Gambella National Park - must conservation make way for profits?

Gambella National Park - must conservation
make way for profits?

10 May, 2011 | By Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN
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In a remote corner of Ethiopia, not far from the border with the
soon independent South Sudan, the little known Gambela National
Park is found, visited by a very few adventure tourists who, going
by blog reports found on the web, were enchanted by their
experience and raving about their discovery, with few, if any, other
tourists around at any given time of the year, making it one of the
most exclusive safari experiences available on the market today.

This very diverse park, in

terms of scenery and

landscapes, as well as the

game found, does not even

feature on the web very

much as yet, and

information sourced from

there is at times

contradictory, as its size

according to different sites

is pegged between about 5,000 and as many as 20,000 square
kilometers - an incredible variance by any standards and probably
one of the main reasons for this article, as will become evident soon,
in the absence of defined boundaries.

What is, however, beyond doubt is the majesty of the park area,
from the mountains down to the plains and wetlands, which extend
towards the South Sudan border, where according to a source in
Addis Ababa, over 400 species of birds are found, as well as over
50 mammal species, including predators like lion, leopard, cheetah,
hyenas, and a variety of smaller cats and foxes.

The presence in the park of a permanent major river, the Baro,
which flows towards the Nile, adds to the attraction of the park as it
is navigable for much of the year – though reportedly not used for
regular trips by tourists – and its depth and width makes a good
habitat for many hippo colonies and the giant Nile Perch. The most
common plains game are reportedly the white-eared kob, also
found in the hundreds of thousands at Boma National Park in
Southern Sudan, and the Nile or Kafue Lechwe.

Ethiopia as a tourist destination remains well behind its potential,
and while known for its history, ancient cultures, and allegedly
hidden treasures – the mystical Ark is rumored to have been hidden
in Ethiopia somewhere – the country is not too well known for its
national parks.

It is, therefore, probably for lack of demand by tourists, itself, of
course, caused by a lack of determined marketing of the country’s
natural attractions, that an alarming trend has been observed, in
particular around the Gambela National Park.

While it is, of course, true that Ethiopia has in the past been suffering
from devastating droughts and subsequent famine – maybe one
reason why the country is not considered the typical tourist
destination in spite of its attractions – and the parallel need to
produce more food for the population in parts of the country, which
is less prone to drought effects, the agro-industrialization lobby has
now earmarked the national park land to provide more farmland for
expansion. Sadly, for the hungry in Ethiopia, the anticipated
production though is not aimed at the local market but for export to
feed the growing populations in India and the Middle East, where
added farmland is either impossible to get or where climatic
conditions, like in Saudi Arabia for instance, make it impossible to
grow food crops on a large scale in a sustainable fashion.

Hence, officials and tycoons from such countries have sought out
opportunities on the African continent, where governments of
relatively poor countries can easily be induced by grand schemes
and grander cash resources to part with arable land on a major
scale. Hundreds of thousands of acres are in coming years, and
probably sooner rather than later, to be converted into mega farms,
growing food crops, oil crops, and there is even speculation that
crops aimed to produce bio-fuels – the bane of feeding the hungry
in Africa and the rest of the world – are to be grown.

With the expected inflow of farm workers, talk has it that tens of
thousands might be needed, along with whom come roads, villages,
and farm infrastructure. Extensive swamp lands are earmarked for
draining, to use the water and create added farming areas,
interfering with crucially important ecosystems responsible for the
moderate micro-climate this part of Ethiopia enjoys. With the
biodiversity such threatened, environmentalists and conservationists
are starting to ask hard questions, now that these developments are
slowly coming into the public domain, hitherto carefully hidden from
the prying eyes of the conservation community and the global media,
but not this correspondent.

One leading tourism expert in Addis Ababa, with whom this
correspondent is in regular contact, was careful about his reaction
and almost paranoid about not having any identity revealed for fear
of repercussions, something which the regime is notorious for. Said
the source: "Even in Addis, we hear little about the plans for
Gambela. A lot is shrouded in secrecy because of the deals which
have been made, are being made. What Ethiopia should have done
first is to tap into tourism on a scale like Kenya or Tanzania do or
you in Uganda. This park is really not known, only very few know
about it. But the wildlife numbers are very big, the scenery is
spectacular, in fact.

"I hear even across the border into South Sudan they want to tap
into the Boma National Park for tourism where they have also a big
migration of kobs. Last year, I was aware of a global group,
Wildlife Conservation, to work with some officials to survey
Gambela and other wildlife areas. There are reports, but I do not
know where they are kept or if they are available for us to read and
learn about findings. I think our government needs to sit down with
us internal experts and discuss our country’s way forward.

"This should be for all of us to decide, do we want to mortgage our
land to foreign investors or become investors ourselves in tourism
and make it a big industry? Ethiopian Airlines is the best in Africa
and flies to the most places everywhere. Let us work hand-in-hand
with them to promote tourism. It brings investment, jobs, foreign
exchange, and is sustainable. But once we drain swamps, destroy
habitat for crops, the animals will become enemies of the farmer,
because they eat the crops, then they are hunted, fenced out, starve.
I think this story has to become public knowledge, like you did with
the Serengeti story since last year. Please help us spread
information."

Added details obtained from other sources also speak of imminent
displacement of the hunter/gatherer tribespeople living in the area,
who will have to make way for agro conglomerates and either end
up as menial farm laborers or in camps, in both cases losing their
freedoms to do as they wish to and having to give up, likely against
their will, age-old customs and lifestyles. Deforestation is already
evident in parts of the park previously covered by woodlands and
will arguably accelerate further, when firewood will be needed to
fire boilers, for households’ domestic use, and for timber to build
houses.

In closing, it is hoped by this correspondent that a healthy debate
will ensue from here on, and that all pros and cons of these
developments are discussed and affected populations consulted to
ensure the long-term survival of one of Ethiopia’s and, in fact, East
Africa’s last pristine wilderness areas, where with some degree of
careful planning, agriculture and conservation could easily co-exist,
instead of one having to give way to the other by force.

Like "the corridor of destruction" in Tanzania, where from Lake
Victoria to the shores of the Indian Ocean at Mwambani near
Tanga, major consumptive and destructive industrial and
infrastructural projects are being planned and relentlessly advanced
by the Tanzanian government, totally insensitive to the outcry by the
global conservation community and their domestic tourism sector,
here in Ethiopia, too, similar forces seem at work.

Coincidence or the plan of the world’s rich and powerful to carve
up Africa and suck its resources dry before discarding us when we
have nothing else left to give?

Courtesy