Humans and Wildlife – Who’s Protecting Who?

RICHARD LEAKEY – Humans and Wildlife

Celebrating three decades of Pulse of the Planet, here’s a program from our archives.
When Richard Leakey became director of Kenya’s Wildlife Services, he faced a challenge shared by national parks and game reserves around the world. Can the conflicting needs of humans and wildlife be reconciled? I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Ambience, Wildebeasts
We’re listening to the sounds of Wildebeasts, one of the many animals who make their home in Kenya’s National Parks. Richard Leakey —

Leakey: My impression is that everbody in Kenya recognizes the importance of wildlife economically. There is no doubt that it is a net contributor to the central exchequer; that it does bring tourism, tourism is a major employer, and that the overall picture is positive. However, there are a large number of rural people, being adjacent to the national parks, who are directly affected by the wildlife interests. We have had a situation for a good number of years where elephants, buffalo, and other game will often leave the park and go into farmland and cause enormous damage, and destroy not just crops that have economic importance to the country, but destroy the whole livelihood of individual families who had expected to harvest crops that would see them through the next twelve months. As long as we have that sort of destruction, politically it’s going to be very hard to justify major conservation efforts in Kenya. My hope, as director of wildlife, is to be able to carry out programs which will lessen the conflict; that will put people and animals closer together in the sense of the people realizing that they have direct as well as indirect benefit from the wildlife industry. But, to do that, we must make sure that the wildlife ceases to be a problem to the rural people’s livelihood.”

In future programs, we’ll look at some of the solutions proposed by Mr. Leakey.

This archival program is part of our thirtieth anniversary celebration. If you want hear more, check out our podcast. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet

Humans and Wildlife - Who's Protecting Who?

Remembering conservationist Richard Leakey: If you farm near a wildlife park, what's to prevent a buffalo from trampling your crops?
Air Date:04/05/2022
Scientist:
Transcript:

RICHARD LEAKEY - Humans and Wildlife Celebrating three decades of Pulse of the Planet, here's a program from our archives. When Richard Leakey became director of Kenya's Wildlife Services, he faced a challenge shared by national parks and game reserves around the world. Can the conflicting needs of humans and wildlife be reconciled? I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Ambience, Wildebeasts We're listening to the sounds of Wildebeasts, one of the many animals who make their home in Kenya's National Parks. Richard Leakey -- Leakey: My impression is that everbody in Kenya recognizes the importance of wildlife economically. There is no doubt that it is a net contributor to the central exchequer; that it does bring tourism, tourism is a major employer, and that the overall picture is positive. However, there are a large number of rural people, being adjacent to the national parks, who are directly affected by the wildlife interests. We have had a situation for a good number of years where elephants, buffalo, and other game will often leave the park and go into farmland and cause enormous damage, and destroy not just crops that have economic importance to the country, but destroy the whole livelihood of individual families who had expected to harvest crops that would see them through the next twelve months. As long as we have that sort of destruction, politically it's going to be very hard to justify major conservation efforts in Kenya. My hope, as director of wildlife, is to be able to carry out programs which will lessen the conflict; that will put people and animals closer together in the sense of the people realizing that they have direct as well as indirect benefit from the wildlife industry. But, to do that, we must make sure that the wildlife ceases to be a problem to the rural people's livelihood." In future programs, we'll look at some of the solutions proposed by Mr. Leakey. This archival program is part of our thirtieth anniversary celebration. If you want hear more, check out our podcast. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet