CONSERVATION - Not OUR problem?
Pierre le Roux
arbor at cis.co.za
Sun Oct 12 15:13:09 EDT 1997
Dear Leps L readers,
This week I'm attending the workshop on commercialisation of
invertebrate species mentioned in earlier postings.
My views are that one should be able to farm
the common, showy butterflies, preferably for sale as dried material
to overseas collectors. This obviously is a miniscule market, and
would not provide a decent income for a community. The alternative is
to breed massive quantities of a few showy species, and make them into
wall mounts, and sell them specifically with the view of raising
funds for conservation. This should be a workable solution, provided
you can find a chainstore who would do this type of thing.
As you (Chris Conlan) rightly say: This goes against the grain of any descent
scientist, but I have to face the stark realities of living in
Africa: Here, South Africa consumes 3x as much electricity as the
whole of the rest of the continent, and still 60% of our S.A. households
are dependant on wood as their primary fuel source. As you can
imagine, the areas with the highest rainfall were colonised heavily (
to be close to fuel & grazing). This resulted in 80% of the
population living on 2-3% of the land: These are also our prime spots
for biodiversity conservation.
I'm sadly disillusioned with the Leps-L newsgroup: After the big song
and dance about a individual who caught a few hundred non-protected
species in American reserves, I expected at least a couple of
comments on the group about conservation in developing nations, and
hints on what we should try and avoid/implement.
In particular, what would be a good size for a reserve: We have one
thriving example of 12Ha set up for a rare Lyceanid (in the midst of a
upper-middleclass suburb of Johannesburg), and the one I'm
interested in saving, is 1000Ha in extent, housing at least 200
speciesof butterlies, probably more ( A full survey still needs to be done,
and we keep finding 10-30 "new" species whenever a trip is organised. This
prosed reserve is situated right on the edge of a community that is
desperately in need of development assistance, if the woodland is to be saved
from being razed to the ground by wood collecting & grazing. About
10X as many moths are found, and the reserve has been proposed as a
Cycad reserve (Encephalartos transvenosus).
The questions addressed to the group I felt were pertinent, and deserving
of comment, but I have only the comments ( about 130) on the American
situation) and TWO(!) direct replies on my own questions, to take to
this week's workshop.
I hope this is not a general attitude: As long as it does not happen
on MY doorstep, it doesn't bother me.
Regards,
Pierre le Roux Tel&Fax:+(27)-15-583-0084
P.O. Box 8
0929 Levubu
South Africa
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