In a village in Kenya, farmers are threatening to kill a large number of wild animals who are intruding into their farms and destroying their crops, unless authorities take hold of the situation. The farmers only gave a two-weeks notice. In Laikipia county, there is a fear that the problem a food shortage won't be addressed despite efforts, because elephants are destroying the crops. The concerns for human death caused by wildlife have steadily increased and are becoming a serious concern of co-existence with the minority ethnolinguistic groups.
These incidents in Kenya are not isolated ones. Across the world, farming is slowly creeping into areas that used to belong to wildlife. Industrialization has forced these farmers to move more into the interiors encroaching wildlife sanctuaries. Death on both humans and animals continue to grow in number and it is alarming.
While poachers are often blamed for the death of wildlife, there is another more serious problem that needs careful attention - the troubling co-existence of farmers and wild animals in a given area.
How do authorities address this problem? When peace talks are not an option, it is important that humans find a solution to it and the death of wildlife should not be the best option. The crisis must be death with by allowing a truce among rural communities, the government and the conservation arm of the government. The benefits that come with protecting wildlife should be shared by all three. The burden put on the shoulders of the locals is making survival in the wild a problem for both humans and animals.
It is important that the farmers see the value of co-existing with these animals, rather than seeing them as a threat to their livelihood. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will hold a conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka in May 2019. The meeting will present a key opportunity for a truce among the concerned individuals and communities. Representatives from its 182-member countries will come together to help regulate the traded more than 35,000 wildlife species. This could help push forward various conservation strategies in a new direction. Perhaps, in the process, they could consider how such conservation policies could help the local community co-survive with these wildlife creatures.
Experts in wildlife conservation continue to find justification in the grounds of keeping human life secure. However, the rapid decline in the survival of protective measures must draw a bigger picture so that the world can see where the problem lies.
Is the problem in the inefficiency of wildlife conservation? Or is it in the overpopulation that causes humans to push back in? Or perhaps it is in the lack of proper information that made co-existence a problem? Ultimately, rural communities and the governments in Africa are waiting to see what discussions during the CITES will lead to.
