Guest blog – What all Wise Men and Women Know by Ric Edelman

 

Ric Edelman is a conservationist and creative writer. His new book CHEETAH Caught in Conflict, with illustrations by Iranian artist Sama Soltani, gives 50% royalties to cheetah protection. Ric co-founded Green Light Trust which mentored 60 community woodlands and now brings marginalised groups closer to nature through the learning of conservation skills.

 

My first awakening to what makes conservation work was in the remote rainforest of Papua New Guinea. The second was in my own Suffolk village of Lawshall. And the third was in the harsh Iranian desert.

In Papua New Guinea, my partner Nigel Hughes and I were searching for primary rainforest. We found it in the mountainous Hunstein Range of the Upper Sepik, only to learn that the entire region was earmarked for industrial logging. In alarm, we sat down with the tribal people to listen and learn. We discovered they had no idea what logging meant but were looking forward to the wonderful things that the ‘Big Company’ had promised them. In response, we created an eco-drama that alerted them to the dangers that logging could bring, and reminded them of the wonderful things that they already had in their forest, like a supermarket without a checkout, where everything they needed was there, and free!

Back home, we looked out at the wide Suffolk wheatfields denuded of trees. With our village, we began planting a new community woodland in reciprocity for our continued assistance in protecting the rainforest. Shortly after the first planting day, we received a message that some of the newly planted saplings had been vandalised by a group of lads. Without delay we collared them and asked them to help us repair the damage. Afterwards, we sat down together and asked them why they thought trees might be valuable. Their answers were plentiful, and there and then, they offered to become the vigilantes of the wood! In response, we built an ongoing programme with the school to instil an early love of trees in our local children.

Iran was a different story. As eco-tourists, we travelled to the little-known Iranian desert in search of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus). Here we found almost a war raging between the rangers of the wildlife reserves and the illegal hunters (poachers) who were taking the wild goats, wild sheep and gazelles that are the cheetah’s dwindling prey. Enter a seasoned Reserve Director and an innovative conservation NGO who together had realised that more guns and fences were only making things worse. And they were keen to explain to us why: in the face of severe drought and the bite of Western sanctions, illegal killing of wildlife seemed the only way for local men to put food on their families’ tables. But instead of condemning them, here, too, the conservationists had sat down with the illegal hunters, listened to their needs, and in response, instigated a Poacher to Ranger scheme whereby they could transition from hunter to ranger and earn enough to sustain their families while also sharing their skills and knowledge of the desert for the benefit of all. This time, my own response was to write about their cheetah and so, hopefully, help bring its plight to the world’s attention.

What our new friends, the Iranian conservationists, had learnt was not rocket science, but something they considered a universal truth. “Conservation can only work by changing hearts and minds,” the Reserve Director explained. “All wise men and women know that, but how to achieve it is the question.”

“And your answer?” we asked.

“Time and listening. Listening and respecting. Respecting and ACTION.” We looked out from the small Reserve Centre at the vast desert wilderness with white mountains framing the distance. “Easier said than done,” he smiled. “It takes patience, humility and belief.”

We thought of the villagers in Papua New Guinea. The vandalising lads in our Suffolk village. The fierce-eyed poacher turned ranger that we had met the day before. There were encouraging threads that ran through all three scenarios. Paramount among them the simple truism that conservation and protection only hold when local people want it, when local people understand it, and when local people can afford it.

Although we never saw a cheetah, there are believed to be fewer than 30 adults left, we did come upon their whitened scat, and a tangle of golden hairs on a thornbush!

In the world of hard science, one of our desert guides is now a university researcher championing the cutting-edge branch of conservation called ‘The Human Dimension of Conservation’. This recognises the indivisibility of humans and nature and models digital systems that respect and support both. Its approach is to quantitatively address the values, fears, hopes and needs of local people. The Poacher to Ranger scheme has already pioneered this and proved that it can work.

When we look back, we see that we too were instinctively changing hearts and minds and using the Human Dimension of Conservation in both Papua New Guinea and Lawshall. Urgently, we need the theory put into practice and rolled out across the continents. For when it is achieved, whether scientifically or through intuition, then the Birds of Paradise in the Papua New Guinean forest, the Elephant Hawk Moths in the Lawshall community woodland and the Asiatic cheetah in its last desert home are given a little more hope for their future.

Today, the Hunstein Range forest is still standing. The Lawshall community woodland has grown to twenty-two acres, and earlier this year, two new Asiatic cheetah sub-adults were recorded.

 

 

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