Linking People to the Planet

 I've been watching lectures from the WCN - Wildlife Conservation Network. It's amazing to see what they've done. Most people don't realize that the most important way to help animals is to work with people. Especially people who live near those wild animals. In most cases, those local people had been living in balance with the world for thousands of years, until western culture came in and screwed everything up. Now they're worried about keeping their families fed, healthy, and alive. No one cares about wild animals when their family doesn't have food or medicine. Once they have reliable resources, they can turn their energy to protecting the wildlife around them.

Here are a few of my favorite stories of how WCN groups have worked with the locals.

When researchers set out camera traps, it's very common for poachers or other people to go out and steal the cameras. But in this area, when locals spotted the cameras, they did a dance to leave silly pictures. 

In another area, the locals named all of the lions that lived there. That gave them something like a sense of ownership over the lions, along with the desire to protect them.

 

 

Ranchers will kill cheetahs that might threaten their livestock. This conservation group got most of the ranchers to live peacefully with the cheetahs by using livestock guarding dogs and such. But a few people continued to kill a huge number of the rare cats. Then they stumbled upon a brilliant idea. One of these ranchers had a daughter. So when they trapped a cheetah that had been on the rancher's land, they named it after the girl. They had a tracker on this cheetah, and the rancher and his daughter watched as this cat roamed all around the country, and finally came back to their land. By then, they were so attached to this cheetah that they actually said it was fine if she ate some of their cattle. I think the cheetah even had cubs on their land! 

 

So if you can, send support to the WCN. Our world needs so much help, and these people are doing amazing work.