African Wildlife and Environment Issue 67

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

which has been vocal in the human wildlife field, and is considered by some to be controversial. However, I was intrigued by the ecological and sociological implications of the project, and I needed to make my own conclusions. Indirectly I already had some background knowledge relating to the project, not just as an ecologist with hands-on experience from the rangelands in Australia, but also because I knew a little more about the subject locally. I had been an external examiner for post-graduate students from UCT and UWC (where my colleagues and their students had been working with communal herders in Namaqualand and Bushmanland for a decade or two). Now, several months later I am totally supportive of the ‘Shepherding back Biodiversity’ project, and here are some of my reasons why: 1. To my astonishment I have discovered there is little published, scientific evidence that predators kill ‘many’ lambs. Yes, lambs do succumb in significant numbers in the lambing season, and yes predators do scavenge on the carcases. But there is very little direct evidence to conclusively demonstrate that the jackal and caracal being targeted are the actual killers. This fact also applies to wolves and coyotes in North America, dingoes in Australia, and pumas in South America. 2. Livestock farmers in South Africa have been proactively slaughtering predators for well over 100 years, yet: ‘The problem still exists!’ I find this fact most interesting. Thus, despite huge amounts of “predator-proof” fencing, shooting, poisoning

The Nama Karoo eco-region

As such commercial farmers have declared war on all predators, and to this day predators are still being killed by fair or foul means. All of this ecological disturbance is sanctioned by the ‘authorities’, and even some researchers! Sometimeago Iwasapproachedby representatives of the Landmark Foundation who asked if I would be interested in getting involved with a new project on some 22 000 ha of land northwest of Beaufort West called ‘Shepherding back Biodiversity’. Right up front I must say that several people ‘warned’ me not to get involved with the Landmark Foundation,

Photograph: Dominik Käuferle

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