Wildlife in Africa
Then . . . and Now

By George W. Frame

	Patas monkeys are often on the ground during the day. They climb trees to escape from predators, to sleep, and to find fruits.

“Yai, Yai, Yai, Yai, Yai!” My young friend Souleymane ran, shouting and waving a stick. A dozen baboons screamed and ran from the field, some of them still holding ears of corn. When they reached the edge of the field, two big male baboons turned and yawned their toothy threats. Souleymane rushed at them again, rattling a tin can with pebbles in it. “You leave our maize alone!”

It was the eleventh time since yesterday morning. The raiders came just as the corn was ripening, of course: porcupines, elephants, warthogs, monkeys, bushbucks, birds, and now baboons! Souleymane watched the animals escape into the safety of the Nazinga Forest, a place in Burkina Faso, Africa, where the government protects wildlife.

Elephants have huge appetites. They also trample many plants that they don’t eat.

It had been backbreaking work to cultivate the stony soil. And this was the result! Nearly a quarter of the crop was lost to raiding animals. Souleymane’s father would be angry with him.

Souleymane wept. There would be no extra maize to sell to pay for his school fees or to buy the radio his mother longed for. They would be lucky if there was enough maize left to feed the family until next year’s harvest. If his father had to sell the family’s last cows and goats to buy food or medicine, then there would be no more milk for the family.

In the Nazinga Forest, Souleymane saw a tourist vehicle full of people who came from far away to look at the animals.

“Yai! Who cares what a wart-hog looks like?” Souleymane said. He felt frustrated by the wild animals, and he resented the forest reserve that protected them.
That was more than twenty years ago, when I was working in Africa as a wildlife ecologist. Most governments then were using a preservation approach to protect wildlife. To create safe places for animals, the governments had taken farmland. Deprived of land, people often were unable to get enough food to eat.

	At night, when people are sleeping, bushbucks may eat their crops.

Recently I was back in Burkina Faso, working with Souleymane in the new Nazinga Game Ranch. The ranch is a protected area of about four hundred square miles, and it includes the Nazinga Forest and adjacent lands. Souleymane showed me how his village has changed since the country has taken a different approach, called conservation.

Souleymane is now grown up. He has his own family to feed, and he raises his own crops. He showed me where warthogs had dug up his sweet potatoes. His little son Karim looked shame-faced. It was his job to chase animals out of the garden. But Souleymane shrugged it off. He liked warthogs, he said. I was surprised to hear him say that.

Souleymane with his sons Ainik (left) and Karim (right).

“The animals bring me money!” Souleymane explained. “I now have a job guiding tourists.”

Everyone in the village seemed to appreciate the value of wildlife. A part of the game ranch’s money had been used to build a medical clinic. And a few years before that, the Nazinga Game Ranch helped to build a school in another village. Now a new deep well is being planned, so Souleymane’s village will have clean, safe water.

“What if more animals raid the crops?” I asked.

“It’s little! We can share our crops,” Souleymane said.

This new approach to wildlife protection in Africa is catching on and spreading quickly. Before, outsiders told the villagers, “Don’t touch!” Now the villagers themselves say, “These animals and plants are our treasures. We will take care of them.” That’s a big change, I thought.

“We have a new idea,” Souleymane said. “My village and the other villages that surround Nazinga will let one-third of our least-productive pastures and farmlands grow back to wilderness. Then more wildlife will return.”

Again I was surprised. Twenty years before, villagers had been cutting down forest to get more and more cropland. Nobody dreamed of giving farmland back to the wildlife!

“On these lands,” Souleymane explained, “the government has agreed to set safe quotas and let us hunt wild animals for meat, just as our parents and ancestors once did. We also will receive half the fees tourists pay for licenses to hunt on our lands. That is much more money than our little cash crops would bring. My children will all go to school this year.”

“And with management there will be more wild animals than ever before,” I added.

“Yes,” Souleymane agreed happily.

Conservation Compared with Preservation Conservation is the use of natural resources in ways that allow animals and plants to be replenished. Conservation searches for ways that both wildlife and people can use the land and survive. Preservation means that the animals and plants are saved, but none can be used by people. Preservation is fine for the wildlife. But sometimes it has not been good for people. A village in southwestern Burkina Faso.