I am in my 6th year in the Karoo of
South Africa. Everyday it reminds me of the Serengeti in
Tanzania and Masai Mara in Kenya where I spent 22 years.
The change of land-use back to wildlife is
living proof that if you fence in a large ecosystem that
relies on isolated rain storms and mobility of wildlife, you
kill it stone dead. It is proof that if you work in partnership with
nature, it rewards you richly.
Kenyan and Tanzanian conservationist and
politicians could do well to visit the Karoo and see how a
productive system that operates under a migratory system, can be killed by wire fences.
South African conservationists and
politicians could do well to look at the “Tiger Canyons
Experiment” as examples of how a large “Serengeti of the
South” could and should be created and at least a part of
the once great springbuck migrations and diversity of
wildlife that once graced these areas be recreated.
