife
In
the early 1970s, there was a drought in Africa. Millions
of cattle died of thirst and hunger. Crops failed. Without
this livestock and grain, many people starved.
Two young Canadians, Clark and Rob Lungren, grew up in the West African country of Upper Volta, which is now Burkina Faso. They watched with dismay as their hungry neighbors hunted and ate more and more wild animals. Soon there wouldn’t be any animals left. After the last wild animal was gone, the people would still starve.
Then Clark and Rob noticed something else. Wild antelopes survived drought better than cattle did. Wild antelopes also grew well on the area’s bitter plants, which cattle refused to eat.
The brothers wondered: Why not raise wild antelopes here instead of cattle for a dependable supply of food?
Clark and Rob knew that wildlife ranching would save the wild animals from being wiped out in this area. They convinced the government of Burkina Faso to set aside a protected area, which was named the Nazinga Game Ranch. The ranch covered about four hundred square miles—more than 175,000 football fields—of abandoned farmlands that were surrounded by a dozen small villages. The ranch would be just for the wild animals and plants, not for cattle or for farming.
Hot
and Cool Fires
To make the ranch better for wildlife, the government stopped
local people from setting fires in the dry season. These
fires can sometimes make dry plants sprout new leaves. Ranchers
would set these fires to spark new growth for cattle to
eat. But the fires burn hot enough to kill trees and other
large plants.
Clark and Rob encouraged the villagers to use only small fires set at the end of the rainy season, when many plants are still somewhat green and moist. These blazes are called cool fires because they do not become as hot as dry-season fires do. But they also make plants grow new leaves.
The next step was to provide the animals with water all year long. Year after year, local rivers simply dried up after the annual rains ended. Rob built small dams of soil and rocks, and now there is water on the ranch all year.
Wildlife
Goes Wild
This new approach worked. Animal numbers tripled in less
than five years. The ranch is now home to more than thirteen
thousand wild antelopes and warthogs. And there are hundreds
of thousands of smaller mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles.
Because food and water are more plentiful, more animals
can live at the ranch than ever before
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Tourists began coming to Nazinga to see the wildlife because wild animals are scarce outside the ranch. The money that people spend when they visit is used to help run the ranch. Some local villagers have jobs as tour guides. Others work in the restaurant and visitors’ center.
Since the dams were built in the Nazinga Game Ranch, more than thirty kinds of fish now stay year-round. Women from nearby villages use baskets to catch fish in the shallow waters of the river. They preserve the fish by drying them on racks above smoldering campfires, and then they carry the food home.
Many other good things happen in the Nazinga Game Ranch. Women collect a variety of plants for different uses. They use wild plants for medicines, and they gather spices, vegetables, and firewood for cooking. The men collect wild honey and cut some wood for building their houses.
The success of the wildlife ranch has attracted attention. Many people come to the ranch. Students come to study the animals and plants. Nazinga is now a research and training center for Burkina Faso’s new generation of wildlife scientists.
Hunting
for Food
How many animals are now hunted for food in the Nazinga
Game Ranch? Less than ten percent of the antelopes are killed
each year. And most other kinds of animals are not hunted
at all.
We lived in the wildlife ranch for three years. We supervised students, studied the wildlife of the ranch, and helped write the management plan. Although we are not hunters, we learned to accept the hunting of animals for food in some places. In this area of Burkina Faso, it’s necessary.
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| At the end of the dry season, women fish the pools by setting their baskets over the fish. |
Most villagers are proud of the Nazinga Game Ranch and want to protect the wild animals and their habitats. The villagers will probably not go hungry during the next drought because now they can afford to buy the ranch’s low-priced game meat with the cash they earn from their jobs on the ranch. They can also buy grains and other foods that are brought from far away.
The Burkina Faso government also likes the Nazinga Game Ranch. Local people have more food available to them than ever before, and the animals have a better life than they had before, too. There is no longer a conflict between people’s needs and wildlife conservation.
