Tales from An Internship [With The World Wildlife Fund-Namibia, Africa]

Recent News.

2011-02-06T21:04:00.002+02:00

Greetings Readers:

I've been incredibly busy with grad school in NYC to even begin to think about posting and following up with life post-Namibia. But I'd like to direct your attention to a wonderful"Prairie Fire" article that my ranch neighbor and co-Namibia traveler, Sarah Sortum, created to demonstrate the challenges of staying on the land and the ecological issues, and what landowners are doing to take initiative collectively to hopefully direct things in a new direction. Sarah is doing an outstanding job leading this effort back home, and she deserves a huge shout-out for a great article. I'm truly excited about the collective effort and can't wait to return to the land soon and help out more directly in the process.

http://www.prairiefirenewspaper.com/2011/02/the-economics-of-grassland-birds

Also, I didn't realize that a photo familiar to many of the long haul followers was selected as a National Geographic Photo of the Day and taken in Namibia's Etosha National Park after conducting a game count on a local concession with World Wildlife Fund staff. A wonderful new friend in Manhattan contacted me about having a very large print of this photo being displayed in her Financial District apartment, and I had no idea what she was talking about when she first asked about the photo and where it ended up. Quick google research brought about a wonderful surprise.

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/elephants-etosha-national-park/

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Grad School News

2010-02-17T16:59:00.000+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers:

I want to announce that I will be attending Columbia University's School of International and Public Administration to work on a Masters in Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy. I've accepted the offer officially as of yesterday and I'm very excited about what awaits me in New York City. The competition was tough and I was accepted before the final deadline, so it makes me feel good that Columbia selected me so early in the process.

Thank-you so much everyone who has supported me in the process, both abroad in Namibia and back home in the States.

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Lincoln Journal Star Article

2010-01-18T01:02:00.002+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers:

http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/article_1691be98-0313-11df-8cfc-001cc4c002e0.html

I bring to you great news! My internship with WWF-Namibia was featured as a front page Sunday feature today with 5 of my pictures taken during my journeys. Joe Duggan from the LJS is a great story teller and did a great job summarizing my experiences and showing the link between Namibia and the Sand Hills of Nebraska.

Weather and a flat tire on Joe's car almost stopped the story from running on the press, but I was so happy to finally be able and sit down with such a great agricultural reporter. Its not everyday one has an opportunity to speak about issues and reach out to people, and I took every second with him seriously.

Its been a roller coaster of delayed printings, weather issues to come and talk to Joe in person, and required lots of patience. And it was a huge surprise for me to hear word that this story was going to potentially contend with front page! I've truly learned the power that images can carry in journalism and making things happen.

But it was all I could do to get my hands on a copy! I first read the story late at night on my black berry. This weekend I was with the family in Omaha celebrating a belated Christmas celebration due to extreme blizzards around the past holidays. I couldn't get my hands on a physical copy till I reached Lincoln, because everyone in Omaha was carrying The World Herald instead!

A huge smile rushed over my face when I finally stopped at a Kum and Go just off of the 27th st exit in Lincoln and the guy gave me a weird look when I bought 7 copies!

I hope you all enjoy the story!

http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/article_1691be98-0313-11df-8cfc-001cc4c002e0.html

ABC Nightline Video

2010-01-14T19:55:00.002+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers:

Some of you may remember blog posts about helping conduct the largest wildlife game count in the world in early June. That was during my second week in Namibia and ABC's Dan Harris came out to help cover the event with his producer Almin Karamehmedovic.

I had a wonderful time on the count and waited with great anticipation for the video to air on TV. Its finally finished and you can find a link to the story here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/namibia-animal-count/story?id=9502704

Also, look in the text in the website. They took two of my photos from that trip and posted them with the story! Having my photos on the website is so inspiring to me and a great honor.

Well, I'm putting the final touches on a grad school application and need to reload on some heavily caffeinated Starbucks. Its worth noting my family will finally be able to celebrate Christmas in Omaha, Nebraska this weekend too! The horrible blizzard weather we've received [two blizzards thus far] have finally loosened their grip. I long for the warm Namibia days and sun bathing by the pool after work!

Hope all is well in your worlds!

Cheers!

Aaron

PS: I'm sure you've all heard about the horrible events in Haiti. Please consider donating to help the 100,000+ deceased individuals' families and relief efforts underway.

https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?4306.donation=form1&idb=316462341&df_id=4306&JServSessionIdr004=y3aqcqkws2.app197b

Winter Wounderland: St. Paul, Nebraska

2009-12-17T03:22:00.010+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers!

Currently, I'm working on a presentation for my Welcoming Home Party my family is throwing for me this Sunday, and its been great to review what I've learned in Namibia and decide which 50 photos will be shown!

I've been recovering quickly from my jet lag and it feels so good to be home on the family farm in St. Paul, Nebraska. The last few mornings and evenings I've been walking around taking in the scenery with the red dog.

Here are some of the views! I hope you enjoy!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

My Last Post In Namibia: More to Continue

2009-12-12T09:57:00.003+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers:

There is some type of mysterious pull between Southern Africa and the Nebraska Sand Hills.

The beginning of my Namibian journey started on my family ranch, Gracie Creek Ranch. It took 7 miles of gravel road and 5 hours of driving to drop me off at the Omaha Airport. But this learning exchange program with WWF has been the continuation of a process that started with my granddad Jim Price and my father back in the 1970’s and recently my networks at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Our 30+ year rotational grazing plan was inspired by the South African natural scientist, Allan Savory, who had his critics here in the United States about rotational grazing, wildlife and cattle, and the “big picture” ideas. Our ranch is all the better now and we’re looking to the “next level” with our neighbors to build scale. Today, Savory’s Holistic Idea is a foundation in “sustainable” practices and my dad was one of the first practitioners of the idea in Nebraska with other neighbors.

And now, here I am, learning about farm management practices directly from the people on the ground in Namibia dealing with the various wildlife, agricultural, and development issues termed “the greatest untold African conservation story ever” with my neighbors the Switzers. The context of conservation here doesn’t necessarily mean the exclusion of all land use practices like cattle ranching for example. Things have a way of melding together in Namibia.

The wildlife population increases and benefits derived from sustainable natural resource use at the community levels through tourism, hunting and meat sales, speak volumes, and I have been so fortunate to live, work, and learn with people who made the previous statement possible.

Who would have guessed we’d find new inspiration in Namibia, Africa? Maybe it’s natural when it started in South Africa with Savory. Things have a way of coming around again.

Namibia has been an amazing experience for me –to say the least. Everyone told me before I left, “This is going to be a life changing experience for you.”
My Namibia experience definitely was more then anything I expected.

One expects things like this to happen if you’re open in the process, but you never can know how far things will go or how much you’ll grow as a person. This was the beauty of my 6 months living abroad in Namibia. I grabbed on tight and ran with everything coming my way and filled every single day and weekend with work/cultural/travel events. Luckily, WWF also works in some of the most beautiful areas in Namibia and these areas were part of my office!

I see all the 13,000 + photos I took as a responsibility to document an amazing community development practice that includes everything from cities, people, plants, animals, and landscapes. Many see it as art, which is humbling, but there is such an amazing story behind every one of these photos.

The most random people have contacted me because they saw a photo they liked on Flickr or Twitter, and for images to reach out to people and make them interested in WWF and the Great Plains work created a huge impact on me with what one can do with a camera and lots of access to natural areas.

My experiences, networking, and knowledge just kept snowballing and often I sat back and thought, “I am the luckiest guy from the states right now.” For me to be straight out of college and involved in CBNRM work with WWF in Namibia, conducting ground breaking commercial conservancy research near Etosha, seeing free roaming elephants, antelope species, and rhino, while helping to improve livelihoods using innovative conservation practices that is community driven, and being visionary with what I could do with my “lessons learned” back in the Great Plains is a true blessing or -possibly a calling.

Often I wondered when this crazy train would stop in Namibia with all my experiences, but I feel its only the beginning now. Every week something amazing, crazy, or possibly life threatening was happening. I hope my new experiences lead to good grad school programs focused on similar work, return trips to Southern Africa, and new adventures possibly elsewhere.

Maybe somewhere between……

visiting communal farms, informal settlements, and Katutura with Uapii and Larkin’s family, sitting on top of a mountain top overlooking an Uhab River early morning sunrise, being mocked charged 4 times by elephants and staring one down on the hood of my truck till he lost interest, hearing lions roar over a dead elephant calf carcass outside my Etosha camp in the middle of the night, or listening in on commercial and communal farmer’s meetings discussing farm management and environment policies, sleeping in only a sleeping bag in big 5 country with stars shining just like the ones over the prairie back home, meeting a pet leopard on a commercial farm, wrestling with Visa issues in the Ministry of Home Affairs for myself and other work colleagues giving me insight into another country’s system, petting three cheetahs, visiting Apartheid townships and piecing together the environmental and development challenges created by this history, a few black mamba encounters, exploring Katutura and Johannesburg, successfully spotting 4 out of the “Big 5” and countless other amazing species, the most random conversations about Obama, Namibia, and life stories with cab drivers, helping conduct the world’s largest ground wildlife count while assisting an ABC film crew to help tell a good story coming from Africa about MET’s community based natural resource development, seeing 5 cheetahs near their kill site on the largest private game reserve in Southern Africa, sitting in on a 10 year WWF project/vision meeting, mingling with the who’s who of conservation and ranch leaders in SD and NE on a WWF Namibia learning exchange program, 8 pages of passport stamps/visas and 5 countries later…

–something definitely changed in me. I'm all the better for it now.

International travel is so important. I cannot stress this enough after traveling abroad to several African countries.

I was unaware of the fact that this blog was being broadcasted on UNL’s SNR website for nearly my entire time over here, and for the students from UNL and other people under the age of 25 reading this blog please hear me when I say –get out there, and don’t just see places -visit places, and by this I mean not meeting/seeing a person or place but taking a closer look and know what you’re experiencing in a larger context.
Take the time to participate in more meaningful ways with your future foreign country travels. So many times I came across people who almost seemed to have blinders on during their Southern Africa travels. They would see an elephant, but would be innocently unaware of the management problems faced by communal and commercial farmers and the problems it creates for their future.

A big push here in Africa tourism with certain groups is not only to see cheetahs and elephants, but also to design experiences for one to participate in the species’ own conservation while understanding the cultures and livelihoods interacting with the animals and plants.

This will be a big step I feel for people to understand the beauty and significance of the Great Plains, while feeling connected, and seeing the bigger context of sustaining these working landscapes during challenging economic and environmental times. Maybe someday our ranches could help build a good context for others to also follow suit by passing on good stewardship practices and helping people reconnect to ag and environmental issues in their areas.

A future generation sure seems to depend on us doing so.

Also, take a stroll off the beaten path in developing areas a little bit too. That is where you find the good stuff.

We have huge environmental, agricultural, and energy issues to solve and it helps to see another country’s perspective on a problem too. The US is a great country, but we do act high and mighty and we’re not always right.

True innovation comes from the areas where people will face the greatest environmental and agricultural challenges. I encourage you all to travel to these places soon.
………………………..

It is never fun saying good-bye, but my experiences here in Namibia have been so great, there is no time to feel sad about leaving this wonderful place, because I’ll always have a piece of it with me in my heart, pictures, and new friendships.

I like to see this parting as coming home with new energy and perspective on farm management and international development, a new list of connections for future grad school and research programs, and memories and friendships that will last a lifetime.

I truly experienced Namibia to its fullest.
There is no room for me to be sad. I’m so thrilled to have crossed paths with so many wonderful individuals while coming out a better person.

I want to personally thank all of my WWF colleagues for making this Namibia experience for me one that was filled with many wonderful moments. I’ve learned so much from each and every one of you and I hope to prove your investment in bringing me over here as a good one back home. You all became like family for me and after our wonderful Thanksgiving party at Keith’s house, it hit me that I would soon be leaving this wonderful network of friends and it was tough.

There are many other countless people who supported me and I can’t begin to thank you all. Thank-you all for your insight and support! You know who you are and I sure thought about everyone a lot over here.

But Uapii, you definitely stand out and I appreciate your love and passion for Namibia and the effort you took to share your world with me. It forever changed me and I hope to do the same with you someday back in the states! Larkin and I are figuring out ways to bring you over already. I know there are many people from Nebraska and elsewhere who would like to meet the “great cattlemen from Kunene” in person someday.

And Chris, it was a true honor to work for you and WWF-Namibia. I can’t begin to thank-you enough for bringing me over and to learn from you and your staff and networks. It’s ignited so much passion inside me now, and for this I’m extremely grateful. I’m sure we’ll be able to find common ground again no matter what happens between my Cornhuskers and your Wildcats in the Holiday Bowl.

Last but not least, my family! You all have been such a great support for me and I can’t wait to sit down after a nice meal and share a little presentation and pictures of my Namibian experiences with you. Your enduring love and support made my Namibia experience possible.

…………………………

Well, I didn’t have to make any trips to the hospital. I traveled through some of the most dangerous cities in the world, did not become lion food, seem to be malaria free, was close to being mugged twice but strategically avoided the situations, and finally functioned as a competent driver on the left hand side of the road thus not being a threat to society.

I think its safe to say my time with the WWF Panda was a great success. And yes, this came from the mouth of a Nebraska rancher.

I like the idea of working with cattle groups, government organizations, and other NGO’s like WWF when working conservation into the working landscapes, because some I know perceive this association to be “radical” [whatever that term means to you], but this diverse interaction is where discussions and progress start. Diversity and cooperation between all these groups is dramatically needed. Its never easy in the real world, but necessary.

I can vouch for the success of WWF-Namibia being based on networking with government, NGO’s, Ag Unions, and communities on the ground and assisting and not dictating. If I can spread any immediate message about my experiences here –this is the greatest one of them all.

Truly it takes a diverse community to sustain itself. I look forward to the challenges in my own community when I return.

What a crazy mix of things brewing in the Sand Hills and Sand Dunes. Somewhere between this Nebraska and Southern Africa pulling forde is where innovative possibilities rest for good things to happen.

I will be one of the many leading this charge.

…………………………………….

This will not be the end of the blog or Namibia. Frankly, I still have a lot to say! lol

I worked with a traditional tribe in Northern Minnesota who do not believe in good-byes. We’ll definitely meet again.

I’ll continue with future coverage, conversation, and pictures of the topics already discussed in my Namibia experience side of the blog, and will start the future chapters when I return home to my beloved Northern Great Plains.
Thank-you again everyone for your support! Namibia I’m sure going to miss you and the wonderful weather, but its time to “cowboy up” and ride on home to the winter wonderland in the States.

This Sand Hiller is coming home.

Happy Holidays Everyone and wishing you all the best in the coming New Year.
Cheers,

A.E. Price

The Last Week

2009-12-07T08:59:00.003+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers:

I can't believe this is my last week here in Namibia for awhile. My flight leaves Windhoek for Jo'burg this Saturday, then I'll be flying out at midnight from Jo'burg to Amsterdam, then to Memphis, and finally Omaha on Sunday Dec. 13th.

Things are winding down nicely and I'm bracing myself for another transition period that will include time on the ranch, completing grad school applications, dealing with a media frenzy, and figuring out how to adjust to snow and 5 degree F weather vs. sunny and 95 degree F amazing-ness... I always seem to find another big thing to cling onto, so I'm not too worried about this transition phase. It's just how I roll. 8D

What does one do with 5 days left?

Well, I'm making my rounds at the craft center buying gifts for the holidays, printing out pictures to send to people I interviewed, planning a going away party, and reflecting on my wonderful time here. I've seen so many things in Namibia and have traveled this area far and wide, and there are no crafts, items, ect. I feel I really need besides my own pictures and memories at this point.

Larkin and I both traveled to the airport this last Saturday to deliver boxes of books and such to be air cargoed to Omaha. Things started hitting both of us that Namibia is almost over. We had a good talk about things and both mentioned that we'll be coming back in the future for various other projects. Its a pitty we're both leaving at this point, because we're all hitting a nice stride with meeting the right people, with lots of data that needs to be crunched in other ways, and projects are just flowing through our heads right now. We definitely have unfinished business.

Its worth noting I was able to watch the college division championship games and I'm just heartbroken over the Husker's loss to Texas. Thanks to Oliver [US gov employee] and military channel TV, I was able to watch the entire game that finished at 6:30 AM Namibia time.

I'm very proud of Suh and the Blackshirts. This blog is making its rounds and Suh, if you're reading this, thank-you so much for your leadership and keeping it real for the Blackshirts. I haven't seen anyone play with your intensity in a long time. Even when I consider the early 90's teams, you stand out above my idols of that period. I look forward to your professional career and congratulate you and your teammates for putting the fear of the Blackshirts in every top 5 ranked offense in the country. You can roll with the best of them. GO BIG RED!!!

The first thing I'm going to do when I return to the ranch, is dig out my Blackshirts T-shirt and wear it with pride. It will also suit me well to try and find tickets for the Holiday Bowl and take in the last game before the season ends, while visiting some colleges out there in the process.

After I return to the states and have time to think about things and ect. I'll be posting a recap message that will show what I've learned and what my game plan is with my neighbors and the Northern Great Plains. And my blogging won't stop once I return. This site will transition into a ranch blog, and will continue telling the other chapters of this story as things develop.

I gotta run! Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Tiera: The Pet Leopard

2009-12-04T08:38:00.010+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers!

Yesterday, during one of my non-conservancy farm member interviews, I came across something that just made me think, "Yep, I'm definitely in Namibia."

I have a running list of "Aaron's Crazy Namibia List" [=future blog post] and there are already about 30 entries of things I'd classify as, well... CRAZY. For example, meeting three pet cheetahs, being mocked charged 4 times by elephants, helping conduct the world's largest game count. These are a few of the things I've been taking note of during my time here.

Meeting a pet leopard easily cracks the top 5 when ranked.

This farm I interviewed is mostly a cattle farm with a fenced in area for game and such. The owner trophy hunts on the side and they're debating about joining the conservancy movement soon.

But during the interview a 1 year old male leopard walked into the living room and I about kicked my coffee over, but everyone was just laughing and said not to worry.

"Meet Tiera Aaron!"

This leopard is basically like a big dog living on the farm and it eats kudu meat that the boys hunt. Once in a while when they find road kill, this also finds its way into the leopards stomach.

The owner of the farm at one point told me, "Would you like to feel how sharp his teeth are?"

"Sure," I said. Then I was like wait a second...

"Wow, they're really sharp on the backside!"

I won't be sticking my fingers in a leopards mouth anymore. I promise.

This WWF gig is pretty crazy stuff! Now I have seen cheetahs and a leopard both in the wild and in personal settings like this.

This kind of stuff is turning out to be a normal "day in the life."

Enjoy the pictures! Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

NamibRand Photos

2009-12-01T11:42:00.008+02:00

Greetings Friends, Family, and Readers!

Here are some photos I took during my trip down south to NamibRand located in the Namib Desert. This area was incredibly breath taking and the camera doesn't do much justice for what I was seeing in person.

I hope you enjoy these photos! Be sure to look at my Flickr photo stream for others. Its located on the side bar of this blog.

Be well!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

This was my view outside of my cabin:

A cheetah on the kill site:

Cheetah with "war paint" on its face from a springbok kill:

An Oryx:

The 5 CCF cheetah donates as a group on the kill site:

Another Cheetah shot:

Sun-Downer:

NamibRand: Lessons Learned

2009-11-30T17:57:00.002+02:00

Greetings Everyone:

On Friday, I briefly updated everyone about my upcoming NamibRand Trip and a few details about NamibRand. I’ll go a little deeper into the idea behind NamibRand, my amazing experiences with their game guards Mike and Anne, and what I learned from NamibRand. This last weekend will be one of my most memorable weekends for a long time to come.

I send many thanks out to Danica and Nils Oldenhaal [CEO NamibRand] for pulling out all the stops for my visit to NamibRand. Having NamibRand’s game guards as my personal tour guides, pre-arranged travel, and the amazing housing and dining accommodations, was more then anything I expected and I’m so grateful for the experience! It truly gave me new insight concerning working conservation into the previous ranching landscapes in a “high dollar low impact” process. Thank-you again! I truly learned so much seeing things in person and experiencing the quality of your staff and guides.

Quick Blast to the Past……………..

About 4-5 months ago or so, the Northern Great Plains WWF learning exchange group arrived in Namibia to learn about Namibia’s conservation. They covered a lot of ground in a short time thanks to aircraft flying everyone around. One of the destinations I was a little forlorn about not being able to attend was the NamibRand destination. Before leaving the states for Namibia, I heard a lot about the NamibRand model from Nils, CEO of NamibRand, personally at Grassland’s conference, and knew I’d have to see it before I leave.

Also, this learning exchange program with WWF Northern Great Plains and Grassland Foundation [my previous employer] was recognized by Travel and Leisure Mag with a 2009 World Visionary award for Wildlife Tourism. I’m happy to play catch up with the rest of the tour by visiting the sites I wasn’t able to attend while in the field or in Windhoek.

……………………….

NamibRand truly is an amazing place and I can say right now NamibRand has been the most amazing, breath-taking, and informative experience I’ve had to date in Namibia. The timing couldn’t have been better, because I only have two weeks left in Namibia. I have so many other experiences to compare it to at this time; therefore the timing is also good for my own personal development/reflection.

What hits me about NamibRand is the quality of the nature experience produced on commercial private ranch land. It truly rivals. I hear this area referred to as one of the best tourism products in Namibia and arguably Southern Africa. Everything is extremely professional to the “T” in the word eco-tourism.

I’ve been to nearly all the “hot spots” in Namibia like Etosha National Park, the Caprivi Parks, Damaraland’s conservancies, Suss and Deadveil, Skwakopmund and Walvis Bay, and some really nice commercial conservancy farms with a lot of outstanding wildlife. And to see 13 visionary private landowners come together and say. “Hey, we can do this nature gig thing” and produce an experience that equals the “hot spots” instilled new inspiration in me given what we’re talking about back home on the Gracie Creek Watershed using similar ideas.

This area is extremely difficult to access too, just like our ranches back home. It took almost 6 hours to drive down there, along with many supplies for the farm and lodge. Flying was almost considered for my main travel method. BUT people still come out.

I see where this can scare some people to death back home when you look at the complete other side of the coin NamibRand transitioned too, but I still feel there are some key lessons to be learned here without implementing a total nature reserve idea that could be economically/ecologically viable in the Northern Great Plains.
Why is NamibRand unique? What can we learn from this model?

This area of Namibia is referred to as the Namib Desert. Generally speaking, many tourists visiting Africa in general want to see the big charismatic species like elephants, lions [which I still need to see BTW], water buffalo, ect. Who can blame people though?

The unique thing about NamibRand is how they lack the previously listed species yet capitalize on other things like: thousands of Oryx running around [I prefer these critters the most in Namibia. They’re peaceful, easy going creatures and safe to be around vs. elephants], 5 CCF cheetahs that were introduced to keep the balance, “singing rocks,” quiver trees, chances for guests to participate in conservation with research concessions operating in the area, thousands of sand grouse, and most importantly OPEN spaces just like we find back home in the Sand Hills.
But what do you do when you live in an area that cannot viably support livestock, lack the wildlife everyone is so crazy about, but you have one heck of a view that has attracted the likes of National Geographic, Vouge, and Elle magazines?

Try marketing open spaces/stars, tours where people participate in conservation, and high quality housing/food with local flare.

It’s been extremely successful for this area. We simply are running out of peaceful, quiet, open spaces in the world today, while people are more conscious about their environmental impacts demanding products that make a difference ecologically.
NamibRand essentially markets the exclusive open space experience with as little human/truck disturbance around as possible. Consider this quote from the Wolwedans Lodge located on the reserve: http://www.wolwedans-namibia.com/namibrand.htm
“The main objective of NamibRand Nature Reserve is the conservation of this beautiful land on a self-sustainable basis. The lodges and camps on the NamibRand Nature Reserve are limited to 20 beds each. The park is governed by a strict code of ethics and the number of guests this wilderness paradise can accommodate is restricted. Despite the tremendous potential for more tourist development, it was decided that in theory every bed must be surrounded by 1000 hectares of nature - now and forever. This means that every guest at Wolwedans has one million square meters to themselves - a sanctuary free of tour buses and overland trucks. This luxury of space makes the reserve the pristine destination it is today.”

Trust me this is a unique group NamibRand markets to, but I met a guy who has been to the lodge 3 different times now. That says something about the quality of the experience at NamibRand and the value of space.

This lodge is not the only place where one can stay and there are other housing accommodations that make it affordable for locals too. It’s always good to be good neighbors with locals and especially your neighbors when introducing predators like cheetahs.

I can see how other organizations would see this as a way of restricting people from visiting areas, but there are solutions and reduced prices and the park fees NamibRand implements I see as helping with the sustainable future of the area for tourists, neighbors, and owners in the area.

I hope you’re asking the same questions I’m thinking right now. What are the “drivers” behind this model? We’ll explore them briefly in this blog.

…………

Friday afternoon, I received a call from Anne that they were a little lost trying to find the WWF office and we finally connected and I could tell by their warm welcoming smiles greeting me as I struggled to carry my fully equipped camera bag, my ultra light duffle bag, and cooler full of food for 3 days across the street that I was going to be in good hands. What sealed the deal for me was when Anne and Mike both said to let them know if we need to stop so I can take a photo, “Because we understand.” 8D Those three words associated with photography are magic to my ears.

I told them a little bit more about my background and purpose for being in Namibia and we hit things off before we even left the WWF office block. They asked me if I was the neighbor they heard about from Bruce and Sarah Switzer and I said yes. They both mentioned how it was nice to meet everyone on that tour guide.

Mike and Anne are from South Africa and they’ve been involved in nature conservation their whole lives –especially birds and blue cranes. They’ve been working in Namibia for the last 6 years and just started working at NamibRand. Currently, they’re on contract to be game guards for NamibRand, which basically consists of overseeing many aspects of the natural resources on the 13 ranches. Just like any well managed cattle ranch back in the states with good grazing records, herd vac records, and ect. NamibRand has the same idea but purely focused on conservation and overseen by game guards.

We made our way to the NamibRand [NGO] office in Windhoek to pick up supplies for NamibRand and the reserve’s new in-service training student Preston [who happens to be a previous student of the UNL Fullbright Professor Larkin Powell –see Larkin’s blog in my website of interest section located after the blog]. And I have to say, Larkin and I could each dedicate a blog to the “Nebraska Connection” we’ve discovered in Namibia. It has blown me away how many people know someone from Nebraska here in Namibia.
All roads to Namibia seem to pass through Nebraska. I think its because both start with “N’s.” N=N. Its truly worth a blog topic someday…

Just within the last two weeks I’ve met Preston and a master student from Canada who knew UNL’s star volleyball player Jordan Larson [plays professional VB in Italy now and destined for the Olympics] as a childhood/high school friend.

The weather was incredibly hot. 43 degrees C or 109 degrees F! I felt like melting. The driving route was the exact same one I took with my German travel friend Tina to the parks located down there and it was nice to see Solataire again. This town has the best desert snacks.

When we arrived at the farm house, there were already wildlife running around at the water hole and beautiful mountains and prairie sounding us. I could step foot outside my door and sit down on a table 45 meters away from the community drinking well. Frans Lanting, National Geographic photographer and his wife spent a day photographing Sand Grouse flying into the water hole and were so impressed they didn’t even want to go see the cheetahs Anne told me. That is impressive! And the birds were. Trust me.
But the rooms all have guide books and themes that resemble the area, along with information about the area you’re in so you have a context for the experience vs. a disassociated mess of experiences.

The next morning everyone met at the office that reminded me so much of the ranch office back home on Gracie Creek Ranch. NamibRand is all about wildlife and they had records of game counts, predator kills, management plans, ect. all neatly lined up on the wall, just like the records we keep of grazing and vaccination/treatments on GCR. This is not a whimsical fluffy idea. Its serious business on NamibRand.
We all left to report on recent wildlife kills in the area cheetahs were responsible for, so the data could be collected about the animal’s age, sex, what animals were eating it, and were it was killed so the information could be sent to CCF here in Namibia and linked to the satellite data they have from the 5 NamibRand cheetahs who are collared.

Having guests participate in conservation and understanding the systems around you is a huge step and a much more valued and meaningful experience for people. I could see this being picked up more in the US.

Later that night we all had a conversation with the manager of Wolwedan and how to best incorporate the new cheetah information packets they been receiving for the guests. Not only are NamibRand guests seeing great stuff, but they’re actually helping out and learning about the ecological issues/challenges in the process. Imagine what this will do for nature deficit children in the US and future agriculture and environmental leaders?

But other research concessions also have contracts to do research on game and cheetahs, which is essentially what our ranches are doing with university, NGO, and federal institutions already with prairie chicken and water issues.

……….

This is already way too long for one blog and I still need to mention the lodge stuff I learned about some other time. I’m off to Etosha area tomorrow to survey. non-conservancy members. I will post my most recent photos from here tomorrow sometime on flickr and as a separate blog!

I gotta run, but thank-you for reading.

Cheers,

A.E. Price

PS: Other field notes

As one who’s taken photography somewhat seriously during my 6 months in Namibia, you enter into a photographer’s paradise in NamibRand. At this point in my Namibia experience, I’ve been to basically every part of Namibia except the Naye Naye area I’ll leave for another time. I’ve also been to many amazing places in the states –especially national parks and reserves. But in NamibRand I’ve never been in a place where I can truly say everywhere I looked there was a photo opportunity. Every place has its own beauty, but there is something special about the Namib Desert area.
Even my colleague Helge Denker, who was with me on our eventful Elephant trip in the Huab, said if I ever get the chance to go down there make it happen. Helge use to work in this area and can vouch for the amazing scenry.

……………..
But two pretty special photography moments happened for me during my time with Mike and Anne. One involved 5 male cheetahs sitting on their kill site with “war paint” on their faces or the blood from the fresh kill, and two breeding pairs of klipspringer standing on the same rock together [EXTREMELY rare site]. Both Mike and Anne joked that people might accuse me of photo shopping my klipspringers into one photograph.
My cheetah experience was amazing, because NamibRand adopted these 5 males from the Cheetah Conservation Fund here in Namibia, and released them onto the reserve to bring back the natural predator/prey cycle. NamibRand currently doesn’t do any hunts, so having predators introduced helps with their management plans.
Cheetahs at CCF [Lorrie Marker’s NGO] and other farms who run cheetah farms feed the cats by hand and care for them day and night. These cats on NamibRand did not grow up with their parents and would have been shot by the farmers who captured them if CCF or other groups do not take them in.
Enough said… but to see these cats go from essentially domestic cats to being released in the wild and slowly weaned away from meat handouts and being forced to learn how to hunt goes against a lot of research and thought that domestic cats are doomed in the wild. The 5 cats I’ve seen at NamibRand look healthy and obviously from the “war paint” faces are learning to work as a team.
“You’re very lucky. Not everyone gets to see the cheetahs, especially sitting on a kill site.”

Happy Thanksgiving From Namibia! Pre-NamibRand Post

2009-11-26T10:50:00.006+02:00

Greetings Friends and Family!

Some of you might have heard that I was pretty sick last weekend with symptoms VERY similar to malaria, but I feel 100% now and should be in the clear. Malaria symptoms are so much like the common flu, and with the variety in Namibia there is no messing around. This strand flalines people in malaria comas and kills people, while the other two in Africa do not. I had deep consultations with my German roommate doctors and feel I don't need to worry anymore and neither do my friends, family, and readers.

I stopped taking my malaria pills because for one they make me sunburn and two I think they were giving me bad dreams. Plus, this stuff can't be very good for my liver, especially 1/2 a years worth of malaria medication. I'm definitely taking a chance, but if you pick up on the symptoms and act quickly, the doctors can take good care of you.

..............

I hope everyone is having safe travels to their Thanksgiving destinations. It is hard for me to believe its already Thanksgiving and that I'll be home in 16 days. I sure miss everyone from time to time, but I'm so thankful to have this Namibian experience under my belt and all the doors its opened for me. I'll be coming home soon and we'll have to extend the festivities into my welcoming home party in Grand Island 8D. If I can make it through Jo'burg Round IV -I should be in the clear if the weather holds!

Last weekend I had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with the WWF family and friends. And it hit me then, that I'm surrounded by such amazing people and experiences. I have a lot to be thankful for this year, and many times I reflect on the research, what I'm doing, the amazing landscape around me, what my new skills and knowledge of conservancies can do for Africa and the Northern Great Plains int he future, and just feel like the luckiest guy in the world. I'm very thankful for everyone back home who has supported me and equally thankful for the people I've met and worked with here in Namibia. I'm truly blessed.

I'm going to miss the stuffing and the Cornhusker vs. Buffalo game that I look forward to every fall... This is a bummer. I love seeing NU slam CU, but I know they always play their best for Nebraska. I've had to wait many weekends to see if we've won the games or not and this one will be no exception. But I'll be surrounded by a good distraction -The NamibRand Nature Reserve.

I'm going to be in the NamibRand Nature Reserve in Southern Namibia Friday through Sunday. The informational brochure I have has me itching at my seat to be on the road headed to the Namib Desert! At the last Grassland Foundation conference, Nils Odenhaal CEO, of NamibRand talked about this private conservation initiative, toured the ranches, recommended ideas about what we could do in the Great Plains based on what he experienced, and we talked about making a visit for me happen at the Switzer's lodge when I arrive in Namibia.

During various meetings and conferences in Namibia, I've ran into Nils and I've always been too busy to think about visiting, but in the last 16 days I'm going to be squeezing in a lot of things. I'm so happy to see this come through.

If I had to pick only one place to visit in Namibia and then have to be teleported back to the Sand Hills, I would pick this place, even though I haven't been there. The reserve borders the Namib-Naukluft National Park to the west and is very close to the Sussusvlei and Deadveil areas where I've taken some of my best landscape photographs. National Geographic photographers spend a lot of time down in this area and the geology is just out of this world! I'll be running around the reserve's game guards and can imagine I'll be in the best photography spots and learning so much about their system.

After reviewing everything I've learned here in Namibia in my head and the goals my neighbors are pursuing with the watershed agreement, this initiative is a great model to mimic/adapt, and I hope to have new insights while seeing things in action.

A brief overview of NamibRand:

I'LL DISCLOSE RIGHT NOW: I'm not recommending ranches and farms in the Great Plains or elsewhere abandon previous land use practices and become strict nature reserves with high dollar low impact tourism operations. I recommend landowners to make the decisions they want to make for their land based on their own needs and opportunity costs.

I can see all the "Buffalo Commons" radical rancher rumors spreading now, and I don't want this to be an unnecessary pain in the butt for people and myself. There needs to be large grazers for the good sustainable health of the plains on the ranch lands and I don't care what critter fits your management plans. And we still need to produce food in sustainable fashions for the 9 billion people expected to live here by 2050.

This NamibRand initative is landowner driven just like the Gracie Creek watershed initiative, with landowners still calling all the shots and most importantly making the management decisions as seen fit by the owners.

IF I HEAR RUMORS OF ANYTHING ELSE THAT TRIPS MY TRIGGER, I WILL SOURCE THE RUMOR, AND YOU'LL BE HEARING FROM ME PERSONALLY. Let's be open and honest in these discussions everyone. Thank-you.

This reserve consists of 13 former livestock farms that have come together to manage the natural habitat as one large unit and cover a whooping 172,00 ha or nearly half a million acres! The Namibia maps show it on their road maps. This nature reserve operates as a non-profit, and all the landowners in the reserve sat down and signed agreements about how they'll manage their reserve resources -just like the ranches back home on Gracie Creek are exploring right now.

They have research projects that contribute to the preservation of the area and surrounding ecosystems I'll have to talk about later after I return!

My ride just arrived! Thank-you for reading

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Windhoek's Informal Settlements

2009-11-16T08:43:00.017+02:00

Greetings Everyone:

I can feel my trip winding down and I'm so excited to be coming home, yet I'm sad to think about leaving what has been an absolutely amazing experience for me. As of today, I only have 26 days left in Namibia. But its probably something like 21, due to the fact that I'll have to bus myself to Jo'berg, South Africa to catch my flight home. All my roommates and friends who are leaving in December are all planning their last minute trips and thinking about going away parties too.

This weekend I'm going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with the Sproul family, my colleague Keith's family who traveled to Namibia to be with him during his 2 years at WWF-Namibia. The weather, new location, and different cultures has thrown me into a time warp and it doesn't feel like Thanksgiving or Christmas should be around the corner.

The feeling of transition and all the uncertainties is in the air. Yet there are a few things I want to literally squeeze in before I leave including shooting an oryx with a colleague, Swing through Cape Town before Jo'berg to see The KILLERS play, and one last research field trip to Outjo.

These feelings really hit me during my last day in Katutura with Uapii and his family, along with the Fullbright Family, The Powells, from Lincoln, Nebraska. Many of you might know about my connection with Larkin and Uapii, but here is Larkin's Namibia blog I want to invite everyone to check out too. Larkin has had equal crazy/unique/interesting experiences in Namibia like myself: http://namibiafulbright.blogspot.com/

Uapii gave the Powells a full tour of Katutura, which they were not foreign too, but I was lucky enough to tag along, because, Larkin has a car and Uapii and I both knew that meant there was a good chance we could go visit the "informal settlements" outside of Katutura. I hear so much about these settlements from Uapii and my roommates who also work in development work.

The election buzz is live and well and during the tour we stopped at a market where meat is grilled and sold. This woman is making a scarf of the SWAPO political party colors.

This picture was taken just to the right of the woman making the scarf. I like it because of all the strong blue colors and face expressions.

Many of the places we took the Powell's I've been before, but it was nice to think about taking the shots you missed the last time and experiment with the ultra wide lens. These are two lion heads located in a restaurant we visited.

Single Market Butchery/Take A Way

After driving around Katutura for awhile and making a pit stop at Upaii's house, we piled into the car again and drove off toward the informal settlements. There is a point where the roads are no longer paved and the only way I can describe it is you feel like you've entered into a different world/reality.

"Welcome to the real Africa," Uapii said. "My friend, few in a hundred people traveling to Namibia see what you see here -right now."

This area of Windhoek has many people who travel from the northern communal lands looking for work in Windhoek and don't have the means to rent or buy houses. There are only a few cars in this area and you see lots of taxis. The smell of urine and human wastes fill the air around the communal toilets.

A shot from a hill:

The houses are small little tin shacks that have numbers spray painted by some Namibia authority that is keeping track of the rent payments of that family to live on the land. After a certain period of time, the family is then allowed to own the plot. Everyone still manages to carry a cell phone here in Namibia and you see cell phone towers surrounding this area. I'm not a fan of MTC and the other cell phone companies here in Namibia, because I feel they charge too much, the service sucks, and intermittent -but they do reach areas many areas in Namibia I would never have though by looking at population densities would be fortunate enough to have.

The houses are office size and well below the average size of many college apartments I've lived in. But the people here were welcoming and very friendly. I think they were as shocked to see 4 white people with Uapii like we were shocked to see this side of Windhoek. We tasted the local brew at a sheebean, an illegal bar. Tasted like apple cider.

What was interesting to me was the water system. Its one of the few things municipalities have been able to provide these homes. Its tough to get funding when the homes are not officially recognized, but people need water. For 20 Rand or about 3 USD, your blue chip is credited so you can fill your buckets with water for one month.

Most the people who live here work the countless security, gardener, maid jobs in Windhoek and are paid in my eyes poorly. The average pay for services listed is around 10-30 rand a day. Therefore, essentially one day is spent just working for your water that month.

Basic water quality and quantity is a huge issue for many parts of Africa. I definitely experienced an area that could easily be stressed of its supply. There wasn't time to go into details with the locals in Katutura about their water supply, but consider these facts from National Geographics Blue Water Project:

"30,000 people—including about 4,000 children—die each day as a result of contaminated water and poor sanitation.

About 1.1 billion people, or 18 percent of the world’s population, can’t get safe drinking water. At any given time, half of the hospital beds in developing countries are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease."

After our time in the "informal settlements" we drove to Uapii's house to have a wonderful meal with his family. Upaii gave a heart felt blessing for everyone who has come to his farm/house this year and it about made me cry. It was our last Namibia meal together, but I don't think it will be the last. A few years will pass but I expect the Powells and myself will be back.

Uapii left for his farm in Kunene yesterday and I wish you safe travels my friend! You've done so much for me here in Namibia and showed me so much. This isn't good-bye my friend. I'll be back.

.......

This week I'm going to continue writing up the reports on the conservancies I interviewed, start figuring out the packing/busing situation, and figuring out what I can cook for Thanksgiving this weekend! I'm so excited to come home to the welcoming party my Aunt Leslie is throwing me! Everyone attending can expect a selection of the best photos and the stories behind each one, and a recap of the research and conservancy system.

Gotta run.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Close Encounters With Denive: The Desert Adapated African Elephant

2009-11-08T11:05:00.016+02:00

Greetings Everybody!

GO BIG RED!!! How about the Husker's win over Oklahoma in Memorial Stadium?!? I'm so happy to hear the great news here in Namibia. If we can sneak by K State we should be playing Texas for the Big 12 Championship! I bet things are off the hook in Lincoln and I wish I could be there! We still have a lot of work to do on our offense, but I'll take a win over OU ANY day. Congrats huskers!

Travel experiences like the one I'm going through come with opportunity costs in relationships, delaying starting full-time jobs and grad school pograms, and I'm especially missing out on college football action, but I still think I'm getting the better deal by living in Namibia for half a year! But NU's win over OU kinda hits me in the stomach and reminds me of all the other big games I've seen played in Big Red's football country.

I don't have time right now to go into the whole conservancy "lessons learned" I picked up on traveling to Caprivi and Damaraland. I'm thinking this will need to be a recap post at the end of my time here. I learn so much everyday and especially when I go out into the field. I am excited about a UNL law professor coming out here to Namibia to really examine the pressures of why people join conservancies, the land rights, and ect. that go along with everything and I'm going to work laying out the network foundation I've established, so he can make the most out of his 8 days in Namibia.

I promised to share a story about my elephant experiences a week ago today. Here is my story.

...................

So there I was, just leaving the Tora Conservancy hunting quota setting meeting with WWF, IRDNC, Wilderness Safaris, and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism with my colleague Helge Denker. [This is a meeting each conservancy in Namibia organizes annual and debates occur about how many animals the conservancy can sustainably hunt. The numbers are recorded by WWF and MET, then its sent off to the MET office in Windhoek for the final approval].

We were off on a photo shoot for a wildlife/travel magazine I'll have to leave unnamed right now, and we were looking for elephants on the Huab river. The person on the magazine end wants a picture of me with wildlife and the landscape cannot be mistaken for anything else but Namibia/Africa. They're going to get what they asked for! I hope the editors are impressed too, because it was somewhat traumatic for me to take photos with elephants behind me!

It was pushing mid-afternoon and the weather was just hot. 90+ degrees and sweltering. The wind was blowing like the dickens and was sucking all the energy out of you. We were trying to find elephants, but we wanted to stop for lunch and take a brief nap till the weather cooled off. The wildlife were doing the same thing I imagine.

Two trucks from South Africa stopped us as we were entering the Huab River bed, and I think because they saw the panda on the side of the truck they thought we're the "know all" for wildlife and knew where to find elephants on the river, but we told them we haven't seen any elephants today.

These two trucks drove all over the west side of the river and said they found nothing, so we knew where not to look.

After we ate lunch and took a 15 minute nap, we started up the truck and went elephant tracking. We drove in the opposite direction of the two ZA trucks and I was worried they'd be around us if we found elephants and we'd have to spend extra energy working the camera angles to exclude them, but we didn't see any tracks going in our direction.

We walked over to a small hill with our bi-nocs and immediately spotted a couple of elephants in the far distance! One could not see them without bi-nocs.

"Jackpot" I thought! I was so excited. This was the same spot where Helge took Frans Lanting, National Geogrpahic photographer extraordinaire, a few months back. We were much closer to them this time around vs. Helge's last trip.

Off we went with our cameras ready to roll. It is also worth noting these are free roaming elephants and are not fenced in like Etosha or other private farms, so I was so excited to have an opportunity to photograph elephants in a natural setting like this.

Driving through the riverbed is a slow process. The gravel almost covers the rubber up to the metal rim, and we had to let air out a few days prior so we had better traction. The wind was blowing right at us, but made some nice dust effects of the elephants and made their ears stand flap out like wings on a bird.

When we finally come close to the elephants, there were 14 of them walking down our left side of the river toward us. There were bulls, mamas, and two calves. Right now, the wildlife, especially the elephants, love hanging out in the riverbed because all the trees have seedpods that are fresh and tasty. The riverbed is not very wide where we were driving and were probably 30 to 40 yards away from the elephants at times.

Here is a shot of a mother with her calf. It was so interesting to watch the calf try to act grown up by eating the seeds off of prairie grasses, but he wasn't having any success and was later nursing under his mother. The personalities just pour out of these elephants and the non-verbal communication is so much like humans.

We were snapping photos like crazy. For the first few minutes I was sitting in my car seat and just having the time of my life watching these elephants interact, graze, and walk past us. Helge was stepping out and taking pictures and I asked him when he came back into the truck to change lens if I could step out too. Helge said I could, but to stay CLOSE to the truck and hide the best you can. I slowly opened my door and my left side never left the side of the truck till I could place my telephoto lens on the back spare tire.

The elephants came close enough where it was time to start the truck. When we turned the key... nothing happened. We were stuck with a dead panda truck on the Huab river with a herd of elephants with calves walking by us/toward us. Things became a little serious and luckily when we popped the hood it was a loose battery cable problem and we tried wedging a 4 cent Namibian coin followed by a metal handle from an office clip we had on a stack of papers. We just waited for them to pass before we opened the hood and were lucky they were so calm.

What is humorous to me is how on the Friday morning [the day we left] we had a staff meeting to regroup on everyone's projects and ect. Chris showed some amazing Mongolia pictures and has a few of these goats many wildlife groups want to have pictures of because no one has adequately photographed them. Anyhoo, Marque said to everyone we need to report truck problems early so Denive can take of the problems before they become bigger problems. How fitting given our situation I thought!

The elephants didn't give us any problems during this pass and I was able to snap this picture.

This one will be a WWF public announcement photo in the coffee room warning people to report truck problems early.

I was so relieved to hear the diesel engine fire up and drive us to another prime photography spot. I ventured out again to take more photos. I know the elephants knew there were humans walking around and I would keep eye contact with them when I was walking around the truck waiting for trouble.

After I sat my lens on the back of the tire I thought this was totally nuts and will be forever hooked on wildlife photography.

Then Helge said it was time to take some pictures of me with the elephants and I retired my camera in the truck and slowly walked to the back of the truck staying close like he initially instructed. Helge instructed me to squat down about 2-3 meters from the truck and snapped away. I had to put all my trust into Helge, because I could not see what these elephants were doing and I was carefully listening for his signal to "move" toward him if necessary.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!! If the South Africa trucks would have been in the area we would have stayed in the trucks and not given anyone ideas about getting photos with elephants while standing in the river bed. If you decide to do something like this, have someone with many years of hunting and wildlife experiences assist you.

There was only one moment where he told me to move and come behind the truck so the elephants would forget about us. I stepped back into the truck and started taking pictures and meanwhile Helge is outside under the truck taking photos.

The light is turning out to be amazing at this point and I'm snapping away then all of a sudden I see a yellow yield sign on my camera saying "CF Card Full"

"Oh snap!" I thought! I changed my camera to take higher resolution photos and wasn't use to working with less memory. What horrible luck! Helge was still outside and I was flipping through and deleting photos and snapping one, then deleting then snapping again, and just frustrated I left my spare memory card in my camera bag and not in my shirt pocket. I'm smarter now.

One elephant, who we will now call Denive, named after our colleague became rather curious about the white panda truck sitting under the ana tree by the herd.

This is Denive:

And he slowly started wandering over to the truck:

And closer:

And closer:

Helge jumped back into the truck and I'm not sure how we let this elephant come so close, but I think we were just lost in the photography moment. Luckily we spent a lot of time with the elephants at this point and everyone was calm except me! lol

We noticed shortly after Helge came in the truck we were going to have a situation.

The only thing we could do was -painfully wait in dead silence and remain motionless and hope he'd loose interest.

Denive walked up to the truck and Helge said to slowly roll up my window and do not move. I took my time rolling up my window and kept my eye on Denive the whole time. Helge's hands were on the manual stick and keys ready to start the truck if needed, but that's the VERY last thing you want to do in this situation. A loud truck would startle Denive and entice him to level the truck and us in the process.

I couldn't contain myself with an elephant being so close and not taking a picture, but on the other hand this was a semi-serious situation. But I did snap this photo of our curious visitor.

Things became so quiet in the truck. My senses were just amped and I could hear the second hand in my REI pocket watch ticking... Denive just kept staring right at the windshield and I seriously thought this could be it for me. A lot of thoughts were racing through my head, but I kept hoping I'd live through this one. This elephant was always one step away from crushing the truck and his trunk could have easily slapped the hood of the truck.

I'm not sure how much time passed when Denive was right in front of the truck staring us down, but it felt something like eternity. I could see the grooves from digging for water and fighting on his tusks, all the little dimples and wrinkles on his trunk, and I took note elephants have brown eyes [I didn't not know this until I had a closer look at them]. THAT is how close he was to us. You truly feel power like you've never felt it before.

Denive slowly side stepped his away in front of the truck and planted himself under the ana tree our truck was being shaded by and continued to eat ana seedpods. At this point a sigh of relief came flowing through the car and Helge and I just watched this huge elephant eat these little seed pods the size of small cell phones. The elephant was never flustered, but I worried if he did become so, what would the mamas with calves behind us would have done?

Mother elephants are particularly dangerous because they normally have calves and smaller tusks, therefore, they're prone to become aggressive.

Luckily, we were just a roadblock between Point A and Point B for Denive and finding his ana seedpods. He was checking out the scene on the other side away from the herd I think and luckily kept his goal in mind the whole time.

At this point the good light opportunities were all gone, but I had enough fun for the day and was ready to go set up camp in a non-windy place. We fired up the truck when Denive was behind us and turned around and headed up a small side river channel. I shot some nice video of the elephants as were driving away I'll share later.

We found a nice little spot behind a huge rocky mountain and quickly collected sticks and dry grass to start our brai fire. When we had the fire going we were starting to clean cameras and I heard what I thought was an elephant making a vocal noise down the valley. Helge wasn't sure and I wouldn't be either with a non-Namibian native and we ran over to the river bend to see what was going on and yep... there were the elephants coming our way.

"Oh geez" I thought. But we just went about our business as usual. They were sure making a lot of noise, but I noticed earlier in the day one of the males appeared to have "woman issues" in the herd and was acting rowdy. I suspect it was him making all the noise.

Maybe 15 minutes later when I was dusting my camera off with my air rocket Helge shouted at me to be quiet. I just freeze and drop my rocket and laid my camera down and I quickly stood up near the truck seat and proceeded to watch these huge elephants and their shadows just roll across the Huab River bed under a full moon. This image will never leave me. Its amazing how quiet elephants can be. I never even knew they were close till Helge said something.

At that point, I truly had enough fun with elephants for one day and was happy to see them wander upstream away from us, especially this late in the night. The way they were moving told me they were not going to be coming back during the night again for another visit and were on the move.

I never sleep in a tent in Namibia now and always sleep under the stars in my sleeping bag so I can easily run to the semi-safety of a tree or mountain side if need be.

What a wild day! All of this trouble and work to take a few photos for a magazine! But one can't decent photos if there isn't a certain degree of risk involved.

The next morning was also pretty amazing for photography too. We woke up to this nice morning view when he hiked up a similar sized mountain as seen in the picture to continue the photo shoot. The river in the picture is the Huab

So there is my elephant story! I'm so happy the truck and Helge and I are in one piece and that everything worked out for Denive too. I hope you enjoyed the photos and elephant story!

Cheers,

Aaron

Damaraland Photos [Part II]

2009-11-03T18:10:00.029+02:00

Greetings Everyone!

Sorry for not posting much the last couple of weeks. I've been traveling around so much and have had poor internet access. I've been all the way to the Caprivi Strip and the Northwest area of Namibia. There is so much to tell, but that will have to come later this week. But I'm looking forward to spending good time in the office and with my roommates and friends too the next couple of weeks.

I was able to travel to 6 communal conservancy quota setting meetings and saw how the quotas are set and the various roles of the committee members, ministry, and supporting NGO's play in the process. I learned so much by just sitting and listening -even if half the time only Afrikans was being spoken. Maybe I'm slowly learning Afrikans!?!

Each conservancy has its own unique issues that range from community involvement, legal agreements with professional hunters, problem animals, and ect. Lunch with my colleague Keith today relived more of the reasons behind some of the problems I heard about during my travels specific to the conservancies, but I can't talk about them here on the blog. There are still many positives occurring in the communities that will be worth mentioning in the future. There are always politics when you work in communities and various interests and power struggles you have to adapt for in the process.

As usual, I wasn't far away from my camera and took some of the best Damaraland pictures I've taken yet, and some pretty wild elephant ones too. Over the last few months, I've learned so much more about my camera and what it can and cannot do and traveling around with Helge was a crash course in nature photography that is priceless for me.

I've seen a lot of beautiful areas in Namibia and elsewhere, but there is something completely different about the Damaraland area of Namibia that just hits your senses deep. I've said this before, but if Darmaraland could be moved to the states, it would be our most cherished national park -hands down.

Each morning Helge and I woke up to the sun [About 5 AM], the best time for shooting photographs, and I would say I was somewhat hooked on photography, though after a couple of mornings doing some serious photography work I'm totally hooked on it now. The sights were so amazing and I'll never forget my mornings sitting on rocky outcrops/mountains and seeing such amazing colors before we'd pack up camp and head to conservancy meetings. We both commented about how we have such an amazing office to work in! You truly can't be the Northwest part of Namibia.

There was one rather traumatic elephant experience for me I'll share later, but everything turned out fine for both human and elephant in the end. But basically it does involve a close encounter, truck battery problems, and midnight visitors to give you all a taste of what's to come in my next blog. For a Great Plains kid, elephants are not your average threat you deal with on a daily basis. We have our own threats that are unique, but nothing close to the size and power of an African Elephant.

Needless to say, I'm experiencing a breath of healthy lifetime experiences that will be firewood for the old days.

I'm so busy with side projects and crunching survey data this week, but hopefully by Saturday I can post a nice recap of my recent travel experiences and especially talk more about the conservancy system and its application to the Great Plains. The last two weeks have been especially informative for me. I can't wait to share my experiences in a future blog.

I hope this message finds you all well!

Cheers,

Aaron

Here are the photos:

Katima, Namibia

2009-10-22T10:08:00.007+02:00

Greetings Everyone:

I'm temporarily moving my office to Katima, Namibia today. Greenwell, my colleague, has been up in the Northeast setting wildlife hunting quotas in the conservancies based on all the recent game count data collected by the government and various other groups.

To get everyone geographically situated here is a zoomed in section of Namibia of where I'll be:

Source: http://www.orusovo.com/nammap/images/caprivi.JPG

The Caprivi strip is known to be one of the worst HIV infected areas in the world. I've heard figures stating 43% of this region is HIV positive and its actually been decreasing recently. That sounds like good news, but its only decreasing because people are dying from this horrible sickness.

Malaria is also a problem and I'm most likely going to start taking my pills to prevent this disease while always wearing long sleeve shirts. My pills make me sunburn so I've been neglecting to take them in warm sunny Namibia. And there are "elephants on every corner" and lots of "smelly water buffalo" along with crocs! eeekk!!!

I honestly believe you can't work in conservation in Namibia without addressing HIV and malaria too, so this will no doubt be an eye opening experience for me. The same applies for the Northern Great Plains when you consider the reservations and the diabetes and other health problems that are rampant.

A very powerful speaker and strong community leader, Janet Matota of IRDNC-Caprivi, presented to a Windhoek group a couple of months back about the current HIV situation and the work of conservancies and craft sales improving lives in the area. I have some great HD video of her speech, but again I'll have to post it when I return to the states. Speaking of internet...

There is no telling how much access I'll have to internet up there to update people through twitter and such, but no worries if I don't post early next week. I'm just working hard and seeing another amazing part of Namibia 8D in case you're worried!

Back to the truck situation... I don't know what happened, but the truck Green drove up broke down and he needs another one to drive around to the conservancies and set quotas. So, I was elected by the office to drive him a new truck and I'll fly back to Windhoek on the 29th of this month. Flights only leave this area every Monday and Friday.

I'm hoping to travel around some with Greenwell and learn more about the quota process and just see the conservancies up there, while crunching away on the commercial conservancy data I helped collect. Seeing is believing with how Namibia's conservancy system works. Dave Ward, from IRDNC, told me to take a nice weekend trip to Victoria Falls in Botswana and that means I can travel through Zimbabwe and Zambia in the process.

I'll also be able to see my friend Erica, who is also from the states, and is heading up the WWF Zambia office right now. It will be really nice to see her again and catch up.

Also, there is a secret I'm keeping and when I return on the 29th, the next morning I'm leaving with my colleague Helge to the NW communal conservancies in Damaraland [where my Namibia heart rests] to work on a special project request I REALLY hope works out so I can tell the blogger world more.

My travel and life experiences are sure tallying up quickly!

I need to go pack and hit the road!

Be well!

Cheers,

Aaron

Great News!!!

2009-10-21T17:42:00.004+02:00

Greetings Everyone:

What a great surprise today! I just walked into the office from doing an economic survey and found some amazing news coming from Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Grassland Foundation, was just awarded the "Travel-Leisure" 2009 Global Vision Award for Wildlife Tourism. As quoted from the Grassland Foundation's newsletter,

"Travel + Leisure recently announced the winners of their 2009 Global Vision Awards. These awards are given each year to the "latest and best efforts at cultural preservation, environmental conservation, and community-building through tourism." The 17 winners of this years awards include efforts both big and small, private and not for profit, and are both global and local in reach.

The Grassland Foundation was given the award for its work with the Northern Great Plains Program of the World Wildlife Fund in sending conservationists and ranchers from the Northern Great Plains to Namibia to study wildlife and land management practices. Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist at Columbia University, and member of the awards committee, commented that: "The Northern Great Plains project is an impressive example of America learning from best practices abroad."

If you would like to hear more about the work, the award, ect. please contact my friend/colleague Jill Francke at Grassland Foundation in Lincoln, NE. jill@grasslandfoundation.org

Congratulations Grassland Foundation!!! [Their link is also listed at the bottom of my blog]

Link to the award: http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/2009-global-vision-awards/2/?comments_page=1

.........

One of the highlights of my experiences over here in Namibia was participating with the Northern Great Plains group sponsored by WWF NGP and seeing how my ranch neighbors the Switzers [Calamus Outfitters -see link at bottom of bog] and others including myself can learn from the Namibian tourism model. Sadly, due to WWF Namibia work and travel conflicts I couldn't go everywhere with the group, but the recap session at the end was enlightening for all.

Many of you probably know the Switzer's ranch borders my ranch in Loup County and we're working on an innovative cross property natural resource management plan that incorporates ecotourism into the process among the neighbors on the Gracie Creek watershed. The model we're currently working on with many other groups is based off of parts of the Namibia conservation model.

When I came home for my sister's wedding in August, the two ranches sat down and had a "halftime" meeting I'd call it to talk about grants the ranches are applying for and what we as the landowners want to do with all these new ideas. [I previously blogged about this] I look forward to coming back to Nebraska and finishing up some previous work with Grassland and keep making the rubber hit the road in both grad school and back home on the ranch.

Congrats again to Grassland! Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Aaron

Kamanjab Update

2009-10-11T16:05:00.007+02:00

Greetings Everyone:

First of all I would like to send a big shout out to the Huskers for playing so well against Missouri on Thursday! GO BIG RED!!!

MU is one team I really don’t care for anymore. I hope things keep going well for the Cornhuskers! Its been a long time coming since the Callahand days. What great news to hear in Namibia!

I also heard parts of Nebraska have received anywhere from 4 to 6 inches of snow! At this rate, seems like it could be a hard winter and safe to say there will be snow on the ground when I leave warm sunny Namibia… I may need to run to the coasts and acclimate once I return. Then slowly make my way back to Nebraska!

I do not want to think about snow for a long time! The weather here is just perfect!
Things are going well in Kamanjab with the surveys.

Being a Nebraska ranch kid, its totally crazy visiting farms that have registered pet cheetahs just walking around the front yard, or seeing huge yield signs warning you about elephants in the area. The large poaching problem and basic lack of police and court systems to deal with the problem adds another layer to the craziness.
Some farmers here are taking drastic measures to deal with poachers, some of it might be pushing legal limits [but I really haven’t detected much of a police presence anywhere in Outjo District -who can blame them], so you really have to be careful driving around the various farms sometimes.

But in one day I visited a farm with three pet cheetahs and another with about 30 elephants living in the river valley in front of this AMAING thatch grass hunting lodge.

When you see a large branch lying in the road because an elephant decided to leave it there, you look everywhere twice before you get out and move the large stick. The branch was the size of my waist requiring a lot of strength to move and is only a toothpick in the elephant’s eyes. This area has many trees and it’s surprising how well a desert elephant can hide in trees. They’re so quite too. My elephant senses were on high alert.

When one arrives on the cheetah farm, the farmhouse and machine sheds are all fenced to the point where cheetahs can’t get out and there is a huge sign warning you to “Don't Enter! Ring Bell!” A slight chill runs down your spine. Maybe that could be the cheetah dinner bell I thought?! lol

When I first arrived on this farm, I thought the cheetah I saw by the fence had a pin in the corner and it appeared to be fenced in, then I heard another cheetah “meow” and was walking toward me. I knew then they were just walking around with the farm workers and couldn’t believe it.

It took me about 10 minutes to get over how tame cheetahs can be and how they can live with humans so closely. The other dogs and cats on the farm had no issue with their big cat friends either.

I have some sweet video of the cheetah farm I visited I can’t wait to post, but it will have to wait till I’m back in the states. When I conducted the cheetah farm survey, one of the three pet cheetahs wanted in the house when I was asking questions and had its paws resting on the glass door looking right at me licking its mouth.

It was somewhat distracting but I made it through the survey. The cat clearly posed no threat, but it was sure acting hungry and made me think he was eyeing me for diner… lol I’m sure it was being protective or something like that because I was in the house.

Feeding time was an hour later and a tour group of 40+ people came to see them. Nearly 7,000 people visit this farm on an annual basis.

I thought to myself afterwards… only in Namibia and what a crazy assignment I have!
Farmers here have adapted with many dangerous animals since the wildlife populations have been returning and have found a nice mix of trophy hunting and livestock revenues. There has been a huge transition in land use, but a small diversified component of livestock will always be present to provide income diversity which I agree is smart planning.

Many still face certain predator problems, but trophy hunting usually offsets in a large way any loss of livestock or damages to fences I’ve found. When the farmers do not have local ownership and control, that’s when many told me there is no value in the animal, because then all they receive is damages from the predator. “That’s when you find people wanting to kill everything,” one farmer told me.
Many farmers do not agree with the predator/elephant management of other NGO’s and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism here at all. Many are pretty blunt about telling you about it too. “Many of the conservation groups we’ve seen come and visit us do nothing for the animals. They work against the animals,” as one farmer told me. “They’re too far removed from the issue.”

This farmer was reflecting about the time a Green Peace advocate visited the farm and said farmers don’t need to shoot lower powered shots at the elephants. “You can use a chili bomb gun, but you need to be 45 meters [150 feet] away from the elephant,” this person told him. The farmer later told me no one in their right mind would even stand 200-300 meters from these elephants in a moving backie truck.

We even had a talk about WWF and anti-hunting groups and I assured him we were not interested in taking away hunting rights at all and that hunting is a valued conservation and development tool here in Namibia and we have the communal lands trophy hunting data to back it up. Many of my colleagues have been professional hunters or currently hunt themselves I told him.

Commercial farmers in Namibia, aka private land farms, are use to having control of the majority of their resources and do not like certain aspects when cheetah skins can’t be exported to the USA by hunters, thus hurting their safari business because of CITES considering them an endangered animal. Many also complained about many cheetahs killing livestock and when there is less value in the cheetah there is little incentive for anyone to care for it. It’s a tough situation to say the least given my limited knowledge.

Or when the elephants can’t be dealt with because they’re on a “special list” thus not under the farm’s management and blame Etosha National Park causing them to migrate out. The farmers are in a tough place: they can’t stop the elephant damage and receive no compensation and have no local control because “MET manages them.” Trophy hunting the problem animal elephants in the past and pooling the fees and splitting it up to people claiming to have elephant damages proved to be hardly effective. What to do? What to do… what to do?

I’m still learning about the issue, but this is what I heard. Its not worth going into details right now, but the farmer’s claim with predators and elephants is -they want sole control of the animals, they don’t want to shoot everything, and they do see the value in wildlife because they control and own it, but there will be problems when their control is removed from the predators and elephants. 9 times out of 10 this is what I heard.

Still, the wildlife numbers farmers are reporting are strong across the board and have been increasing generally, unless you’re a kudu. There is little assistance by the government in this process, and they’re only consulted when the farmers go to take out hunting permits issued by the government based on your game count data. Because many of the farmers grew up on the land and hunted with their fathers, its easy for them to know how to manage for the wildlife, how much to take, and what to take. Many of the farm managers I interviewed are both cattle farmers and professional hunters who know how to shoot very well.

It’s probably safe to say at least a 1/3 of the kudu population has dropped off because of rabies and trophy hunts on this species are already being held back now. One farmer showed me a pile of 80 dead kudus and I about fell over from the smell.
But good rains, plenty of grass, and trophy hunting/management hunts have all been cited why wildlife has been increasing. So it’s hard to say farmers aren’t managing well on their own from what little data I’ve gathered so far.

Many of the younger generations coming back to the farms are opening up lodges, they’re all professional hunters, and they make a pretty penny selling hunts in the US, Middle East, and Europe. Many times if the farm was more livestock oriented I heard the elder tell me their sons and daughters were learning to be professional hunters and were interested in coming back to start lodges and sell hunts.
To date, I have conducted 40+ surveys in the Outjo District and I feel really good about the progress and what the results will do for the landowners and case study papers.

Sadly, Kamanjab is not much of a center for farmers and locals to meet, so my interviews have all been on the farm and require a little bit more driving and time. But I’m learning a lot from the Loxondonta Conservancy members and after sharing many stories and going through the interview it’s often tough to leave the farm. People here are so nice and the wives have fed me very well if I’m lucky enough to be close to lunchtime.

What is so impressive to me about the commercial farmers in these conservancies is their willingness to take control of local resources and manage collectively as a group. Of course there are a few politics between neighbors and ect. but its safe to say, generally and across the board the farmers here are sharing many concerns about the wildlife and want to manage for it properly as a collective conservancy movement, but they all tell you this is possible because they have revenue and wildlife rights when shooting the animal and selling the meat.

I’ll talk more about the survey experiences and results later. But I’m going to go crunch some poaching data real quick. I’m still blown away by the incidents and the fact that I’ve found 2 or 3 people I can think of now who actually caught a poacher and they received a punishment out of the 40+ I’ve done. There are also some rock paintings close to my place and I might go check them out.
I hope this finds everyone well. Many thanks for reading!

GO BIG RED!!!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Kamanjab, Namibia

2009-10-05T09:56:00.003+02:00

Greetings All:

Just a quick update note. I'm going to be leaving Outjo, Namibia and heading to Kamanjab [about an hour west of Outjo] and continue administering the economic survey to the Loxondonta conservnacy members. I'm looking forward to living in Kamanjab for a week or so. My friend Uapii has family in the area I can stay with and its situated right between the communal lands of the Northwest [where my Namibia heart rests] and the commercial land I've been running around in the last two weeks.

Loxondonta Conservancy has some serious problems with elephants coming into their farms and basically making it impossible to farm cattle traditionally, so many are transitioning to hunting and wildlife lodges, but some resist due to farming traditions and previously invested money in the farm. I can't wait to start comparing the poaching and hunting value returns in this area compared to the Etosha Conservancy. This conservancy is much smaller in membership, but their farm sizes are a little bit bigger, so I should be done in this area shortly then onto surveying non-conservancy members soon.

For now, the bush calls and I'm going to be on the road shortly.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Charcoal Burning: Outjo's "Black Gold"

2009-10-02T09:56:00.016+02:00

Greetings Everyone:

Here is a brief look at the Charcoal burning aka "Black Gold" business I've come across during my economic survey work for WWF and the University of Pretoria-South Africa.

Some select farms in the Outjo District aka "Cattle Country of Namibia" rely on this burned wood product to pay additional bills. Currently, its an extremely viable business option, but comes with environmental and social impacts that raises concern among many Outjo district residents. To understand part of the problem, its beneficial to review the brief political history of Namibia recently.

The political, cultural, and ecological landscape has been changing drastically since apartheid ended in 1990 here in Namibia. The emergence of Affirmative Action black commercial farmers [AA Farms] is the newest growing landowner population in the Outjo District, because prior to 1990, if you were black you could not own land in Namibia.

There are unique start-up challenges AA farms face coming into their new landowner roles, unlike their Afrikaner counterparts who have been utilizing wildlife and cattle for income for some time. Thus, one finds more intense management plans for resource extraction on AA farms like Charcoal Burning to help cover their over-hedge, or heavy loan payment situation.

AA farms have to deal with additional loans for fence improvements, cattle, and farm improvements on top of the AA loan. The average lifespan of an AA farm is 5 years according to many of the farmers I've interviewed in Outjo. This does not allow one to have any type of long-term land improvement management plan. Its often referred to as a "sick circle" as one Afrikaner farmer told me and a "huge struggle" according to one AA farmer.

All the AA owners Uapii and I interviewed on these farms have come from the communal lands of Namibia and each had 200 plus cattle in the communal land, which is the minimum requirement to receive this loan. The cattle are then moved to the farm when the farmer signs the loan and continues farming. These farmers told us they know poaching is associated with charcoal, but they need it to stay on the land given the loan structures. Wildlife is still seen as a "white man's business."

Many of the Afrikans farms are now converting to wildlife as the main land use by utilizing trophy hunting fees to generate income from hunters mainly from Europe then the States. This has been possible due to the fact that landowner rights were devolved on wildlife for the Afrikaner farmers in the 1970's, so wildlife gained a market price and their numbers have slowly increased and been utilized as trophy, own use, shoot and sell, and biltong hunting.

Great disparity has been created from this process, because even the communal lands were just given wildlife and tourism revenue rights in 1990 where many AA farmers come from.

Conflict is created between the two groups, because one many farmers feel the AA loans are just another incentive and unfair for their previous hard work, this group often associates poaching to occur from the hired hands used to harvest charcoal, and the environmental air pollution forces wildlife to migrate out of the area.

One usually finds Charcoal Burning on emerging farms, or farms that have special incentive loans where the new owner only pays the interest on the 5 year loan, then continues to pay the premium after the 5 year period. Some Afrikans farmers do utilize charcoal burners on their land, but many prefer other methods of bush extraction like using goats, slow fire burns, or highly "centrally managed" charcoal burning groups that selectively harvest and cannot have dogs, visitors, and are fed only cattle meat so one can see if poaching is occurring.

When you drive in the Northeastern part of Outjo district, you can see many piles like these containing the "Black Gold." The contents are destined to South Africa and Europe to be used as an energy source or insulation in coolers. Many farms off the NamPower grid utilize make-shift coolers using charcoal.

Many of the famrers in the Etosha and Outjo area blame their poaching problem on the charcoal operations, and there is some truth this matter, but its a given poaching happens everywhere and across all boundaries racial and political. But the common trend research has shown, is when there are large concentrations of populations poaching is more likely to occur due to poverty conditions and a large market demand created by larger groups. When there are large families or groups of workers collecting wood and burning along with loosely managed burning operations, its a formula suited for poaching to possibly occur.

Many of the emerging and resettlement farms are using charcoal as supplemental income to stay on the land as stated previously and I've seen it range from 10% to 70% of an AA farmer's income in the Outjo district. I've also seen a lot of interest from the emerging farmers in wildlife, but they're being excluded currently from the commercial conservancy movement and this will only create more problems in the future I feel for the wildlife and community cooperation needed in conservancy operations.

But as a colleague and I were talking about the last few days, many of the non-emerging farmers here could possibly be singled out as poaching too with their shoot and sell permits if this system is abused like we hear of from time to time.

These permits allow a farmer to go on their farm and take game at will and sell it as meat to a butcher. For the hunters out there from the States, this may sound mad, but there really is no season for hunting and in this process bulls and females are taken at will sometimes. Many of the farmers who I've interviewed who are serious about game ranching never practice shoot and sell or biltong hunting because they feel its unethical and not suitable for viable wildlife populations.

The difference is, these farmers have land thus power and the government stamp to go through and clean up their game at will, while on the other end we call it poaching when a family struggles to provide food.

Nearly 90% of the farmers agree wildlife provide a great deal of food security to Namibia, yet many disadvantaged people don't have access to the market and are forced to poach sometimes. Game meat is found in stores, cheaper then beef and chicken, and often given to farm workers to satisfy the food quota laws set forth by the Namibian government, but the charcoal burners are on contract basis and thus do not normally receive food rations for their work.

This is such a complicated issue and I'm just beginning to learn more about the market and social pressures of poaching and charcoal burning, but here is what I've learned talking to guys who burn and here are some pictures that can show you a snap shot into the lives of many Angolans who are forced to burn to provide for their families.

Here are some pictures of a charcoal operation on an emerging Herero commercial farm:

Basically, a charcoal burner receives 400 Namibian dollars for a ton of charcoal. So about 70 US dollars per ton. Each individual bag weights 40-50 Kgs each or around 100 pounds. The final product is used for insulation in coolers, a fuel source in Europe and South Africa, or sometimes fence posts are produced from the strong straight trees workers cut down. Workers are usually paid by the ton they haul in, so there is incentive to cut down denser tree varieties that may not be part of the bush encroachment problem.

The men spend their days collecting wood on the road, digging up roots, and cutting trees down with pongas [sharp machetes] or axes on the farms. The work looks hard and grueling. The heat just swells around the large tanks containing charcoal on top of the summer heat now coming. Its grueling work and because of some much time in the field, many of the farmers in Outjo blame poaching to occur when harvesting of wood is occurring.

One of the harvesting methods. It makes for a strong and ca-laced hand-shake:

The lack of proper land mangement does contribute to the additional swartehwak trees creating the "bush encroachment problem." One wonders how cattle can graze or how wildlife can survive in some of these encroached areas, but they do.

The trees harvested for this process are normally part of the huge bush encroachment problem many farmers have here because of overgrazing and fire being excluded from the natural management. There are concerns of erosion, air pollution, and loss of wildlife habitat depending on how extreme the extraction rates occur. The removal of the trees takes away the root systems holding soil together, extracts the natural recycling of nutrients, and is no longer a carbon sink when burned for CO2, a green house gas blamed for Climate Change.

Even the farmers who charcoal burn will tell you they don't have wildlife because the smoke is too strong and scares them away.

I drove through the heart of the Charcoal business yesterday with Uapii when we were interviewing emerging farmers and it was rather depressing to see the working and living conditions. It doesn't surprise me poaching occurs, yet given the extreme situation who can blame people needing to provide for their families?

This problem is going to take a lot of thought and consideration by the Namibian government and the Outjo community. A good bridge I feel would be incorporating the emerging farmers into the conservancy systems and being able to benefit from wildlife and employing the Angolain refugees as employees for the operation. But this will take incredible training and financial resources to be feasible.

An Angolan refugee:

More pictures:

[Fence posts. Notice the Angolan style houses in the background].

A look at the biggest group of Charcoal burners we found. Many of the operations operate right by the road, so trucks can easily pick up the heavy bags. I would estimate 40 people were in this one camp alone with horrible housing and far far away from markets and grocery stores.

One final side note:

Many of the emerging farms have small stock and cattle, but due to strong cultural traditions according to my friend and colleague Uapii, the Herero farmers do not sell cattle to Namibia's MeatCo and only utilize it for themselves on the farm or the new emerging Angolan market. An absence of marketing skills is also lacking according to Uapii and we're finding lots of interest in wildlife hunting, but a lack of education and facilities to make it a reality.

You wonder if anyone finds this stuff interesting and made it to this point, but if you did, thanks for reading!

I gotta run, but I'll continue this discussion later on and see what results Loxondonta Conservancy provide. It seems charcoal burning is less prevalent in the west vs. the eastern side of the Outjo District.

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Outjo, Namibia [One week of surveys-Recap]

2009-09-29T20:15:00.004+02:00

“I should tell you the story about the time when a cobra was this far away from my pecker,” said one commercial game farmer with two skinny fingers spanning only a foot apart before resting in his lap again. “Oh, stop telling stories,” said his wife who was bringing out a warm loaf of bread. This story only increased my fear of all the poisonous snakes in Namibia. From what I gathered about this snake, if I am bitten, it’s best to find a nice peaceful tree to sit under, because I’m gone in two hours. This motivated me to purchase my new handmade seal skin boots that have shin guards from The Etosha Leather company in front of the cafe. The rainy season is coming and so are the snakes.

“This year we have found over 90 snares [used for poaching] on our farm,” said another disgusted farmer. “The communal lands are a success story, but the commercial farms have the worst poaching in Namibia.”

This one blew me away: “Apartheid ended in 1978,” said one black commercial farmer who supported the ruling party at the time. Uapii and I about fell out of our chairs. “Ok, so what happened in 1990” I said. “Nothing!” I guess you win some and loose some in the survey world, but we didn’t trust this guy for one second and proceed to throw out the survey. It smelled like poaching was rampant from this farm when 3 other farms down the road were about ready to pull their hair out recounting the stories of poaching.

“The stiff penalties of cattle poaching make it more likely for one to be murdered if you try to stop people on your farm,” said a neighbor of a farmer who was recently murdered for confronting poachers. “The poachers always are released and back to poaching again. Its just infuriating!” One receives 30 years for cattle rustling and only 5 for murder. $300 rand usually places a poacher on bail and it takes about 4 years to be prosecuted if you’re lucky. A poacher can bank on not being convicted. One farmer this year lost 80 oryx and over 100 wildebeest to poaching and it almost shut him down.

“Do you want to see the skin of a 5 meter python that ate our goat?” Ummm… sure I said. The skin took 5 seconds to unroll across the living room floor, while the jack russle just went nuts barking at it. A fully stuffed cheetah and a dozen other skins and skulls lined the living room and were all shot because they were killing cattle or trophies. I literally walked into a field museum and it’s amazing how much farmers here understand ecology and each animal’s tendencies.

“Take these two snares back with you as souvenirs. We have plenty of them! The small one is for birds and the other killed an oryx” Thanks, I’ll hang them on my office wall,” I said. The small trap must have taken one evening for someone to make. The craftsmanship is superb for just normal wire and leaves a mark on your finger.

“We don’t want to always have handouts and soft loans. We want to begin to stand on our own and use wildlife,” a black commercial farmer told me as we finished the survey. “I know my charcoal workers poach, but I can’t keep the farm if I don’t utilize charcoal. But the commercial hunting is still a white man’s business.”

“The more people you have on the land, the less game you have. Generally, the situation is getting worse for game from the current land reform and from now on it will have a more negative effect on game when 50 million acres will be resettled,” said another ex-ag extension officer of 10 years. “I’m a strict cattle rancher, but I know the wildlife is part of the natural diversity to, so that’s why I joined the conservancy –to protect our resources.”

“I usually estimate $190,000 rand in losses due to wildlife coming from Etosha and poaching damages each year,” said one tanned and winkled lonely Afrikaner farmer who can step out on his front porch and see the Etosha fence. “So how do you survive and continue farming,” I asked. “Its just part of doing business for me. This year alone I shot and skinned 40 lions. For poachers, if the nose is wet it’s gone. I hang reflectors all around the farm to confuse them at night.”

“Hello, how do you do?!” said a farmer who packs a 45 magnum pistol and told me not to touch the dog due to the fact he’ll bite me. Later on he told me, “We take security rather serious around here. Be sure to tell people you’re coming or they’ll most likely shoot at you. Be even more careful at night. The first three bullets in my belt are buck shot for snakes and the other 10 are regulars.” This farmer proudly displays years of metals earned from wining shooting contests in South Africa as a youth. His hearing, not so sharp in the left ear.

“Those skins over there, they were gifts from Etosha when this resettlement farm started,” said our resettlement tour guide. Uapii and I sure didn’t believe him. We both couldn’t understand how 200 families could live on less then 10,000 hectares sustainably.

……………………..

These are some of the more memorable quotes off the top of my head from the last week of doing surveys. I’ve learned so much about economics, wildlife, and racism in the last week then I probably have in the last 4 years. Its been a total whirlwind of conversation concerning conservancies, Namibia politics, the best game meat on can hunt, generous offers to come and stay in lodges, and many conversations discussing race issues.

Outjo is one wild place to say the least. I will say the racism is rather difficult to see on a regular basis and how its so absorbed and a “norm” for people living here.
But the stories and openness people have provided me has given me so much insight into the benefits and costs of conservancies and other issues. Luckily, I’m hearing both sides of the story by interviewing conservancy members, non-members, visiting resettlement farms, and talking to emerging black farmers.

I have a stack of 30 plus surveys that is beginning to look like a dissertation book. Each one easily contains a novel just waiting to be told, but I’ll have to first start with helping Peter Lindsey write up the science to be published [my first official published research ever!] and WWF’s case study before I begin telling them.
Its safe to say I’m only half way through the surveying process and still have Loxondonta Conservancy to go. I hear through the grapevine its even more wild and elephants now prevent people from farming so they have to do game ranching now.

The last seven days, I have been based in Outjo, Namibia conducting land use value economic surveys. Its starting to warm up something fierce. Mid to high 90’s is now average and it sucks the energy right out of you. This community is filled with many Afrikans and Damara people, while the black commercial farmers as they’re called are all of Herero decent. Outjo is also a hub for many of the rural farmers and makes conducting economic surveys rather easy, due to the fact many stop in the local café for sweets and coffee.

There can’t be over 3,000 people here in Outjo at any given time. There is one main street with shops that remind me of small town USA. Large carbon footprint tour buses roll on north to Etosha and are usually found early in the morning. Many of these tourists ask questions about WWF’s work in Namibia when they see the truck parked out front. I have a grip of emails and business cards from lawyers, teachers, and even tour guides who want to see the results of the study. So the pressure is now on to deliver.

Uapii and I are now well known in the Outjo Café and our waitress Miriam is a really sweet and puts our orders in first every time.
A make-shift craft center is located on the main drag and one will find Himba women walking around in the OK Grocery Store in traditional dress, while Afrikaner farmers talk about cricket and rugby leaning over their backie hoods before heading home for super.

I’m usually up and going by 6 AM and already hanging out at the Outjo Café eating the best German style food around and mingling with the locals and tourists by 7 and calling farmers up to set interview times. Recently, Uapii and I average 4 surveys a day and nearly half of them have been done in the Outjo Café, so the carbon footprint and price/survey should make the boss happy.

……

Its now late and a nice rain is falling over the veld. Uapii just served up some tasty smelling food from our hostel kitchen. I’m going to continue talking about my lessons learned shortly. I’m still digesting the survey results and can’t wait to begin crunching the results and blogging about everything.
But the blog is already to long with little focus. 8D Its bedtime.

I hope this finds my friends, family, and readers well! I'll post the most recent pictures of the past week soon!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

This is where Outjo is located:

I felt sorry for these donkeys. Their halters are interesting.

A child in the resettlement camp we visited:

Once one builds a house on the resettlement farm, the government takes away your tent:

A grandma who was making quilts in the resettlement camp:

Uapii looking like Aliens or "African Magik" taking him away:

Me:

Photos From Sossusvlei and Deadvlei

2009-09-21T17:17:00.020+02:00

Greetings All:

I don't have time to talk about my most recent weekend trip with my friend Tina and our companions Chad [Travel Bug Safari] and Tina [backpacker heading to Zambia] in this post, but I can let the pictures do the talking for now!

I'm heading out into the field for two weeks now starting Sept 22 and will be back in Windhoek on Oct 4. Wish me luck! But I'm not sure how much I'll be checking email and such, but we'll see how many minutes I'll want to burn on my MTC 3G internet stick.

But in the meantime, please enjoy my most recent photos. I think these are by far some of my best landscape shots to date.

Cheers!

A.E. Price

Just one of those days.

2009-09-21T07:15:00.002+02:00

Something almost happened today I dread about on a daily basis here in Windhoek.
When I walk to the post office by work I think about it. When I walk to the craft center for lunch I think about it. When I’m coming home from the grocery store I think about it. When I’m walking home from work again I think about it.
It’s a brief thought. But the weight is heavy.
“This could be the trip where I’m mugged. How can I best prevent this or minimize the possible loss?”
Then I carry on. I don’t want fear to overshadow my experiences here.
It’s not a pleasant thought, but I try to bury it deep and see the other side and hope I remain on the good grace of people.
But lets face facts, I’m living in a country with one of the worst income gaps in the world and it breeds conflict and the constant threat of petty theft.
The thought of being mugged is a constant threat here in Windhoek. And it’s a completely different story when it almost happens to you vs. indirect stories. I can’t begin to count how many times people have warned me about the taxi drivers and such.
My most recent story I can share from my friends happened in the same area where my mugging almost occurred.
Four Germans were mugged in daylight last Thursday about three blocks from my place by a group of 10 guys. Shoes, wallets, passports, and everything -all gone.
There is obviously a group targeting Klein Windhoek where I live.
My landlords even told me about a The Namibian news story documenting and warning people in our area about the same group I saw. And the story also warns one to be careful of a grey corolla car with no plates. The same one I saw…
It’s a constant mind game one plays thinking about the threat of being mugged. But where do you draw the line in your mind?
There is a part of you saying, “Ah it won’t happen” and “Don’t think everyone is out to get you.” But everyone warns you with stories of friends or direct experiences about being mugged. Luckily, each story I hear has certain themes and signs that can be a future signal for me.
So here is my story.
I was walking home after going to work to briefly check my email on Sunday, then I was going to meet my friend Uapii and go pick up Tina for a short Katutura tour. It was 3:30 and a pleasant day to be out walking. And I had many good thoughts and memories from my recent trip with Tina and our new friend Lisa with Travel Bug Safari to Deadvei.
There are two busy streets that I walk on when I’m going home by foot or driving. I was just crossing Robert Mugabee Ave. maybe 60 meters or so away from work and then a feeling of something dark came over me.
I’m an intuitive guy and was sure feeling something.
I saw two cabs driving in the direction toward the mall filled with 7 guys in total.
I knew right away from previous experiences, it is damn near impossible to catch a cab on any given Sunday. So for me to see two cabs tailing each other -was my first sign of trouble.
Muggers here work in pairs and networks. And with a car full of all guys -that was my second warning sign. You never enter a cab with another guy inside. You often hear stories about groups jumping out of vans and taxis and mugging people too.
Before I was out of view of Robert Mugabe, I saw out of the corner of my eye that the two cars were pulling a U turn and heading my way up Heinitzburg Street. Then I knew things were on, but I carried on like I didn’t notice anything initially.
The two cars drove right by me and went to the next street where they could turn out of my view. There was a long city block separating us luckily. But the last cab let two guys out and they started walking toward my direction. Once I saw the two guys come out I took about 5 more steps at their same pace and then stopped. Looked right at them and in the process they stopped too.
So like in poker, I called the “bluff” of two casual guys walking down the street and taking a joy ride in their friend’s taxi. But it didn’t change the high stake situation I was facing.
Looking back, panic didn’t initially run over me. I was actually infuriated about what was happening, but I’m not a fighter nor do I want to use my pepper sprays or tazers [things all my friends here carry sadly] on anyone unless it’s absolutely necessary.
So I vented a little steam.
I don’t know what came over me, but I flipped them off, spat on the ground, and turned around and started walking to Robert Mugabe. Then I started walking backwards to see if they were going to chase and the two guys showed body signals demonstrating disappoint. They started walking back to their taxis.
Once I was across Robert Mugabee, I pulled out the work keys and just ran to the gate and let myself in.
My colleague Keith gave me a ride home. Luckily he was in the office finishing up some work. I felt horrible telling him about the events, especially when his newly arrived family are in week two of their two year experience here and were in the office to hear the bad news.
I called colleagues and safe cab drivers before I noticed Keith was upstairs and no one was answering except Helge and he was out on the farm.
After Helge texted me the police’s number, I called them and explained the situation.
But police here need license plate numbers and I told them the model of the cars and said, “Just put your people there and you’ll find two cabs trailing each other and one guy is wearing an Orlando Pirates Football Club Jersey.”
"Did you happen to see the registration sir?"
"Again, no I didn't. I was looking to run."
I let the poor woman on the other end hear it and was extremely blunt about how ridiculous I think the law is where you need plate numbers to catch people and justify sending out units, when there are stories in the paper and two other previous muggings in the same area the police were also warned about.
“Please go figure,” I think to myself after pushing the red cell phone button.
I didn’t think about calling the police initially. One calls friends first here or takes care of it your self. So many other locals second their frustration with the police dealing with these situations fully and even accuse them as working together with muggers.
This is typical but I had to tell the police to begin my venting process.
Overall, my hostel roomies and others have been a little freaked out about things lately given the recent mugging and now it almost happening to me.
………….
I always think about the “lessons learned” in situations like this.
Its so easy to let hate fill one in these situations and the lesson is to deal with these feelings in a way that doesn’t breed more hate, thus creating barriers; like where I faulted with flipping the guys off and spitting at them out of frustration.
To me I was angry at the act of mugging and not the guys, but it’s easy to see how it could have been seen differently up on the hill looking down at me and provoke other things/thoughts. Other people who have been mugged or in similar situations I’ve noticed carry a huge stigma sometimes.
Horrible horrible thoughts can fill a mind and heart after experiences like these, but I’m not going to go there.
When I was back in the WWF office, I reflected on how angry I was when my car stero was stolen two times [in Nebraska and Washington], and among other things that have been stolen. And then how tough it was for me then to rise above the situation and not think in profiles.
This incident obviously breaks the travel bubble some, but I refuse to let myself fall into these hate ruts I find others possessing here and elsewhere. This won’t stop me from reaching out and wanting to experience new things and meet new people, but safety will also be in the back of my mind and I’ll do everything I can to prevent being mugged. But there is only so much one can do, especially when facing groups like these.
Previously, I’ve talked about being brutally honest concerning my experiences here in Namibia and South Africa. What happened today is something I know close friends and family may not want to read about, but this is what I’m feeling and experiencing. Please know, I’m still OK and having the time of my life here and learning so much.
I have some of my best pictures yet I need to post from Deadvlei and Sossusvlet. Please stay tuned for pictures and experiences.
I'm also prepping for two weeks in the field interviewing commercial farmers and I can't wait!
…..
My friends Louie and Ernestine, two traditional natives from Canada, performed a traveling song at their tribe’s main pow wow when I arrived in South Africa. I didn’t ask for it, but Ernestine said she was going to ask Louie, who is a strong medicine man, to do a song that will protect and bring me home. I was told this song is used in situations when people from their tribe leave for wars and long journeys.
It’s a big request everyone takes seriously especially when this was done on a traditional drum [VERY different from normal pow wow drums. This one is used in the old ways] during the annual pow wow.
I like to think the drum and song were with me in this situation.

My best,
A.E. Price

Research Update and Swakop Round II

2009-09-14T16:43:00.023+02:00

This is a look of the scenery on my way back to Windhoek from a wonderful weekend in Swakopmund on C28. Too bad there is a smoke fog from all the prairie fires, but it still has great color quality.

...................

Greetings Everyone!

I hope this finds everyone well! I’m currently extremely busy right now with trying to piece together a methods research paper for my economic surveys in the Etosha and Loxondata conservancies and contacting farmers to be interviewed. My goal is to be out in the field next week conducting interviews and hopefully camping in Etosha again trying to see a lion!

Last Thursday, Chris and I left for the Etosha Conservancy, which is the largest commercial conservancy in Namibia with 52 members measuring a total of 430,000 ha or just a tick over 1 million acres. There are 23 game farms and 10 guest farms operating within this conservancy, thus the ranchers outnumber the ecotourism operators, but they still work together.

Chris and I were on a mission to gather the contact information of all the members and ID non-members who are bordering the conservancy to be interviewed. It was a huge success, but nearly suicide for the amount of driving we did in one day.

We left Windhoek at 7:30 AM and drove all the way to the south side of the Etosha National Park to have diner with Tim Osborne and his other half. This couple is originally from Alaska and California and they met in college after Tim returned from an Africa trip where he fell in love the landscape. His newly found interest in Africa led him to move to Namibia and purchase this farm they currently operate as a 100% eco-tourism and hunting lodge. By the looks of things they’re making good money.

The smell of fresh baking bread greeted Chris and I after we drove through what was many miles of gravel roads. I have a completely new concept of what “living out in the boonies means” after driving to these farms. A large thatch roof building houses the diner table and chairs looking out over the veldt. One can see the Etosha National Park from this couple’s farm.

It was a perfect setting to start the discussion of the study and land use values in Namibia.

In stroll 3 hunters who are hungry for lunch. They have familiar accents and we
quickly learned they were from Alaska and on a hunting vacation. Two worked on the North Slopes and the other was a corrections officer, but they were thoroughly enjoying themselves and were taking nice trophy game off the farm. This farm only markets itself in Alaska and started in California now, but even the recession hasn’t stopped people from booking people well into the future.

Its such a small world and I have to go to Namibia to discover this, but one of the Alaskans knew someone from Burwell, Nebraska! I swear every week there is a Nebraska connection popping up. Last week, a new german friend has a sister living in Omaha, Nebraska and she said Nebraska doesn’t look like a lot of fun, but then I started talking to her about our ranch and the tone changed.

But Imagine a lodge located on top of a large mountain overlooking a beautiful woodland prairie with a watering hole where kudu, ostrich, and other critters come to water during the day. Conversation would be interrupted by wildlife coming into drink. Even the ostriches had names. This couple knew their wildlife like children.
We had the best lunch with freshly taken kudu and oryx meat taken from the farm and processed on the farm, matched with the baked bread we smelled, and salad greens. The hunters were sharing their hunting stories and Tim’s jokes about meeting his wife in college and Africa travels had everyone’s stomachs rolling with laughter.

Later on we sat down with three maps I collected from the Ministry of Lands and we ID’ed people who are not in the conservancy and black emerging farmers. Basically, there is little or no information about how much the commercial lands contribute to conservation and tourism in Namibia and that’s why this study is so important. We’re also going to look at the land reform farms, consisting of black farmers returning to the land through the assistance of bank loans. Chris and I suspect the way the loan structure is set up now on top of cattle loans, this group can’t even begin to think about having game lodges and ect. and helping wildlife populations because many are forced to leave the land after 5 years from default payments.

Overall, we’re very excited about the study and I sure have my work cut out for me but I’m loving this challenge and what awaits in the end results. My interviews will be conducted on site with the managers/owners and I can only imagine the stories and conversations I'll be able to tell when I return.
……………..

So, I knocked off a little early to head to Swakopmund with my new friend Tina, who is
an intern here in Namibia from Germany. She’s really into journalism, horses, traveling, and photography, so we’ve had a lot to talk about.

We rented a car and were off to enjoy the ocean city’s restaurants and wildlife viewing opportunities with a CD of the Red Hot Chili Peppers I burned for the journey we probably listened to 15 times.

We dined at The Tug and woke up early Saturday morning to go on a great ocean tour. This one was much better then my last experience and provided much more of a context to the experience that many tour places here lack. We also were a lot closer to the dolphins and oil rigs, so there were many great photo opportunities.

The weather was a little chilly on the boat, but we sucked it up and warmed up with coffee and german cake when we arrived back in Swakop. We then decided to go check out the dunes, specifically Dune 7, the largest dune in the area. It took us about 20 minutes to climb to the top and take in the view for awhile, and probably only 3 minutes to run down. LOL.

Later, we dined at The Lighthouse and later walked around town taking in the nightlife. I kept thinking this might be the last time I’ll be in Swakop, but then its only more motivation to go to grad school and come back!
Sunday was another early riser and we wanted to take in the C28 highway between Swakop and Windhoek. It took us nearly 7 hours but it was well worth it. The landscape changes so much and there are normally springbok and other critters running around. We were lucky enough to see some giraffe!

We switched drivers half way through and Tina got our little 2 wheel stuck in a loose gravel area near a waterbed, but luckily we only passed to farm houses close to the road and this incident happened right in front of one which =’s great timing on her part. I take partial fault too, because this ranch kid knows better when it comes to loose gravel on a road and owning a Dodge Neon.

But there was a really nice farm worker who went out of his way to make sure we were on our way again. We only had a rope to pull the car out and I was worried it was going to snap and we’d be shoveling the rest of the evening, but we lucked out.
We laughed a long time about everything and counted our blessings.
…………………..

That’s all I really have right now for a weekly recap. I’m also working away on college grad school applications and have a World Symposium on the Ecologic and Economic Benefit of Hunting I’m excited about going to this week. Many of the speakers will have direct applications to tourism in the Great Plains and hunting. Also, Chris will be giving a presentation about the Sustainable Use of Wildlife as a catalyst to conservation and development in Namibia. I need to make sure I have enough business cards for this one.

Here are the most recent pictures I’ve taken. I normally don’t like taking pictures from a moving car, because you see motion in the picture, but some of these motion shots have a neat composition I’m starting to like now. There is a UNL photo competition coming up and I need to sit down and submit photos now, because every week I have new photos to choose from and its driving me wild picking two out for each category. I’m just going to print out the finalists in my eyes and have my coworkers vote on their favorites.

Please enjoy the photos and thank-you for stopping by the blog!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

..........
Pelican waiting for a fish to be thrown:

Sea Gulls:

A good look at the oil rigs and oyster farms:

Bottle Nose Dolphins from sea tour:

The Light House by Pelican Point:

Me shooting HD video with my Flip:

Tina took this one:

Good human and environment interaction shot:

More flippers:

A local oil rig. The South African Navy had their ships near by:

Tina and Google:

Dune 7 and climbers:

Another shot from Dune 7:

Classic railroad tracks. The Townes Van Zandt lyrics came to mind. "There's not a stronger wind then the one that blows down the lonesome railroad line."

Me:

Tina:

Driving back to Windhoek:

A motion picture but still on the way to Windhoek:

The Elephant Lodge Pictures

2009-09-06T14:09:00.015+02:00

Greetings Everyone:

I had another lovely weekend here in Namibia. Spring [soon to be hot hot hot] is finally coming around at the cost of losing an hour today, but it sure made the game drive this weekend a memorable one. Previously, I've seen the brown/grey/tan colors of the grass and trees during my travels here and its nice seeing hints of the youthful spring green and flowers blooming on trees.

I traveled to the Elephant Lodge Game Reserve and was impressed with the management of the game. This place manages black rhino, 9 elephant, and a variety of other antelope African wildlife. Its always nice to escape from the city for at least a few hours. There were also captive leopards and cheetahs at this lodge, which is still a tough one for me to digest when you see such beautiful and strong animals pinned up behind fences, but then you realize they'd be poached, shot, or not able to survive alone.

Cheetahs make interesting sounds, especially when there is fresh donkey meat [all the donkeys you see in these pictures are raised to feed the leopards and cheetahs] around. And once the meat was securely lodged inside the cat's mouth -they were gone. One was reminded when they entered the bush and grasses further inside the pin, how effective their colors are in disguising them from other living things. One is incredibly lucky to see these animals in the wild.

My flip video player shot some great feeding and wildlife shots, but the MB's are too large to upload on the internet system here with the upload and download limits.

The owner was busy and I couldn't pin him down to talk about his nearly 20 year old operation. This place is a classic example of private landowners expanding areas with neighbors or buying up large sections of land, dropping fence down in the middle and managing with a large surrounding fence. There are so many questions I wanted to ask the owner. This area was an obvious all wildlife ecotourism success story.

............ Game Drive to Game Day in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Saturday marked the first Nebraska football game away from home, but I tried to make up the deficit by having a desert diner with my new friend Tina at O'Portuga's [Angolan/Portuguese restaurant] and watching the Germany [her team] vs. South Africa soccer game. The restaurant staff couldn't find the game but we both sucked it up and told stories about why we love our sports teams so much.

Congrats on the first game win of the season Huskers!

............ Pictures

Here are some select pictures from the game drive this weekend.

I hope you enjoy my most recent shots.

The first Leopard I've seen here in Namibia. His jaws crushed the donkey bones like tooth pics.

Our fearless tour guide with donkey meat in hand and very hungry cats on the other side.

A cheetah going in for the snag from another cheetah not in the picture.

A hornbill

Donkeys hiding from the hot sun

A view from the game drive:

Tracking Elephants with trackers. There is one large bull in the background:

My favorite giraffe picture yet:

More giraffes:

And springbok with a nice rocky backdrop:

Thank-you for stopping by!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

World Largest Game Count Spotlighted on ABC

2009-09-02T10:20:00.005+01:00

Greetings Everyone:

I'm happy to share another article about the world's largest game count I was able to participate in this year.

Recently, I shared an article by Dan O'Brien focusing on his WWF Northern Great Plains experiences, and I also want to share another article to help supplement the blog.

Below is the official write up [in bold] that my colleague here at WWF, Helge Denker wrote up about our experiences with the ABC film crew who came out recently to cover the world's largest game count.

Helge's article does a great job explaining how communities have a say in local resource management and the role the counts play in sustaining wildlife populations.

We both also submitted photos [the ones with gray borders] that will be used on ABC's website when they air the story. No telling now when they'll air this documentary, but everyone will know as soon as I'm made aware of its airing on Good Morning America and others.

My colleague Raymond recently gave me the official copy of the June 2009 game counts from the Northwest and its a great feeling looking down the Sesfontein column and knowing I helped count the 559 animals we saw that day ranging from oryx, giraffe, ostrich, springbok, elephant, and zebra. It would be neat to try and post this poster as a photo on here somehow... will work on it.

Little side notes:

Helge is a very talented photographer and writer based here in Windhoek and has been assisting National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting this week in the field. They're looking for black rhinos in the northwest -close to where this game count was conducted.

I have a link to Helge's photography website in my "websites of interest" you all should check out too! He also paints and one has a problem buying his stamps and post cards here in Namibia. They're mainly sold out everywhere he stocks them. Even the post office ladies know who he is when I ask for Helge stamps, but they say I have to use the other ones for now.

That's all for now!

Thank-you for reading!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

......................................

THE WORLD’S LARGEST GAME COUNT IN THE SPOTLIGHT ON ABC NEWS

By Helge Denker, WWF in Namibia

Sesfontein airstrip. The charter plane is scheduled to arrive at dusk. An old man on a donkey cart appears out of the surrounding mopane woodland, greets us in passing and disappears again along a faint track leading towards the arc of rugged ridges that encloses the Sesfontein valley. Otherwise we are alone in the quiet African dusk, although the sounds of goats and the bray of a donkey hint at nearby village life. Chris Weaver, Managing Director of WWF in Namibia, Aaron Price, an intern from the Great Plains in the US, and I wait at the dusty landing strip, wondering whether we should turn on the headlights of our Land Cruisers to help guide the pilot. If it gets much darker, he won't be able to see the strip from the air.

Finally, the distant din of a single engine; a tiny speck of light, far off in the darkening sky. The Cessna 210 takes some minutes to cross the vast valley, passes overhead and then circles in front of the mountains to come in to land. Smooth touchdown. As the plane taxis to a halt in a cloud of dust, we walk over to greet ABC News anchor Dan Harris, cameraman Almin Karamehmedovic and Lee Poston from WWF-US. We transfer their luggage into our vehicles while the pilot secures the plane. As we drive off towards Sesfontein, it is already completely dark. Sesfontein ('Six Fountains') is a small settlement of around a thousand souls, a single fuel station (currently without diesel), a few informal shops and a small lodge. It is not our destination; it’s just the closest place with a landing strip. We drop off the pilot, who will stay at the lodge and return to Windhoek tomorrow, and head north-west along a dwindling dirt track climbing into the hills. This is the remote Kunene Region in north-western Namibia. The nearest tar road is over a hundred miles to the east.
In the bounce of the headlights, springbok and gemsbok – the most abundant of Namibia’s desert antelope – cross the bumpy track in front of the vehicle. Almin and Dan are riding with me and we immediately start discussing conservation and the state of wildlife in Namibia. They have come to Africa to cover a variety of environmental stories. Lee Poston is facilitating their visit to Namibia, where WWF has a country office. The group flew in to Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday, and this morning on to Namibia’s capital, Windhoek. At Windhoek international airport, they were picked up by the charter plane that has brought them the 350 miles to Sesfontein – to cover the annual North-West Game Count.

Namibia’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme is being internationally recognised as a global model for community-based conservation. Through policy changes in the mid-nineties, the Namibian government devolved rights to local communities to manage the natural resources in their area through the formation of conservancies (clearly defined tracts of land, which local communities manage through an elected committee and an approved management plan). People were suddenly able to derive direct and significant benefits from wildlife and other resources, something that was impossible under South African apartheid rule. This led to a rapid shift in mindset from seeing wildlife as a threat or at most meat to be poached for the pot, to embracing wildlife and affiliated natural resources as an opportunity for socioeconomic development. Natural resources are now actively utilised – and carefully managed – through tourism, hunting, game translocations and the harvesting of plant products. A remarkable and unparalleled wildlife recovery has been the result.
Conservancy formation has been demand-driven – as more and more community benefits have been generated, so more conservancies have formed. Today there are 55 registered communal conservancies in Namibia, covering around 30 million acres, which is over 15% of the country. This represents a marvellous expansion of the protected landscapes of Namibia. Many of the conservancies border national parks and have created buffer zones and wildlife corridors. Over 230,000 rural people – 12.5% of the national population – live within these conservancies and in 2007, US$ 5.6 million in benefits were generated for local communities.

Conservancy management includes active monitoring of wildlife population numbers and trends. Since the year 2000, this has been done through coordinated annual game counts. The North-West Game Count is the largest road-based game count in the world. It is a truly Namibian conservation initiative of immense proportion and ambition: Between 250 and 300 people actively participate to count game throughout an area of some 17.5 million acres, covering a total distance of over 4,350 miles of count transects in the process. The count is done more or less simultaneously in 27 adjacent conservancies over a three week period, to avoid double counting of game through natural wildlife movements.

The count underlines the success of conservancies in monitoring, managing and utilising their natural resources sustainably, which has led to the impressive recovery of wildlife populations and the equally remarkable benefits to communities. The count also highlights the conservation benefits of partnerships at local, national and international levels. It is a superb example of positive collaboration between the conservancies themselves, the Ministry of Environment & Tourism (MET) and a number of facilitating NGOs. A lot of food for discussion, and we talk basically non-stop while we drive for another good hour through the darkness – covering only 25 miles along a track that becomes fainter and bumpier as we go along.

Finally we arrive at Ganamub, which is no more than a scattering of huts and stock enclosures, a water reservoir – and, for three nights, the base camp of the game count team. There are around 30 or so people camping here; their tents are scattered in small clusters under trees along a dry riverbed. My colleagues and I have already set up tents for our group. Dinner around the campfire, bright stars above. Talk of tomorrow’s counting schedule, African wildlife, conservation. We saw fresh tracks of lion this morning, and the talk invariably turns to them. In the African night, wildlife and the dangers it might pose suddenly become very tangible. But we are in no danger – the lions are elusive and avoid humans, especially in a large group like this. But it is wonderful to know that they are around, and that their numbers in the North-West have increased from around 25 in the late nineties to well over 100 today. We don’t talk for too much longer. Everyone is tired from the long day and we soon head to our tents. Counting starts early.

First light. The crisp, cold air of the African dawn. People huddled in small groups around smoky fires. A quick bowl of cereal and a hot cup of coffee. Counting will start at 7:00, just as the sun peaks over the eastern ridges. There are several counting teams, always consisting of a driver, a record keeper and two or more counters. Staff and volunteers from the conservancies, from MET, from the local NGO Integrated Rural Development & Nature Conservation (IRNDC) and from WWF in Namibia. All counting is done from the back of an open four-wheel-drive, and each team covers a fixed route, or transect. The vehicle is stopped for each sighting of game, which is meticulously recorded – the species and number of animals, the time, the distance travelled along the transect, the distance of the game from the track.

Counting along any particular transect is usually finished by around midday. Teams return to camp and compile data. Once all transects in the conservancy have been counted (usually within two days, depending on the number of routes to be covered and vehicles available), all transect data is consolidated into overall data for the conservancy and is discussed at a feedback session. This might take place under a tree, with data sheets pasted to the side of a Land Cruiser. There is a lot of community interest, and people discuss how the data fits in with the day-to-day monitoring done by the conservancy throughout the year. WWF Natural Resource Management (NRM) Technician Raymond Peters and NRM consultant Dave Ward take time to compare this year’s data with that of previous counts. Population numbers and trends are very important in determining utilisation quotas and the community understands the value of monitoring. In a few weeks time, all the data from the count will be brought together and analysed in Windhoek, and then turned into a results poster that is used by all stakeholders for information sharing and planning purposes.

The ABC News team has a wonderful time on the count, getting good footage of desert-adapted elephant, giraffe, ostrich, zebra, gemsbok, springbok and a variety of smaller wildlife. Our search for the elusive black rhino and desert lions remains unsuccessful – we only find fresh tracks. But the scenery makes up for the wildlife that we do not see. Vast desert plains, now covered in yellow grass after a good rainy season, rugged mountains and tree-lined ephemeral rivers provide spectacular backdrops. The local, often still very traditional, cultures add another dimension and put the wildlife in its context of rural livelihoods. We are not in a national park; we are on communal land, where local people live with – sometimes dangerous – wildlife.

While the focus of the trip is the wildlife count, we also visit some of the visible benefits that have been created through community-based resource management: the new school at Puros (which was built by Wilderness Safaris as part of a joint-venture agreement), the conservancy office, the recently installed water infrastructure, local lodges and campsites – some owned and run by the community, others with joint-venture agreements – that provide significant benefits to the conservancy and to community members through job creation and direct income. These benefits are vital in ensuring long-term conservation, as they enable communities to live with wildlife, rather than perceiving it as a source of conflict with other land uses.

Long days filled with countless impressions of Africa, of wildlife and people and livestock – living together. But journalists are always on a tight schedule and the charter plane soon returns to pick up the team, this time from Puros airstrip, even smaller, more remote, than Sesfontein. The team will fly back to Windhoek, and from there on to South Africa, Madagascar and Uganda to cover other conservation initiatives. Each story will have its own particular accents and points of interest, but the successes of community-based conservation as seen through the North-West Game Count will be a unique highlight.

Little Ramblings

2009-08-31T10:35:00.008+01:00

Greetings Everyone:

I do not have much to report on from last week. My weekend consisted of sitting around the pool with my new friends and roommates, drinking lots of tea and coffee, filling out grad school applications, reading, and taking long naps in the sun. The weather here is absolutely gorgeous and we're slowly tilting our way to summer on this end!

I'm working away on grad applications for schools in New York City, Wisconsin, and California. Quite the mix of locations, but I'd be happy in pretty much any program.

Its nerve racking though making these kind of plans due to GRE, finding funding, and thinking about forming committees . But the professors I've been contacting are all VERY interested in my research and background. I'm going to meet with a fellow friend/colleague Larkin Powell [UNL Fullbright Professor herein Namibia] this Friday at the craft center cafe to discuss my plans and gather insight into the process concerning essays and ect and talk about networking with our research projects.

There is a world of volunteer opportunities here in Windhoek and I'm working on plans to volunteer in Katutura and tutor and teach math or English. I'll be busy with surveys and other things, but this is something I really want to do. I'm meeting with a WWF friend/colleague Maxine tomorrow to finalize plans. I'm so excited for what awaits me.

The best part about traveling is learning more about yourself through all the interesting people and places you encounter -and a place like Katutura would be a wealth of opportunity for me to reflect even more. As stated earlier, I'm so fortunate to be able to stay in one place for a period of time and not just visit -but know people and places. My experiences alone in the communal lands with Chris, Larkin, and Uapii has been moving and I can only imagine what kids from Katutura can show me.

Other Details From Last Week:

Somehow I managed to eat at Joe's Beer House three times this week! On Monday, my roommates and I joined about 20 other people from Germany for a night out [lovely time and met so many great people], Wednesday we celebrated Peter's birthday after doing a few surveys out east, and Saturday Keith and I were both craving a nice big hardy meal.

The survey is off to a roaring success though. Peter informed me today in an email our group has already conducted well over 100 surveys in a week and a half on the commercial private lands. We're trying to finalize things soon on WWF's end so I can be out in the field in the coming two weeks interviewing farmers also. It seems at this point we're going to have more issues crunching data vs. finding interviewees.

Last Wed., we [Peter, Robin, and myself] did make it out to some farms east of Windhoek and north some and conducted a few interviews. It was a beautiful drive and I should never question anymore if its worth bringing the camera... this farm was stunning and the cactus gardens around the house were quite nice!

The farmers meeting we attended is what I dream of seeing back in the states. The neighbors were gathering to discuss conservancy issues -mainly how to handle poaching on this conservancy. The head of the Namibian Professional Hunters Association was also present and a conservancy member at this farm. The meetings are largely in German and Afrikaans, so its a trial by fire for me to learn these two languages quickly, but one can still follow along with emotions and certain words. I have the perfect situation to learn these two languages!

But imagine 22 individuals gathered outside on hand carved wooden chairs, with cigarette smoke filling the air, and homemade deserts, cookies, and coffee sitting on a table in the living room. German and Afrikaans fills the air and a group of birds sing in the avery sitting near the meeting. Surrounding you is amazing artwork ranging from paintings to carvings. And just beyond the yard you hear cattle grazing and coming in for water during the noon hour [which is normally a nap time here in Namibia and a future survey challenge]

One wouldn't have guessed that this house was a typical ranch house like back in the states given all wildlife artwork. I didn't see anything resembling cattle culture, though its still alive and well in this area.

Once I conduct a few more surveys and gather more perceptions on poaching and land reform, I'll blog about the issues I'm hearing about. It doesn't surprise me how poaching is a serious problem with the systems already in place and the linkages to land reform.

I'm also highly motivated now to learn German and Afrikaans for various reasons, but it would be nice to carry the basic conversation during surveys.

........

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

It's The Little Things: Children Conservancy Schools

2009-08-25T07:59:00.005+01:00

Greetings All:

Many of you might have seen this picture earlier, but I want to broadcast some detailed information my boss [quoted in bold], Chris Weaver, shared with me about the Puros Conservancy school. This is one of many great examples showing how the benefits of wildlife/tourism enterprises are improving the daily lives of many communal area residents.

"The school was built by Wilderness Safaris as part of their Joint Venture Lodge agreement with the Puros Conservancy. Prior to the construction of this school, children had to travel more than 70 kms to the nearest boarding school or were taught very rudimentary levels of education under a tree. The construction of the school leveraged greater support for education in Puros, as it created incentive for the Namibia Ministry of Education to post a qualified teacher in Puros. Puros Conservancy is one of many successful conservancies in Namibia, having three JV lodges, a hunting concession and a highly effective Commiphora resin harvesting scheme for the perfume industry. The Puros community is composed of approximately 120 adults, with roughly 80 of them being employed either full-time or on a seasonal basis by the Puros Conservancy and its enterprises."

Take care,

A.E. Price

More Katutura Pictures

2009-08-23T07:39:00.019+01:00

.............

Greetings Everyone:

My friend Uapii took my two new German roommates and myself for an in-depth Katutura tour. It was great fun and always insightful. Every time I come to Katutura I learn so much more about this township and seem to find better and better photograph opportunities.

We're all really lucky to have Uapii has our tour guide. Talk of taking everyone up to his farm in the Kunene region is live and well. Everyone is totally excited to visit his farm shortly.

Hope everyone has a great week! Enjoy the photos!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Relevant Dan O'Brien Article

2009-08-21T12:20:00.005+01:00

Greetings Everyone:

In the future, I'll be looking to add and properly cite other articles and write-ups related to Namibia and the conservancy system to help supplement my blog. There is so much to be said about Namibia and its unique conservation system, and its way beyond what I can feasibly do while working. So I will call on my friends and colleagues in the future for relevant documents to help tell this unique story.

A good start to this process is Dan O'Brien's recent write-up of his Northern Great Plains World Wildlife Fund tour here in Namibia my ranching neighbors the Switzer's were also a part of. One of the first things my boss Chris Weaver and I talked about upon my return, was if I read Dan's new article. I was happy to hear he wrote something up and finally found it on the internet.

I want to share this article for various reasons, but the main one is because I was able to participate in a few of the WWF NGP tour events like Dan. Plus, Dan has seen the before and after picture of Namibia's apartheid history, and shows renewed enthusiasm for Namibia's conservation successes and possible applications in the Great Plains.

I truly feel like Dan clearly states in his article, that there is so much the mighty United States can learn from Namibia's conservancy system and apply the lessons to help restore our Northern Great Plains ecologically, economically, and its native culture.

I honestly think this is a model the Obama Administration and other federal agencies need to seriously look at in the short-term when dealing with development issues in Africa and sustaining communities in America's Heartland. Our working landscapes need to be able to incorporate conservation models to protect our ecosystems-bottom line.

Whenever I read about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton preparing to tour Africa in the media and other various columnists articles, I always commented about how she needed to stop in Namibia and see the results of positive community based natural resource management practices. Hopefully, there will be future possibilities.

Once a week I write a postcard to my friends who live in Delvin, Ontario, Canada on a reservation. We use to talk on the phone regularly, but its too cost prohibitive for both parties, and they don't have regular access to the internet. But I always pick a postcard that showcases an area where I've visited or a tribe I was able to interact with and I write brief notes on the card. I always find myself telling my friends about how I think community based conservation could work on their reserve or in the Great Plains frequently.

What's fun about living in a capital city like Windhoek, is driving around and seeing all the various embassy buildings. WWF use to share a building with the Kenya Embassy. The Angola Embassy is by the Craft Center which houses my favorite health drinks. There are embassy buildings in the Luxury Hill district where I live, but have no idea which ones are my neighbors.

Every time I walk to the post office, a short three block walk toward a business area, I walk right by the U.S. Namibia Embassy. To be honest, I didn't realize it was our embassy till shortly before I left. Its not clearly marked, but the heavily guarded entrance could have been a sign.

At the Cheetah Conservation Fund's "Roaming Wild" fund raising event, I met the U.S's Namibia Ambassador, Dennise Mathieu. She gave me her card and said to stop by sometime. I will. I'm hoping she can pull on my administration's ear to take a closer look at the success stories of conservation in Namibia. Dan's article will assist me in this process too.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Thank-you for reading!

Cheers,

Aaron

Here is the link to his article with a video:

http://wildideabuffalo.com/blog/african-sadness/

And here is the full text Dan wrote [in bold]:

In September of 1988 a blast of cold rain sent a friend and me scurrying back to a shallow cave we had noticed in an African canyon wall. We had not seen anyone for days but now three young men with a kudu hung over a pole were scurrying from the other direction and we came suddenly face to face at the cave entrance. Their dogs raised their hackles and growled and we all stood frozen in the rain. I had not thought of the insurrections, murders, and mayhem that were going on throughout southern Africa for days, but now it was in all of our minds. Thankfully, it was cold and finally we all, white men, black men, dogs, and kudu pushed into the rock and out of the wet. No one spoke but after a few minutes I took a partial box of saltine crackers from my backpack and held a few out to the young men. We sat in the thick humidity with our backs against the rock and ate saltine crackers. It made me terribly sad for Africa.

In Namibia the South Africans were just giving up control to the United Nations and their war against communist insurgents based in Angola and assisted by Castro’s Cubans. Namibia was interesting to me because it is a dry, sparsely populated land not unlike the Great Plains America. Of course they had the Kalahari Desert, ostriches, lions, elephants, cheetahs, several kinds of antelope, and the still-smoldering remnants of a decades-long civil war. One of the enduring – if not endearing – reminders of apartheid South African rule were concentration camps, called Homelands, that were not unlike the reservations of my home state of South Dakota.

The black faces in and around those Homelands were hollow and haunted. We drove to the Skeleton Coast which was deserted for miles and miles. We drove for hours without seeing a building. Somewhere we stopped and I bought a wire sculpture of a man riding a bicycle from a small boy who sat in the ditch with only scraps of wire and a broke pair of pliers. It was the only thing we found that was for sale. The only road signs were political signs and we rolled our eyes to imagine what sort of government and society could rise from these ashes.

In 1988 Namibia was a mess. Socially and environmentally the land was shelled out. Though the breathtaking beauty was still intact it was hard to see how this land could avoid a further down-hill spiral. We finished our loop through the country and back to Johannesburg where we dropped off the Land Rover and caught our flight back to the States. But the memory of Namibia never left me. When asked about my experiences in Africa I never failed to say that, despite the malaise of the country, I loved Namibia best. It was like stepping back to the 1840’s on the Great Plains of America – when the land was still pretty much in tact, the natives – though devastated – were still the major human component, and the vast suite of species was stressed but extant.

Even with a functioning government, strong institutions, great wealth, and America’s famous can-do spirit, the Great Plain’s decline had pretty much continued along the path established in the 1840’s. The land I knew was battered and industrialized, poverty and dysfunction among our Native Americans was a national disgrace, most of the iconic species of the Great Plains had been reduced to curios. When I left Namibia in 1988 I had no hope that a war ravaged third world country could find a way when America had failed. As we climbed skyward from the Johannesburg airport and I caught a glimpse of the Kalahari Desert and was sad beyond reason. The fact that Namibia was so unique only made my sadness worse.

That is why I had mixed feelings when the World Wildlife Fund offered to take Jill and me to Namibia. They wanted to show us how our little prairie ranch house could generate some money as an eco-tourism facility. I was skeptical that Namibia could show me much about conservation or how to make our little sliver of the Great Plains a destination for people interested in the same things that Jill and I are interested in. I was skeptical and I wasn’t sure I wanted to see what had happened to Namibia in the preceding twenty years. I couldn’t imagine that I would enjoy what I would see. The last thing I wanted was to destroy my marvelous memories of Gemsbok moving across the road ahead of us or the silent, white-sand beaches stretching to infinity. The assurances that, from a conservation and cultural point of view, Namibia had become a model for Africa were not heartening. I didn’t say it but I thought “a conservation and cultural model for Africa is not what I have in mind for my ranch.”

That turned out to be an embarrassingly arrogant assessment. The fact is that some combination of respect for mankind, love of the natural world, common sense, and a startling vision of what is possible has come together in Namibia. In fact, in almost all ways they have done better deserts than we have done with our Great Plains. With a little outside money, help from a few dedicated NGO’s, and a will to move ahead, Namibia seems to be rejecting the destructive western ideas of “developing” their Great Wide Open in favor of a more natural and permanent approach. Unlike the official and unofficial policies that have driven management policies on the American Great Plains, Namibia has stepped back from the supposed imperative of domesticating the wild lands and is encouraging wildness. Visionary land holders, politicians, and NGO’s like WWF have rejected many western notions of progress and – sorry to say, America – employed a species of creative thinking that exists nowhere else that I know.

What they have done is far more nuanced than can be expressed in these few pages but the basic tenants are these: Cooperation among landholders, limited privatizing of wildlife, understanding that a healthy eco-system is salable, commitment to large-scale land management, and an honest belief that all races must be included. These are all ideas that have, sadly, never had much purchase on the American Great Plains. Add to these basic ideas the obvious but often absent notion that the quality of the amenities adds great value to the already salable ecological experience and you come up with Namibia’s stunning and profitable eco-tourist industry. The Namibians have created a major, non-consumptive industry from what, in other cultures, has been rejected as desolation.

WWF designed our tour of Namibia to spotlight what might be done in a beautiful landscape suffering from a centuries-long inferiority complex. We traveled to a half dozen venues in Namibia – some completely “off the grid”, where we found comfortable accommodations, excellent food, fabulous service, a healthy landscape, and happy people. They have formed legal entities called conservancies consisting of very large tracts of privately, publically, and communally owned lands. These are huge expanses that do justice to the natural scale of south western Africa. Their size allows for precious differences in rainfall across these legal entities that make livestock grazing and managed hunting more successful. The likelihood of green grass is much higher when entire landscapes are involved and the fact that the barriers of ownership have been dissolved gives the wildlife a chance to move to that grass. Ranching and hunting are more successful than they once were because of the landscape scale, but the surprising economic star of Namibia’s conservancy system is eco-tourism – people traveling for the main purpose of experiencing a healthy, large-scale ecosystem.

While it is true that Safaris are beyond the budgets of most people, it is also true that this sort of economic development brings serious hard cash into a region without leaving a discernable negative footprint. Experiencing the Namibian landscape – taking it in with your eyes, or camera, or even shooting a few completely renewable kudu for food, leaves no scares. It’s most evident trace seems to be the smiles on the faces the Namibians who own, live around, or work in these camps and conservancies. That sort of smile is as rare on the American Great Plains as Whooping Cranes or large herds of buffalo. They are the sort of smile that I saw almost none of in 1988.

Of course there have been problems and continue to be problems to be worked out in Namibia’s transformation. There would be problems on our Great Plains. Changing the course of any mammoth and mindless vessel is not easy. During the first week of my return trip to Namibian my natural skepticism took the form of grumblings such as “Our game laws would never allow the landowners to manage the animals,” “You have huge landscapes populated with herds of exotic animals,” “Your labor costs are a fraction of ours.” I was answered with, “America is the great democracy – laws can be changed,” “Your landscape is bigger than ours and we brought those herds from the edge of extinction – the same way you could,” “Labor? Didn’t you tell me that the unemployment rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is 85%?”

I still grumble a little but I have been shown that adding an eco-tourism component to the economy of the Great Plains is not only a good idea but a possible idea. Not easy, but possible. WWF has been working for twenty-seven years in Namibia and it would take all of that to make a similar change on the Great Plains. We would have to change some minds, we would have to control agri-business, we would have to truly reach out to the Native populations, and we would have to be prepared to actually think out of the box that our smugness has landed us in. But it would be possible, and it would be worthwhile for our future, perhaps vital for our survival.

I think back on the sadness that I felt for Africa in the 1980’s with some embarrassment. The political turmoil and the threat to the environment and the species that made Africa so special were real enough. But was my sadness another form of paternalism? Was my belief in America so blind and my belief in the abilities of Africans so weak that I thought Africa would surely come up ecologically short? Why did it take this second trip to Namibia for me to see that it was America that was slipping behind?

I look at it as a wakeup call. My belief in America is still very strong but it is no longer blind. We’ve made some tremendous mistakes in the last two hundred years. We’ve decimated the treasure that is the Great Plains and the people who once had it to their selves. Both are on the verge of extinction. But if small, poor, politically nascent Namibia can find a way to bring the natural things back to balance and find a way to reconcile two races that in my memory were brutally killing each other, then big, wealthy, politically sophisticated America can certainly come to grips with the fact that all we really have is our eco-system. We should be able to realize that people, the world over, will go to great lengths and pay dearly for the privilege of seeing the Great Plains eco-system function as it once did.

Finally Back in Windhoek

2009-08-20T09:51:00.004+01:00

August 20th, 2009

My internal time clock is slowly catching up.

Its now 4:30 AM Namibia time and I can’t sleep, but this is pretty typical for one’s first week of jet lag. You’ll feel extremely tired around 8 or 9 PM and will be sleeping away, then something inside says, “Wait! Something is not right here! Wake UP!” And there you sit on the bed looking at your watch and anticipating when you’ll see the first sunlight crease its way across the floor through bedroom windows.

There are some benefits. It allows one to see some nice sunrises and slowly wake up with chirping birds normally missed from normal sleeping schedules. I also kept thinking about my short time back in the states and how much fun it was to be back. So I decided it was a good time to blog.

Last time, it took me about 4 days to finally have a normal sleeping schedule, which was substantially helped by large amounts of caffeine. This time it doesn’t appear I’ll have to go on any large caffeine benders. I did purchase my favorite green tea just in case.

The Journey: [Omaha => Detroit => Amsterdam => Johannesburg => Upington => Windhoek]

I spent a total of 60+ hours of traveling when one combines both plane rides [to the states and back] and my bus ride from Johannesburg to Windhoek. Totally exhausting.

And in a two-week period, this almost pushes the limit.

The bus ride and spending extra time in Jo’burg allowed me to rest up and slowly adjust. It almost kills me to be 6 foot 6 inches and have to be balled up in coach for hours on end. Luckily, the guy seated by the window on the Amsterdam to Jo’burg flight had some type of stomach issue and was relieving himself frequently. It gave my legs a chance to feel blood flowing again.

But its good to finally be back, united with my colleagues again, and meeting some great new room mates from Germany. Two are doctors finishing up their in-house practice requirements in the state hospital in Katatura. To pick Katatura shows a lot of passion about their field of work. I’m going to help volunteer on the weekends with them when I’m not in the field.

The Flights:

I was a little disappointed I couldn’t explore Europe when I landed in Amsterdam’s airport! It was all I could do to just go buy coffee and not look at the Amsterdam calendars and postcards showcasing the city’s beauty. All the promotional films in the plane didn’t help either, especially seeing people renting bikes and just cruising around. I only had 3 hours and wish I had at least two days!

There will be another day Europe! And I will explore my family’s roots and all the history soon!

Johannesburg was such an interesting experience for me. I’ve never been in a city that can completely scare the sh!t out of you, yet strike such wonder and curiosity. You have to be totally aware of things at all times. I shot some great HD video with my Flip, but sadly it will probably have to wait till I return to the states to upload all the files to youtube and the blog.

[Just a little side note pitch for Flip: totally amazing machine. Its so small it looks like a cell phone and allows one to shoot more candid shots without people knowing they’re being filmed. And from a journalism standpoint I see big things happening now when people can carry around their own cameras and produce high quality footage. If you’re traveling anywhere, you should purchase one of these and you won’t regret it!]

My first time through Jo’burg was such a surface attempt at experiencing the city, and this time around I was not going to pass up the opportunity to go out and explore.

It never ceases to amaze me about the various reactions people have when you start talking about this city. Many immediately chop it off as a dangerous place [the statistics do place it as one of the most violent cities in the world] where one should never leave the airport. Others, feel its perfectly fine if you play it safe and take proper precautions. I tend to fall in the second camp.

There is some concern about the World Soccer Cup being hosted and the safety of fans. I’m not sure what is going to happen. Its too late to rebid the hosting country and the stadiums are already built and ready to go… Sadly, it still feels like apartheid is well and alive in this city. Segregation is still easily seen and the wealth distribution is also extreme, so crime is going to happen with these extremes.

I hope for South Africa’s sake that the World Cup still occurs and that its safe for people. It’s a great opportunity to showcase a beautiful country.

Touring Jo’burg:

Cab fair is pretty outrageous in that city and drastically cut down the places and ect. where I could go in two days time. One of my big goals was accomplished and that was going to the world famous Apartheid Museum. Sadly, one still see’s large traces of segregation in Jo’burg’s society, especially when one compares the different township living conditions.

One of the strengths in this museum was making the “human experience” of apartheid the first step one takes upon entering the building. Its so easy for one to just purchase a ticket at other museums and not have a clue or context about what you’re going to experience.

At the Apartheid Museum, you walk by pillars with pictures of living relatives who’s families were impacted by apartheid rule in negative ways. The mirrors in the pillars positioned behind the life size photos places the contemporary history right at your feet before you walk in.

Once you enter, many ID cards fill the area showing how people were classified and terms and law were defined that allowed apartheid to occur. It was a moving experience to start a museum tour in this fashion. The original signs also added to the intensity with the words “whites” and “colored” leading you into the building.

The Bus:

For 100 US dollars, I can’t complain much about taking 20 hours to make it from Jo’burg to Windhoek.

Upington, ZA is a nice little community with amazing wine and grape fields. Luckily, I was able to see lots of ZA during the day on this trip and a large part of Jo’burg leaving for Upington. Now, I just need to travel to Cape Town for a nice Rugby football weekend when time allows me to go.

Customs was a pain this time and took forever to work through the system. There were five guys from Pakistan who were traveling with us. They were profiled quite extensively and held up the border transition, but everything eventually came through for them and we were all on our way.

I had the privilege of sitting by one of them and piecing together his story. Luckily, that morning I bought a condensed World Atlas book, so I showed him where I was from and he showed me where in Pakistan he was from. He told me many stories about traveling around in the region, what life is like in his homeland, and the struggles his family faces there.

Initially, I figured they were from the Afgan border region. I was right. They’ve been on the run for 25 years now avoiding all the conflict. I couldn’t imagine being away from home and family for that period of time. Yet, they were extremely friendly and open about their culture and country with me. It would seem to me it would be painful to talk about certain things, but maybe all my questions takes them back to that place in their minds and heart they call home.

The wreck:

And until yesterday, I could say I was never involved in a motor vehicle accident. Now, it’s a badge I can wear. Our bus rear-ended a van full of 20+ people in the wee morning ours just outside of Windhoek. I’m not sure what happened. I only heard the bump noise and the screeching impact. Luckily, everyone appeared to be fine from the accident.

I immediately exited the bus and went to the back where all the luggage was sitting and dug around till I found my two bags and immediately called Helge to come and pick me up. Things were turning chaotic fast and I just wanted to go to my hostel apartment.

Regardless of the rough start in Windhoek, I’m excited about my new roommates, being relocated to my first hostel apartment again, the survey, and the 4 months I have waiting in front of me.

Thank-you for reading and I look forward to talking more about the conservancy system in Namibia, my research, and ect. in further depth. There is so much to be learned here about community development and working landscapes incorporating wildlife and other ecosystem goals into the management plans. Rubber is hitting the road with the survey and I can't wait to share my experiences and stories from the freehold land farmers.

Cheers,

A.E. Price

PS: Here are some photos from Jo'burg. Enjoy!

The World Cup Soccer Stadium:

Driving Around To Park Station:

First Video Blog!

2009-08-15T20:14:00.003+01:00

Good To Be Home

2009-08-11T20:08:00.019+01:00

First of all: Congratulations to my sister Lindsey and her new husband Clayton! What a beautiful wedding ceremony and party out at the ranch! Everyone I talked to had such a great time and its going to be a memorable experience for many to come.

I'm so proud of you two and I know good things are going to keep coming from your relationship! I'm very proud of you Lindsey. You picked a great life mate. I still might be a little flustered about seeing an OK State Flag flying above the hanger in Cornhusker Country, but all things pass 8D I think more than anything I realized I'll be missing a great deal of Big 12 football action [at least live]. Oh well.

.........

Its been a nice little break being back in the states for my sister's wedding. I've been able to visit a few good friends, see nearly all of my family [both sides], catch up with family friends and neighbors, and of course spend good time on Gracie Creek Ranch and the farm. At the same time I have huge anticipation to go back to Namibia and start my economic surveys!

Everyone is so thrilled to hear my Namibia stories and wonder if I'll ever want to come back to the states again, but there are a few little things I've missed over in Namibia and its nice to have experienced so many while I've been back.

I've been able to eat sweet corn that was picked 10 minutes prior to eating, indulge with my grandma's dumplings, hang out with the beagles, stand in aw under the shop's roof watching a huge thunderstorm drop an inch of rain in 15 minutes on GCR, drink good homebrew looking out at the lush Gracie Creek flats listening to live classic country music, wade around in the Middle Loup River, spend time with the horses, catch up with family and friends, share my photos and stories, and take many photographs.

I LOVE my new ultra wide lens. Dustin, thank-you so much for the recommendation! It will do me wonders for years to come.

I also enjoy giving tours on the ranch and farms and had many good moments with my friend Mackenzie, my Aunt Marie and her two children Terry and Joe, and Dan's friend Tom. Its encouraging to see people just awe inspired about the Sand Hills when they've been living in larger Great Plains cities and traveling to other places to receive their nature fix. Please if you're reading this and you have kids -get them outside! One needs to experience the natural world directly!

Namibia Reflection Meeting With Calamus Outfitters:

Our neighbors, the Switzers [Calamus Outfitters and Switzer Ranch], invited my dad and I to come over and talk about integrated natural resource management plans between the ranches. Some of you might already know that the Switzers recently came over to Namibia with WWF Northern Great Plains to learn about the conservancy systems in Southern Africa and how things could apply back home in the Great Plains. The ranches are already working together with leasing hunts and housing university research concerning the threatened prairie chickens and grassland birds in the Great Plains.

Basically, without this eco tourism integrated within daily Switzer Ranch operations, it would not be possible for two of the families out there to continue their ranching heritage. So tourism can make a huge difference in rural America.

My family ranch is looking to diversify income, and make some land purchases from my step mother using additional funds from conservation easements and tourism revenues, and the resource goals of the Switzer's fits in nicely with our Holistic Management -so why not work together?

Sitting down with everyone and talking about conservation and ranching, I couldn't help but think, "Geez, we're really onto to something that's pretty dang cool and progressive." All of my cousins and Tom who are Chicago business majors and internet marketing professionals signed off literally with a group vote of two thumbs up in the air about the idea and grant.

When my dad and I were driving to St. Paul, to drop me off a few days before I fly back to Jo'berg, we talked about how the Holistic training he received as a younger man and how it states its not only important to think about the environment in the big picture, but also extend it over to your neighbors. What a great opportunity.

Besides the wedding, friends, and family stuff, this was another huge highlight for me. Things are moving so quickly it was nice to be brought up to speed.

Everyone at this meeting is hoping to take private land conservation to a new level, while keeping the ranch practices live and well, but have a new "twist" we call it with using cattle as tools to manage for larger ecosystem goals. Remember: this is all landowner driven and we still call the shots about everything while networking with many diverse groups in the process. No one would be having these conversations if we wouldn't have total control.

We talked about forming a committee with members from the community and the ranches who would sit down and figure out details and constitutions to help integrate the natural resource and tourism plans into the ranch's current cattle plans. Then why not form our own landowner NGO in the future to help channel funds, support, and a marketable name?

This meeting excited me on many different levels but there is one theme that really made me smile that night.

No one can question the success our ranch GCR, has been able to accomplish with selling yearlings the last 5 years. Actually, its been unmatched in its own respects.

Many people say we set the national market prices' pace for yearlings. Ranchers and cattle buyers at my sister's wedding party told me everyone bases their cattle prices off of what ours are sold for. What amazing complements and recognition!

We're fortunate to be in this position [in the market and with our neighbors], because I think it can start to help dis-spell myths about ag and environment working against each other, while generating a new rural development idea that's landowner driven.

So in the long-run, I'd like to be able and showcase that one can still keep a strong cattle business, while creatively thinking about diversifying income with our neighbors in eco-tourism projects.

I think its so exciting that there are ranches in Loup County willing to work together to reach larger environmental goals while still keeping strong cattle programs and diversifying income for future generations. I don't know if there are similar or possibly any ranches doing what we're talking about.

GCR also signed off on exploring the idea of placing little yerts around our ranch and having people start at Switzers and trailing on up and market the experience with a large private land conservation area that still operates as a ranch. It will be exciting to explore these possibilities.

One other thing we talked about too was the development around the lake and what it could do the landscape and land values in the area. One would think its a good idea to have large million dollar homes come into the county and generate tax revenue, but we're all concerned about the homes increasing land values, then naturally raising land prices around the area close to our neighbors, thus increasing the taxes local ranchers have to pay -making it more difficult to make a living. This kinda sucks. You want to see small towns grow and attract people, but this form is almost counterproductive.

My cousins David, Daniel, and their friend Tom [from Chicago] also joined in on the meeting. It was a beautiful evening and both ranches sat down on the front porch of Switzer's outfitting operation and talked business about applying for grants to help initiate integrated cross boundary natural resource management plans, and started talking seriously about cross property nature trails.

As things develop, I'll be sure to inform the readers of this blog about the ranches' progress.

It was a nice time to reflect about my Namibia experiences and talk with my neighbors.

Thank-you to all who made my week back in the states so memorable and inspiring.

I'll leave everyone with some of my favorite pictures I took. Take care of yourselves and be well. Thank-you for reading.

Cheers,

A.E. Price

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Morning Tour with Mackenzie:

Bar-B and Bo:

On the way to a fishing hole on the ranch with Dave, Dan, and Tom:

We call this the Big Meadow. The rain this year has sure made some nice scenery:

The Big Meadow again, but a few minutes after taking the shot above:

A site from finishing up a tour with Joe, Terry, Marie, and Mackenzie:

The Middle Loup River on my Grandparents farm:

Back Home In The States

2009-08-07T04:38:00.008+01:00

I've been enjoying my time back in the states. I don't think I'll have time to fully recover from my jet lag before I have to fly back over to Jo'berg again, but I'll just keep downing lots of tea and coffee. Flying home from Windhoek took nearly 22 hours and I'm finally recovering somewhat from being jet lagged; at least well enough to blog again.

I enjoyed my flight from Windhoek to Jo'Berg... The Jo'berg to Atlanta one, not so much. A tall man like myself suffers a lot in coach.

I sat by a The Nature Conservancy [African Program] fund raising director and talked about my upcoming research I'll start in August through December. Its so encouraging to me to hear everyone's interest in the project I'll be working on. Both WWF and TNC have had some major supporters visiting Africa the last week while meetings with the directors, and touring project sites. I hope the work these two organizations do keeps impressing everyone. I can personally vouch that its a great investment.

Retelling all my Namibia stories and sharing some of my photographs with friends and family has been a great joy for me. Now that I've been away from Windhoek for a couple of days, its more apparent to me about how much I learned in my short 57 days in Namibia. And it has only just begun.

One thing I keep noticing about everyone's impressions of my Namibia photographs, is seeing mountains in Namibia vs. a vast huge desert [they do exist in Namibia though]. This is particularly interesting with the Kunene region photographs. When one sees mountains mixed with grasslands and all the various wildlife, it goes against the grain of what I think the critical mass perception is of Africa currently. Many of the Etosha photographs are group favorites along with the mock elephant charge ones.

I still need to find some time to sort through all the additional 4000 photographs! Eeek!

Its also been so nice having my BlackBerry again and hearing all my friends and family's voices coming through on the other end. I've had such a wonderful time catching up.

Wedding and Ranch:

I'm pretty excited for my sister's wedding this Saturday [the reason why I flew back]. This will be the first time that both sides of my family will be together since I can't remember when. My two best friends from Lincoln, Mitch and Mackenzie, will also be making it out to the ranch to help celebrate and this only adds to my anticipation. Plus, it will be nice to see the beagles and horses again!

I have a new suit I bought today and a nice dress shirt with red and navy blue stripes. Its a three button suit made from a nice slick black fabric. I just love it. It feels like it was made just for me and the sale price is an absolute steal.

I also have a new Sigma Ultra Wide lens waiting for me at the ranch and I can't wait to try it out during my short time here. I realized there were so many times I wish I had a wider view and can't wait to take this lens back to Namibia with me.

Africa is SO dusty and I have a couple of lens cleaning kits, UV filters, and ect. waiting for me also. All my lens and cameras will be receiving an extensive cleaning soon. Looking back, I did a pretty good job of packing and won't be taking any additional things back with me; I might take a few more dress clothes, but that's it.

The Farm:

After going to Grand Island to buy my suit, I walked around the farm with my camera and took a few photos I'll leave everyone with today. All the rains and abnormally cool weather have made for some nice long, green grass photos. The Middle Loup River is also pretty full for this time of year.

I hope you enjoy them!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Kataura "The Place Where People Don't Want To Live": Accounts from Windhoek's Apartheid Township

2009-08-02T16:45:00.016+01:00

August 2nd, 2009

I’ve covered a lot of ground here in Namibia and South Africa during my 57 days. The sights, people, and experiences have been life changing and I can’t wait to come back for round two. Thank-you to all who made this first tour so successful and such a memorable experience for me. Time just flew and I feel like I just arrived. I’ll be leaving on a jet plane from Jo’berg to the states on Monday and Tuesday and can’t wait to see my family and friends. My sister is going to be finally marrying her fiancé of 5 years this coming Saturday.

I realized I still need to blog about Etosha, but that gives me a good 20-hour plane project to work on. So please stay tuned.

Few brief notes on my research:

My freehold conservancy research is starting to take off and I can’t wait to come back and collect data! The questionnaire is going to be quite large and will cover tourism, bush meat, and agriculture benefits in two conservancy areas, so we can figure out more about land use and values. No one has collected any recent data on freehold [private land] conservancies in quiet awhile and this research will be extremely beneficial to Namibia landscape level conservation and the Northern Great Plains. John Barnes, a natural resource economist who worked for WWF and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism for a long time, gave me nearly 90 scholarly articles related to the economics of tourism in Namibian that will keep me busy on my 20 hour flight from Jo’Berg to the States. I have a huge list of book titles I need to track down also!

Boring!!! Now onto other things 8D

Katutura [Otjiherero meaning "The place where people do not want to live"]: The Brief History of Apartheid in Namibia and My Experiences With Uapii’s Katutura Family.

“I’m going to show you the real Africa,” Uapii said when we started the tour from his sister’s house on Bahamas Street. “You will not just meet people, you will know them.” This started my Katutura experience and I’m in so much debt to Uapii for everything he has shown me about Namibia from his farm in Kunene to the dirt bustling streets of Katutura.

In the back of my mind, I could already think and see Katutura is a good place to start, and with a guide like Uapii I was in safe hands and in for a great experience. Uapii's track record with helping with Fulbright Scholar professors and others doing research in Namibia is flawless and he’s been a great window for his American friends to learn about Namibia and its unique culture/history.

According to Uapii’s family, its probably safe to say, maybe 1 in a 100 visitors coming to Windhoek have a chance to tour Kat like I was able to with my good friend; not just drive by the township on Independence Ave point and say, “Oh, that’s Kat,” but actually step foot on the dusty streets, walk through the many markets, drink Namibian beer with the locals at Herero Mall and The Lodge, and meet his friends and family who live here and talk about many issues in Kat.

Uapii’s sister and family wanted me to come over and have a traditional meal of Oryx [the tasty critters with two long black horns and grey fur, look like horses –see pics] and celebrate my first Namibia tour. I gladly accepted the offer! The food was amazing and many laughs were filling the atmosphere on the front porch overlooking a valley that was all Kat.

And to point out the obvious question many readers probably have in their head, yes, I was the only white guy I saw that whole day and night. In these situations, you learn to carry yourself well and be open in the process. I was truly out of my element and this is how one should learn. Sadly, I think others miss this opportunity by a long shot.

Windhoek is usually a stop over for many tourists going to the communal lands or hunting trophies on freehold ranches, and for one to truly experience the unique history and people here in Namibia –its essential for one to visit Katutura and the communal lands along with the mainstream stuff.

I’m counting my blessings.

The same issue exists in the communal areas with tourists/people just passing through or not even visiting.

I refuse to let myself fall into this category.

History of Katatura [Brief]:

Katutura was originally an all-black community created by the apartheid ruling governments. Many of the people’s ancestors here in Kat have a long history of being uprooted and faced the worst systematic machine of the apartheid processes. The pain is still present today from what little I’ve seen.

During Germany’s rule over Namibia during 1913, many blacks were relocated to Old Location and Klein Windhoek [where my apartment is close to work] by the town’s council. During this time marriage between a black and white was prohibited and reached over into the bedroom and forbid sexual intercourse between black and whites.

During WWI South Africa took over Namibia and it was decided between ZA and Windhoek officials to move all the blacks to what is known as Katutura, with much resistance being met in the process. This continued and during 1959 [when nearly all blacks were moved to Kat], large protests were occurring about the forced movement of individuals and a large police confrontation killed 13 individuals. During this time, all the blacks from Old Location and Klein Windhoek were moved to Kat. It is said among many residents here, that SWAPO, South Western Africa People’s Organization, started in Kat shortly after this police confrontation. SWAPO is still the ruling party today post independence and will be challenged again this November when Namibians go to the polling booths.

When Namibia won their independence from South Africa in 1990, large changes in how people lived occurred and many were able to travel to other places in Windhoek, buy homes, receive loans, and begin living better lives post-apartheid. Yet today, its still a hard life in this newly formed country.

“I still can’t go get a loan from the bank today,” someone told me. “Its almost the case every time if you’re white, you’ll be the one getting the loan, not me. I’ve never had a chance to get ahead man” as a sharp finger founds its way to my chest.

Many of the businesses that are forming are unofficial ones and usually are small food stands selling cell phone minutes or barber or saloon shops.

It’s still apparent to anyone walking these streets that generations of oppression still exist making it difficult to “just pull up your boot-straps.” Many tourists and others have preconceptions about Katutura most likely from impressions of other slums or reservations, but it has never failed me: when one immerses themselves with respect, challenge yourself, you’ll find things are not as they seem and barriers fall.

There’s such a strong spirit here and many other good things sprout up if people look closer.

To take the camera or not to take the camera:

I decided to take my Canon with me and almost decided to leave it at his sister’s house. No one will deny petty theft is a huge issue. I just knew there would be some unique photo opps many don’t even come close to shooting, and I’m so happy I brought it along for the ride. It can only help when it comes to blogging. I've found its best to tell stories through pictures.

During the tour, Uapii was my second set of eyes and it was a quick pull out the camera, rapid fire shots, and place it back in the non-conspicuous K-Way bag, and carry on. I’ll just say there were many photos I wanted to take, but it just wasn’t safe or a very good idea to pull it out and I listened very closely to Uapii when he said to “leave it in the bag.” I become so immersed in the camera viewfinder sometimes.

But good shots don’t happen if one doesn’t take a chance. We both took one that day.

Overall, I felt very safe in Kat. There were probably 3 or 4 instances where a group was following us but if you stay smart, keep on the main streets, and ect. you’ll be just fine. I can see where people fall into certain traps and can carry the mentality of “Oh, I might get mugged.” People can read it from a mile away –and it will most likely happen with that mentality. But there are many things one can do to still keep safe and experience areas at the same time and not feel totally sheltered. See the early blogs with Nick Kristof of the NY Times advice.

Dusty Streets and Shoes:

Upon entering Katutura, one see’s a stark contrast in living conditions and it hits deep. You see a few things you don’t want to see, but it’s the reality a majority of Namibians in Windhoek [over half] face on a daily basis. Unemployment is high and one study marks it around 25% in 2001, but Uapii said that’s not even close to being correct and its way over 50% and closer to 75%. HIV/Aids and tuberculosis are still a huge problem for people living here. Drinking and drug use is also high and visible.

Bottom line-it’s a rough place to live and one struggles to find opportunity.

To the ignorant traveler [like I was prior], it’s almost like someone drew a line in the sand between Independence Ave and Hans-Dietrich Genscer St. Looking back upon the apartheid history -that did happen. One truly enters into another world of Windhoek that was created by apartheid rule, the forced political separation of people based on race.

Katutura translates into the place where people do not want to live and reflects the heavy history of apartheid in Namibia and South Africa in this diverse community.

Its probably safe to say a little over half of the people in Windhoek live in Katutura, and its tough to account for the refugees and others who are just moving from the communal areas just north of Kat creating “informal settlements.” It’s a struggle to designate the most run down tin house in the IS as a housing lot to receive the basics of flowing water and flushing toilets. The majority are young young people my age or less.

From my first brief trip to Kat with Uapii about a month ago, I didn’t realize how big this section of town was in comparison to other districts in Windhoek, and how densely populated it is. It pays to get out of the taxi and walk around a bit.

We started the tour walking up to the research center on top of a large hill overlooking Windhoek. This center has been doing a lot of research with solar energy recently and the heavily fortified front gate has an amazing array of shovels and odds and ins making an interesting rusted art piece.

We continued to the area known as the Soweto Market where one can find butchers, seamstress, and shoe shops. In the center is a large dome with pool tables many of the youth [10 or less] come and pay pool. One lonely video game machine filled the air with fake gunfire and a rapidly repeating plastic clank noise with words I’m guessing was swearing words. Uapii introduced me to his friend who owns a meat shop.

He said the end of the month is always a lively time in Kat. Its payday, its probably been a long month, and business owners can expect a sharp increase in sales. He said I picked a good time to tour Kat, because people were out shopping and filling the streets. There was a lively feel to the atmosphere.

We ventured over to a clothing shop where everything is hand made on the spot. We were looking for quilting cloth for my grandmother, but the place specialized more in clothing vs. selling cloth.

One can see walking around this market how people are struggling to start up businesses and improve their standard of living. Many of the informal barber and saloon shops are located in a little area –maybe 10 feet by 10 feet, and will have 3 or 4 friends or family members pushing clients through the area splitting the profits.

My camera eye kept thinking, “Shoot, there is a good shot, oh damn, there is another one, ah!” And I’m finally fully comfortable with approaching people now and just saying, “I’m a photographer from the states and I was wondering if I could please take your picture for memory sake.” It pays to be blunt sometimes and relaxes people more for the shots.

Another interesting place we visited was called the Un Plaza. It was another open market with a large meat grill out front. I was pretty hungry at this point and the grilling meat was only making we want to taste the Oryx, the cattleman, aka Uapii, was going to cook that night. We first walked over to a large mound of dirt that lined one side of the wall surrounding the market.

Here wood was being chopped. For heat and cooking, wood fire is heavily used in Kat and from this point I snapped a few photos.

The butchers here had meat in the open air and it made me think about all the code violations this place would generate, but it was amazing to see people huddled around grills ordering up their favorite cuts of meat and conversing about daily life.

Swinging meat cleavers, congregated boxes full of freshly slaughtered cattle, goat, and sheep lined the top of old wooden tables and benches for the entire length of the covered area.

Everyone lined up around the grills:

We met a woman selling a variety of beans, sardines, and some type of barely used for brewing beer at home. I’m also a home brewing and found a couple of contacts who said they’d show me the local brew variety in Kat upon my return from my sister’s wedding. Her picture is one of my favorite portraits so far. Her smile is so warm.

We wrapped up the tour by visiting the Single Quarter [basketball quart near a KFC], Pick N Pay [where I saw a guard with a loaded gun arming a cell phone store], Woerman Bockman, and other areas filled with small food stands and informal businesses.
I was sure ready to eat a good meal after all the miles we covered that morning and afternoon.

When I walked by the young man with the rifle, I took about three more steps and he was out of view and my left hand reached down for the plastic clip securing the cover over my camera. In my head I thought, "Now that is a good picture." My head turned again to examine the lighting situation.

Uapii, "I have to go back and take a picture." I asked him to watch my back and I walked back [Uapii's face told me this is not the best idea but I could stop myself], waved at the guard, a confused look filled the guard's face, I hand signaled a camera sign and waited for the "yes its OK' nod.

The man immediately stood up attentively and nodded. I signaled to relax again and snapped away.

"Is your gun loaded?" I asked. The Tango phone minutes guard said, "Yes."

This was the only visible armed guard I saw the whole time.

Back Home At Uapii's Sister's House:

After diner everyone loaded up in Uapii’s brother’s car and we headed out to The Lodge for a few drinks. Basically, you drive to and from this area and NEVER walk outside for long distances. There was a bustling scene inside this bar and it was all young people 30 or less. The music wasn't very loud, which makes it easier on my concert ears to hear and listen to all the various languages around me. It was half freezing cold and my fleece jacket could barely keep me warm enough and prevent shivers.

We all ran into people Uapii or his family knew and I was quickly introduced. One guy actually has a long lost brother who lives in Nebraska and does research at "a med center somewhere," and I'm guessing its at UNMC in Omaha. This bar is filled with animal skins around the walls and Windhoek Lager is flowing steadily. Many pint beer cases are used as seats and there are many people bringing in their own bottles and buying soda for mixers.

Everyone was friendly toward me and people kept asking me, “So what do you think about this place? How do people treat you?”

I said I was having a great time and felt people were being exceptionally nice to me and curious about my background and why I was in Namibia.

We eventually went down to the Herero Mall, another area full of bars and open food stands. It was a great night of good laughs, fun, and making new friends I’ll be visiting again soon.

It pays to get off the beaten path. This has been the most memorable night I’ve had in Namibia to date and wish it would have happened sooner. I encourage everyone to do the same.

The main message of the night came from Uapii's cousin who translated a song's verse for me: "Don't be afraid. Wherever you go, there is somebody there who knows you." We heard this song before going to The Lodge and I thought it was the perfect song for the perfect night.

"Don't worry if you can't understand us when we speak Herero," said Uapii's cousin. "We're not excluding you. Its not like that at all. You're part of the family now" Hands clasped for a mutual respect. "We just like to speak our Herero language. You know people in Kataura now."

Where things started:

Group Photo:

This is by far the most challenging post to write about, but definitely my most rewarding Namibian experience. You wonder about how much detail you should go into, yet I'm still just beginning to understand Namibia and South Africa's unique history. On my way back to Namibia to finish up my research at WWF, I want to visit the Apartheid Museum and others.

No one wants to keep hearing bad news coming from Africa. Yet, everyday I think about waking up on a continent that experiences so much pain and trauma and what can be done. Then some days you want to tune out all the bad. I think the CBNRM is a good step, but the issue is so complex it can't be simplified or easily analyzed. People and ecosystems are too complex. Even the ABC crew told me they enjoyed telling the communal story because its a great "happy" story vs the other norm of subjects they've covered in the past.

I hope this blog can shed some light on the issues and conditions, yet show good connections/friendships can still be built with the right attitudes.

The next question is, well, what can I do to help? I think a good step is getting off the beaten trail and engaging in conversations/issues with people and don't come in with answers -just listen.

.............

Hope all is well with everyone! See some of you in Nebraska shortly!!!

As always, thanks for reading!

Cheers,

A.E. Price

Photographs from Etosha

2009-07-30T11:00:00.006+01:00

Hobatere Reserve Game Count

2009-07-29T08:52:00.005+01:00

July 28th, 2009

Oryx running during a game count I helped conduct at Hobatere Game Reserve.

On July 24th, two WWF trucks loaded with camping gear, GPS’s, and maps of the Hobatere Lodge conession [freehold game ranch] were headed into the Kunene region of Northwestern, Namibia to help finish up the world’s largest 6.6 million ha game count. Quick reminder about this game count if you haven’t been following recently: The count represents how local control [post apartheid] is allowing people on communal lands to manage their own resources sustainability and has contributed to the large recovery in certain wildlife populations, while bringing economic benefits associated with hunting, meat sales, and other various tourists areas to the communal areas. This count helps conservancies manage their wildlife populations and establishes quotas. Its truly an amazing community based effort.

The Northwest Game Count has been going on since 2000. It has been estimated that anywhere from 250 to 300 people help conduct the game count and it covers a whopping 17.5 million acres or 1.3 million full-length football fields! All the trucks running different routes cover over 4,000 miles and 27 adjacent conservancies work together during a three week period to count. This short period helps to prevent double counting.
…………..
Planning for the count:

Earlier in the week Raymond, who is in charge of collecting much of Namibia’s game count data everyone cites, was having problems gathering enough people to go with him and help Hobatere conduct their game count. Raymond has been with WWF for 10+ years and is full of many good game count stories and knows Namibia well. I was itching to leave Windhoek and –so I gladly volunteered! We also worked it out to have Erica and Keith join us too. I’ve had many enjoyable weekends with both in the past.

It takes Raymond awhile to set up the details of a game count, even for a small one like Hobatere. He has to print out maps for all the vehicles, line up GPS units with preloaded positions and maps, negotiate with the owners or communal members when and where camp will be set up, and collect enough food for everyone.

“Oh, we’re going to be in the Northwest part of Namibia again Raymond?” I said. “How about we do the game count on Saturday and spend the rest of the weekend in Etosha?”

“You want to go to Etosha?” said Raymond. “Alright, I’ll take you to Etosha.”

I was so thrilled. The week before I was looking at National Geographic and other photography websites learning more about my camera and saw so many photos snapped in this park on NG. Also previously, at the Cheetah Conservation Fund fundraiser, I met Frans Lanting, a NG photographer who is doing a Namibian project right now and I imagine he’ll be taking many photographs in the same areas where we were going.

I also wanted to put in one more field trip before I fly back to the states for my sister’s wedding, therefore, this was a perfect opportunity. And what better way to leave Namibia than to do a game count and Etosha before I come back for round two.

Driving to Hobatere Game Lodge:

Along the way, there are some rather enjoyable small towns on highway B1 including Okahandja and Otjiwarongo one passes through. Many locals are out walking in the streets, conversing in front of grocery stores, and enjoying the beautiful weather. The highways leading to these towns have huge swaths of grass and shrubs cleared [so you can see the a 600 pound Kudu bull before you see it in the windshield of your car] with warning signs of Kudu, Warthogs, ect. and the beautiful Khomas Hochland, Auas, and Omatako mountains ranges fill the horizon. They’re dark brown and red forces lining the way to Damaraland that remind me a lot of the Southwestern parts of the states. We stopped briefly in Otjiwarongo for lunch at a German influenced restaurant and quickly hit the road again to reach our destination before sundown.

Much like the Great Plains, one has to be prepared to travel 5 to 8 hours a day to reach your destination. As we were driving into the Hobatere Reserve, we saw some mountain zebra and beautiful damaraland flora. We quickly set up camp by one of the nice lodges, and were catching Z’s to be up at 5 AM to begin the count at 7 AM sharp. We did stop in the main reception area to relax and talk to the owner Steve about the upcoming count. It was so interesting to hear his perspective on the conservancies and their development in Namibia.

Along the way, Raymond told me there would be a good chance we’ll see lions and that about a pride of 20 live in the area. With that said, there would be no more sleeping outside of a tent for the colleagues and myself. Normally, I’ve taken my chances and have slept outside underneath the stars and it reminds me of home, because we have the same clarity like the second least populated country in the world in the Sand Hills.

There are no lights anywhere to even challenge the flaming balls of solar gas.

Raymond also entertained us with many good stories and local food favorites that include utilizing the whole animal. I never imagined an animal could be used up in so many different ways, but some of them did sound intriguing and there will probably come a point when he’ll take me to Naye Naye [Bushman Land] and I’ll be able to indulge in fine bush meat dining. We had a short meeting about the routes, what to expect, and who will be doing what for the upcoming morning count.

Then we were off to bed with no sight or sound of lions near the camp site, but we all had hopes of seeing one in the field.

Morning of the Game Count:

When the morning came, we divided up into two teams. Erica has a GIS mapping background and Raymond wanted to take route 3 with me because there was a chance anyone else would get lost, but he’s been on it before. Each team was going to do one route and share the second one together. Keith and Erica were doing route 1 and Raymond and myself were doing route 3.

And we were off going no faster then 30 km. To maintain integrity in the count: you start at the same time, on the same date, use the same route, and never use binocs when you’re counting from the top of a truck. Its amazing what one see’s just standing up in the truck vs. driving and it made me think about all the wonderful things I’m probably missing.

Overall, the game count went well. It was the first time I was in charge of sitting up on top of the truck looking for African wildlife that can be rather hard to spot. For a Nebraskan Sand Hiller, this was quite the thrill. It semi reminded me of counting cattle through the gate back home making sure all is well. I was a little intimidated to say the least. But I remembered what my boss Chris Weaver told me about looking through binocs to find hidden wildlife, but in this case I can’t use them. Luckily, I spent a few days driving around with Chris in Damaraland before and developed a sense of what to look for when single animals are not as obvious.

The morning drive was so beautiful. The light was soft. The wind was dying down. And I had a great view surrounding me.

We didn’t leave our campsite for more then half a mile and immediately saw 3 female kudu up on a rocky hillside looking down at us. We were in for a little surprise with our route. There were few clearly marked roads because all the rains have grown the grass long making it impossible to find a road. We were relying on the GPS to steer us in the right direction while avoiding a series of rocks and trees. I’d say we bushwhacked for about 60% of route three, and it was frustrating at times trying to navigate through dense Damaraland brush/tree veldt. We saw many oryx, zebras, giraffe, and spring bok. And I spotted a black backed jackal Raymond told me was a, “Good spot!”

Before everyone left, we decided on a place to meet up so we could do route 2 together. Raymond and I feared the extra time it was taking us to do our route was going to make us late. When we arrived we didn’t see any tracks coming from the other direction. We figured they were lost and waited 10 minutes. We didn’t hear the sound of a truck, so we found a bottle and wrote a note for Keith and Erica to head back to camp in the middle of the road. We were pressed for time to leave by 1:30 so we could make it to Etosha before 5:30 when they close the gates at the camp site so lions don’t eat you. If we were late, it would be a cold cold night waiting outside the gate listening to lions roar.

Route 2 was much easier to go through and we saw much more wildlife in this part of the reserve. We rolled back to camp and saw no sign of Keith or Erica. Lets say things became a little tense and we were worried about our friends. We spent nearly two hours flying around the different routes looking for our friends and were worried something horrible had happened. With lions, elephants, ect. hanging around many things can go wrong. I felt like a professional tracker while we were blazing through Hobatere. We were looking for tracks, assessing where they’d were most likely to be located, and listened for signs of life.

Once we started driving their route, Erica and Keith came roaring behind us in their truck. They’d planted their truck perfectly in two aardvark holes and they spent an hour digging themselves out, using a jack to lift the truck and pile rocks in the holes to they could drive out. Raymond and I were so relieved, but I don’t think it was apparent how worried we really were about the situation. We went back to camp, packed, crunch numbers, and flew to the Western side of Etosha where one has to have a permit issued before you arrive. Luckily, Raymond has some nice friends.

I’m going to write about the Etosha experience shortly. Please stay tuned! In the meantime enjoy the elephant picture I took in the Etosha National Park.

Cheers!

A.E. Price

Game Count Round II

2009-07-21T08:31:00.005+01:00

This weekend, I'll be traveling to Hobatere Game Reserve in the Northwestern Damaraland area of Namibia [Close to Angola] again, to help finish up the largest game count in the world. If you've been following the blog, many of you can recall this is the area close to where the ABC film crew will be doing a 6 minute documentary [I hear will be airing soon. They've been calling and asking for official game count data] and this was my first true wildlife Africa experience. I'm hoping we're lucky enough to find elephants again!

I'm so excited to help participate! WWF will be finishing up one of the remaining routes with the Ministry and other NGO's, and I'm hoping to find more amazing photography opportunities. I'm hoping we can finalize the data soon, so I can blog about it 8D

Cheers

A.E. Price

Insight into my research [Namibia Part II]

2009-07-16T09:08:00.000+01:00

Greetings Everyone:

Many of you are probably wondering what I’m obligated to do while I’m over here in Namibia, when I’m having such a great time seeing wildlife, shooting video with ABC news guys of the largest game count in the world, visiting communal conservancies and freehold operations, and jumping out of air planes. I have been busy with crunching the recent data we have from hunting and conservancy incomes, but new developments are forming around my future survey work.

This survey process has been a long work in progress, and started back in Nebraska while I was working for the Grassland Foundation and thinking about how our neighbors, Calamus Outfitters and our family ranch Gracie Creek Ranch, can bring things to a new level with cross property natural resource management across borders that brings eco-income to keep families on the land. One thing led to another, and I met Chris Weaver, we kept talking about things on Skype and email and now we're all excited about collecting current economic research. This survey fits into one of WWF Namibia's new strategic planning goals. Its just great timing for everyone involved.

I came over here wanting to gain a better understanding of the various economic returns of different land use options. Just recently, ectourism has taken over the ag sector as the 2nd GDP generating sector in Namibia only behind mining [gold, uranium, ect.] There are some incredible stories to be told about this recent development, but a better understanding of the various returns is still needed.

With this kind of information, landowners can make better informed decisions about going into conservancies/tourism operations both here and back home in the states. In the states, of course the system is quite different, but there are similar questions both systems need to ask to see if venturing into tourism based activities can work with your current ranching operations and neighbors.

The time line of my survey will last from the last week in August till early December, and possibly close to Christmas time. Before I start my surveys, my return flight to Africa stops in Joberg, so I'll be able to spend some time touring the museums, botanical gardens, the universities, and soccer stadiums before I bus to Windhoek.

I'm VERY excited about this opportunity and what it means for bringing ideas back to the states and with my graduate thesis ideas [along with shooting more photos].

WWF, a South African profess, and I are going to try and gain a better understanding of the land-use transition in Namibia and how landowners are supplementing their incomes from wildlife, tourism, hunting in comparison with ag and other land uses. Many are completely converting into only wildlife and tourism as the main land-use, especially in the freehold conservancies. In some instances, fences drop between neighbors and wildlife run around in a large area surrounded by a game fence. When we say freehold, its basically like your private landowners back in the states.

Recently, WWF Namibia has worked in the communal areas and helping communities develop healthy relationships with supporting agencies. But across the board, there are major opportunities for the private, communal, state, and even parks in neighboring countries to share borders, thus providing large scale conservation. Its important to think about building scale, because natural migrations and land bases are regained giving threatened species an advantage.

Presently, there are massive conservation benefits coming from the freehold lands in Namibia’s overall conservation movement and its not properly understood [lack of research] and hasn’t fit into the recognized conservation efforts on various levels. The farmers here remind me of the true independent spirit out in the Great Plains where you don't wait for governments and ect. you just sit down and "get r done." Its amazing to see how freehold conservancies [not recongnized as conservancies by government yet] still form and market everything themselves.

So, to better understand what drives people to convert and the benefits of the various land uses, I will be conducting surveys in Loxodonta [scientific name for elephant] and the Etosha Conservancies [the ones close to communal conservancies and the Etosha National Park] to help WWF and the landowners better access documentation and data on the contributions of wildlife and tourism to the livelihoods of the farming community living on freehold land. This area of Namibia is absolutely beautiful and full of many wildlife.

The economic survey will for sure collect data from both conservancy and non-conservancy members to see if there are differences between wildlife and tourism-related income and if any differences also exist between individuals who participate in a conservancy compared to those who do not enter into a conservancy constitution/agreement.

This work will be done in conjunction with Dr. Peter Lindsey, a professor from South Africa, who has been selected to conduct research by TRAFFIC to survey freehold land and look at how game meat and wildlife incomes are contributing to rural economies and development. One can sell game meat here in Namibia, unlike the states, and its a huge support mechanism for people to enter into markets, because the meat will find a higher value use thats often greater then then hunters valued use, so all things equal, the meat finds itself going to higher valued uses like in restaurants and conservancy kitchens. The survey also looks at poaching, which is still occurring.

Between WWF, Dr. Lindsey, and myself we hope to provide data that’s useful for many various parties. I hope to run with this research back in the states and make a great thesis that will apply to both the NGP and Southern Africa. I'd love to promote rural economic development back home, while also working to promote CBNRM in other countries in Africa and Namibia as an ecnoomic consultant. We'll see what happens!

I hope this provides more insight. I'm certainly excited about everything just a little bit! 8D

I'm also going to change the style and shorten up my posts... things just look intimidating and I need to learn how to re size photos and jazz things up. So expect changes and more of the day to day "email" type posts.

Cheers,

A. E. Price

The LIST

2009-07-14T15:56:00.001+01:00

This post will be a running list of all the conservancies, state parks, animals, birds, insects, or anything I can ID or say, "I've been there!"

Upon my return, I'll have a GPS unit hopefully and will be able to take points while I'm out in the field and will upload things onto a map so everyone can see where I've been. There is also a little gadget Canon makes that GPS's each photo you take... tempting!

Conservancies:

Puros
Sesfontein
Anabeb
Omatendeka
Sheya Uushona
Ehirovipuka
Khoadi Hoas
Torra

Birds:

Great Eastern White Pelican

Grey Heron

Egyptian Goose

African White-Backed Vulture

Tawny Eagle

Southern Pale Chanting Hawk

Dark Chanting Goshawk

Black-Shouldered Kite

Pygmy Falcon

Red-billed Francolin

Common Ostrich

Helmeted Guineafowl

Kori Bustard

Ruppell’s Korhaan

Red-Crested Korhaan

Crowned Lapwing [Plover]

Blacksmith Lapwing [Plover]

Namaqua Sandgrouse

Double-banded Sandgrouse

Rosy-Faced Lovebird [all around the house]

Grey Go-Away-Bird

Lilac-Breasted Roller

Southern Telow-Billed Hornbill

Red-Billed Hornbill

Fork-Tailed Drongo

Arrow-Marked Babbler

Southern Pied Babbler

African Red-Eyed Bulbul

Burchell’s Starling

Red-Billed Buffalo-Weaver

Red-Headed Finch

Animals:

To come

A. E. Price

Bagatelle and Intu Afrika Game Ranch Photos

2009-07-13T09:17:00.000+01:00

Enjoy the colors of the Kalahari in my most recent batch of photographs!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90390&id=512643068&l=4c753d4090

Swakopmund

2009-07-12T21:56:00.001+01:00

Wednesday, July 8, 2009
First of all I need to start off with great news! Many of you are familiar with my involvement with an in-depth journalism project with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism looking at ethanol’s impacts in the Great Plains. Before I left Nebraska for Namibia, one of the last meetings I had with a professor from my university was with Carolyn, one of the two professors managing the project, and she asked me to be the representative for the print side’s application form for the Society of Environmental Journalist’s student competition series. We later learned one had to be a journalism major to be a representative, but regardless, my friend Mimi was the representative, we submitted the publication and won FIRST PLACE in the Outstanding Student Reporting category! There will be an award ceremony in Madison, WI, at the next SEJ conference, but sadly I’ll be over here in Africa and won’t be able to accept the medal and cash prize personally. I enjoyed my time at their last conference at Stanford University last year.
Here is the write-up Lincoln Journal Star did on the award: http://journalstar.com/articles/2009/07/09/news/local/doc4a5638cf0ad84148326569.txt
………
A lot of exciting and interesting things have occurred the last few days. I’m still loving Namibia and living in Windhoek. I’ve been so fortunate to meet the people I’ve crossed paths with while traveling to many places in such a short period of time. My work at WWF is still going well and everyone is finally settling into the new office.
Rubber is starting to hit the road with my future survey work that will start after I return from my sister’s wedding in August. I’ll be networking with professors from the Great Plains and South Africa in the process with at least one maybe two papers being published in the process, which will greatly help with grad school applications process. The professor from South Africa is looking at the impact of bush meat trade in conservancies, and the WWF component is going to look at land use economic returns of wildlife vs. other land uses. Together we’re going to have a survey that will be big, but will provide some great new insight into the returns to conservancies. I’ll also venture into the Northwest region of Namibia –my favorite one so far.
Many great synergies are forming all over the place. I’m so fortunate to have stumbled across the community based natural resource management development model! Its truly inspiring work for me to be involved with at this point in my life.
As further talks and meetings develop, I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted!
…………..
Looking back the last few days, I think it’s safe to say my friend/colleague Erica and I get an A+ for living life! So many stories to tell from a short 2.5 day July 4th weekend. Life can be pretty tough here in Namibia and it makes one want to throw oneself out of planes! 8D
I’d like to start with the more recent stories including the ant incident last night before I go into my Skawkopmund adventures.
A few nights ago, my colleague Erica and I just came back from my favorite German influenced grocery store and we were cooking diner and preparing our lunches for the next day. We unloaded all our groceries on the counter, started boiling pasta, carrying on with conversation, and when Erica returned to the kitchen at one point, the look of terror on her face said it all when we noticed a HORDE of small black ants making their way into our boss’s house. What a deal. And they were carrying their little babies in white cocoon sacs up the side of the house too.
I immediately thought… this is going to be a long night! Luckily things never were completely out of control –even now.
Erica has worked in Zambia in the past and has many ant stories and to say the least –she’s not a fan of the creature, even though we’re both extreme naturalists. We’re also in a house where we barely know where things are in the kitchen and have no idea what kind of resources we could utilize during an invasion. So it was a rush to locate bug sprays, duct tape, ect. or whatever we thought would prevent our Avis house from being an ant colony. We had no luck finding bug spray. And we needed drastic measures.
Our initial question was whom could we call to help us? The boss was gone on a trip somewhere in Zambia and South Africa. All the stores with bug spray close around 7 and we were looking at 8 PM on our watches. We couldn’t find any bug spray and diner was cooking, while the ants were making a B-line for the kitchen. LOL
Just imagine thousands of tiny small black ants climbing up the side of the house and into all the cracks of the front door and a metal handled industrial broom I was using sweeping them all into little piles that looked like mini black sand dunes. We both kept sweeping and running outside of the house surveying the ant attack.
What else could we do but lay a duck tape trap all the way across the floor and half way up the walls in the main entry way! Duck tape can solve many problems and Erica’s idea did work for a while. We quickly singled out which colleagues to call. Luckily, Helge, an extremely resourceful WWF staffer who has run many camping and hunting trips professional in Namibia, answered his phone and had a can of DOOM he was willing to bring over to the house. He saved the day and brought the can over.
So eventually, we sprayed enough doom to probably kill our visitors 10 times over and carried on with the rest of our evening relaxing with a couple glasses of wine. Doom smells soo bad and we sprayed it everywhere in the hallway and outside. The warnings also make one think twice about being exposed to the stuff too… One thing about Africa I respect is how they place cancer and health problem warnings in large bold letters on all your beer, cigarette, and chemical cans. We probably would have settled for total natural living system extermination around the house at one point.
We were both impressed to see how the ants pile up their dead to be carried away. I thought it would be good to leave the dead ants as an example of what happens once one enters our house, but apparently if you ever find yourself in this situation, move them away from the house where their fellow ants cannot smell them. It just keeps the ants coming and exploring while burring their dead.
I learned from Erica that in Zambia you have to be extremely careful with ants and there are stories of people being swarmed and eaten alive, houses being stripped of all food, and even dead animal bodies being taken care of within minutes if you just leave them out for the ants to take care of.
It took a couple of days to finally deter the ants from entering our house…
We finally googled how to deal with ants from my internet stick and in the process learned ants do not like the smell of soaps. We had 5 different varieties of laundry and dish soap to choose from, and we utilized all of them along with more doom. We laid lines of soap by the door, around the front porch, and left a soapy water residue in the hallway. The chemist in Erica was in full bloom spreading around all the different soaps and reading the labels hoping something would match the “boric acid” that would kill them.
The problem seems to be under control now and apparently, ants are seasonal here in Namibia and move around a lot. During the winter time, they must look for warmer homes. I’ll see about sharing photos Erica took. They are impressive.
…………..
So, after a week of Strategic Planning and assisting with the Northern Great Plains final recap meeting, Erica and I figured it was time to go explore Namibia and leave Windhoek for awhile. When I can share more details about the meeting, I’ll be sure to spread the word about this great program and everyone’s collective recap experiences. The NGP WWF meeting did go extremely well, there were big smiles on everyone’s faces, and it sparked new energy for everyone to rethink about their ecotourism projects back home in the Northern Great Plains.
I especially enjoyed the strategic meeting. I’m so new to the program and it was nice to see everything broken down into small pieces, evaluated, and re-amped to meet new huge organization goals. This experience will pay off big time for me in the future and highlighted other WWF Namibia goals that focus on the economic side I want to continue studying in grad school. I also learned so much about the other initiatives in WWF I’m just learning about. IT’s incredible to me to hear such amazing conservation stories at large scales going unnoticed by the critical masses.
Its safe to say, Namibia leads the world in conservation, while providing many benefits to communal areas and freehold farms. Where else can see wildlife numbers growing in dramatic strides while translocationing rhinos away from areas where they’ve been guarded by guides? Great networking among various levels of government, NGO, and community governments have produced some of the best conserved areas in the world. It’s a beautiful system.
Erica and I both quickly decided to go to Swakopmund for the weekend with plans of doing photography, dolphin viewing, duning, eating great seafood, and shopping.

On our way we took the scenic desert tour route that is 3 hours longer vs. the high way route. It was both our first time driving on the opposite side of the road without seasoned Namibia drivers escorting us around. Erica did a fine job and the only thing we kept laughing about was when we were turning, she’d hit the windshield wiper every time instead of the blinker [everything is opposite]. We had time to stop and take some great photographs of the area. We crossed over a few mountains before we reached the veld and finally the ocean!
We found a great hostel called the Desert Sky and the owner is so nice and blunt about what is worth seeing and doing in Swakopmund. When one walks into her main lobby [almost the living room of her house] you see posters of desert tours, dolphin and whale trips, sky diving, sand boarding, and many adrenaline activities. I was so excited about what awaited us in the morning.
We booked two spots for the dolphin ride the next morning that included lunch, champing, and fresh oysters! We then proceeded to head to a local meat house for diner and found out it was closed due to some holiday, and luckily we found two couples from South Africa heading to a place called The Lighthouse. Erica quickly struck up conversation and we decided it sounded like a good diner option for us, especially when we were already going to be eating late.
The South Africans invited us to join them for diner and I was stoked they did. The food was absolutely amazing. One of our goals was to eat fresh seafood and did we ever. We tanked up on two great seafood based dishes, enjoyed great red wine from no other place than South Africa, and had very interesting conversation.
The woman sitting next to me was very open to discussing her personal experiences with apartheid in South Africa. There is so much I wish I could write about from just talking to her alone, but what struck me the most was how she told me about crying as a little girl when the police would drive by looking for Africans in places where they were not spouse to be. Their gardener was black and she told me her family never believed in the apartheid system at all. We also talked about the World Cup, health care, and the violence problems in South Africa.
Our dolphin tour the following morning was nice. We heard reports right whales were in the area and making an early appearance, but we weren’t lucky this time. We were treated to pet seals doing tricks on the boat, many shorebirds flying right by the boat, mola mola fish, sea lions, and of course dolphins.
The dolphins were tough to photograph and see because they would swim right by the hull of the boat. The sea loins were fun and live in large colonies. When we found them, many were sunbathing on the shore and in the water with their feet sticking up in the air. There were many cute small cubs crawling around with their mothers or a baby sitter.
After the tour, I finally bought my first “tourist” gift after the tour and it’s a beautiful wooden elephant with a baby elephant by the trunk. It’s the first I’ve seen of its kind and decided I better pick it up. I’m becoming a good negotiator now too!
Swakopmund has many great shopping areas. Many of the places have local sculptures, crafts, cloth, and gems. I’ve found many good fabrics I hope to collect and bring to my grandmother back in the states to be made into quilts. So many of the hand made pieces need to have a higher price for the amount of work that goes into each piece. One of the shopping highlights was a window shopping experience in an old antique shop. There was a nice mix of German and African articles including many OLD masks lining the walls. One was made out of an elephant foot! The place smelled horrible at times, but it was nice to look around and see so many artifacts.
Our dolphin tour went into the afternoon, so we just decided to continue walking around town and seeing the ocean before heading to the Tug Boat, which is another great place to eat seafood right on the shore. We made some reservations and enjoyed some espresso coffee on the beach. Later on, we walked down to the beach to take pictures of a lovely sunset. Please see the posted links.
On Sunday, we decided to throw ourselves out of a plane over the beautiful Swakopmund sand dunes and ocean. What better place to jump out of a plane. Its surprising how we went through just a 15 minute talk about sky diving. I was expecting a full day of lessons before we jumped. Halfway through the talk we learned the winds changed and it was not safe to jump. We were so disappointed and decided to go explore the dunes and Walvis Bay [close city south of Swak].
The dunes reminded me of our ranch in the sand hills. The formations are the same and they just lack grass. We saw many people “boarding” down the dunes much like our snowboarders in the mountain states. We walked up to the top of one dune, took a few pictures, and enjoyed the nice view. It was amazing to see a huge ocean on one side and a dry desert sand dune area with no water.
As we were driving to Walvis, my cell phone rang and it was Craig from the sky diving company asking if we’d still like to jump –the winds had changed! We quickly grabbed a few groceries and lunch at a grocery store and drove back to Swak to jump out of a plane. We drove for a few minutes out to the run way, suited up, the 260 Cesna landed, and my halter was so tight on my groin area, I could barley walk straight!
I was surprisingly calm during our climb to 10,000 feet. I figured in this situation, if things did go wrong with the plane, we would have parachutes and guys who have jumped 10,000 plus times! There were 6 people in the plane including the two guys who were going to video and photograph our diving experience.
When it was time to jump… things were looking pretty small down on earth’s surface. Mias, my trainer, showed me the 10000 feet mark on his wrist watch and I was like… oh damn… lol. We strapped up and one has never been so tightly strapped to another human –ever. The door was opened and a rush of cold air filled the cab.
Its important to note during skydiving that exiting the plane is one of the most critical moments of one’s experiences and your back needs to be arched, arms need to be on your chest, and your legs need to bend back and kick your instructors butt. How many times can one kick their instructor’s butt?
When the door is open and there is a parachute tied to your back, there is no turning back and it was surprisingly easy to make myself jump out. Craig jumped out just ahead of me so he could film and photograph my free fall experience. At 10,000 feet and the laws of physics holding, one has 30 seconds of freefall which means 30 seconds of being like an astronaught. The noise is incredible. Our trainers warned us you wouldn’t be able to hear any voice till the parachute was pulled. FREAKY. But before you jump they quickly reminded you of everything you need to know about jumping out of a plane, so asking questions during freefall is not necessary.
What a rush. I can’t begin to describe the feeling and every time I look at the photos I experience butterflies. I did manage to pull off one spin and quickly became jealous of birds being able to fly. It was a beautiful experience.
We pulled the chute at 5,000 feet, which is twice the legal limit in Namibia. It was neat to see how quickly my cameraman dropped when our chute opened up and slammed on the freefalling breaks. At this point I could see Erica falling and waved. I could finally take off my tight goggles and talk to my trainer. The landing went well and the trick to landing is to pretend you’re skiing. Plus, it helps landing in a sandy desert. If Erica were in the Olympics, she would have scored a 10 for a perfect landing. She landed it just like a toothpick.
Sky diving rocks and I would do it again in a heart beat.
…..
I had an enjoyable weekend with my colleague Keith, who has been recently hired as the new tourism marketing dude at WWF. He’s been to 101 countries and has worked for well over a year in 25 of them. His experiences and stories are priceless and only motivates me to travel. We traveled south of Windhoek to the Hardap dam region to explore future fishing areas for his sons when they arrive in Namibia next month. I’ll blog more about this in my next blog. You’ll see from the photo links I was able to finally see cheetahs. They’re domesticated kitties, but some of the photos look like they’re in the wild.
Thank-you for reading. Have a great week!
A. E. Price

Swakopmund Photos

2009-07-06T11:30:00.000+01:00

Greetings Everyone:

Here are the initial photos from my trip to Swakopmund this weekend. It was a blast to say the least and its by far one of my most memorable weekends ever. Everything was taken from 07/03/09 to 07/05/09 and shows how much Namibia's landscape can change in a 4 hour drive.

The pictures speak for the activities and Erica and I packed a lot of them into one weekend. Stories will follow later this week after the dust settles here at work.

Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88781&id=512643068&l=bbb829dc9b

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88802&id=512643068&l=6af42700cb

Cheers,

A. E. Price

Sesfontein Game Count Stories Cont.

2009-07-02T18:21:00.000+01:00

I promised to retell some stories from my most recent African Bush trip, so here is my attempt to recall the past events from the Sesphontein Game Count in Damaraland. Luckily, I’ve been carrying around a leather journal and found some time to write in my tent with a headlamp to help jog my memory. 8D

So there I was… on top of a WWF 4x4 truck luggage rack with a sleeping pad to help me brace for rugged road bumps, snapping away with my Canon camera, franticly switching between my two lens depending if I was going for wildlife or wide scenery shots, trekking across the Sesphontein Conservancy, helping conduct the worlds largest wildlife game count survey with the Namibia Ministry of Environment and Tourism staff and other various NGO’s, and we were following a truck carrying an ABC film crew, Dan Harris and his producer Almean who were shooting footage for their upcoming 6 minute story they’re going to do on the Namibia conservancy system. The Sesfontein Conservancy covers 146,039 acres in the Kunene region with about 2,500 people living in the area.

One shocker to me during my initial Africa experiences in the dramatic size of the country! A whopping 6.5 million hectares or 16,000,000 million acres or roughly a 1/3 of Nebraska is the estimated land area covered in the game count alone and its just a fraction of Namibia's area!During the game count, 30 different communal conservancies take part in this particular activity and from the data the Ministry of Environment and Tourism issue hunting quotas and allow conservancy managers and local community members to know what is happening with wildlife trends. If there is a sign of species decline, proper actions can be taken to try and increase numbers.

During the game count I saw: baboons, elephant, gemsbock, giraffe, jackal, kudu, ostrich, springbok, warthogs, and mountain zebras. There were probably other lions, rhinos, cheetahs, ect. but special survey techniques are needed to pick up their numbers. I have a running bird list, but that will require some work to develop a bird list. But I’m enjoying the birding and my UNL ornithology class is paying off big time. So many of the same bird families found in the states exist here in Africa too. While Chris and I were driving up north for the game count to pick up the ABC crew, he helped me ID many birds. My favorite birds so far are the hornbills and rollers.

If wildlife was spotted, the lead truck with the Ministry, NGO’s, and film crew would stop, count the animals, estimate their distance, and GPS the location all without binoculars or distance estimating equipment. The idea behind not using binocs, is many of the communities do not have access to them and would skew the results if some were using binocs and others were not. Then community meetings with local conservancy elected members and community members are held to determine what the community thinks is happening with trends and how many wildlife they feel are in the area. The beauty in Namibia is the government recognizing local knowledge of their resources and devolving rights to members.

The meeting we participated in was insightful into how communal conservancies manage their resources and how they feel about certain “problem animals.” I saw my first Herero dressed women and saw communal conservancy politics 101 in action.

When you’re out in the bush looking for wildlife and doing game counts –one has to wake up super early. Try having everything ready to go at 5 AM! During midday the animals lay down in the grass and avoid spending time and energy when its hot, so you have to start early. But the colors and charismatic wildlife one finds is absolutely breathtaking. I almost had to pinch myself to make sure I’m really seeing all the beauty.

We had an extreme encounter with 7 desert elephants, and I’m so happy the film crew and myself could take pictures and footage of these elephants in the desert/mountains and show not all elephants live in dense jungles. That morning, Chris said there might be a chance we could see elephants but wasn’t promising us anything. Just before we saw the elephants, there was a herd of Oryx I was taking pictures of, and when we came around this mountain my jaw dropped when we found elephants walking in a dried up river bed! Tall, brown, quiet, and slow. It’s amazing how well large animals can blend into a landscape. I only noticed 3 in the beginning before I noticed the other 4.

Wildlife viewing tip: when you’re looking for wildlife, especially here in Africa, its best to train your eye to look for odd colors that don’t fit in and movements of tails because the animals usually blend in so well. If one is so focused on looking for lions, there is a great chance you’ll miss something else. I’m so new to this area, I know I’d miss probably half of the wildlife I saw if Chris and other’s who have trained their eyes and know what to look for.

I was so excited it was all I could do to switch from my big lens to my smaller one. I did not expect to be taking photographs of elephants with my short lens –we were only 15 yards away from a few of them at one point. If you’ve been following the blog, this might be repeat information, but my boss Chris knows how to position and run a truck for photographers and he parked the truck along side the migrating elephants and I was snapping away. I probably took 250-300 photos of these elephants. Chris was hoping the mamma elephant would walk in front of the truck so we could get a nice look at her, but instead she decided to change course and wanted to walk where the truck was sitting. LOL And she was not moving for anything.

My small lens was distorting how close I was to the elephant and she decided to mock charge the truck [their way of sending a friendly reminder to MOVE or else]. Honestly, I was pretty damn scared for about 4 seconds when I saw through my lens two huge ears and a puff of dust flaring up from the ground after she took a few quick steps and immediately stopped. I said a few things not worth repeating on here and fell back on my back and was semi- ready to say good-bye to my life, but when I raised my head, all I could see was an semi agitated elephant waving her snout and keeping her ears out for me to see. Be sure to look at my photo links of this elephant if you haven’t already. I told the elephant I was sorry and we carried on with the rest of the game count.

The last morning the ABC film crew was with us, we recruited a local guide to take us into an area only scientists go to study black rhinos. This species of rhino is a huge conservation success story and is dramatically recovering in this area. We were all up at 4:30 and on the road by 5 AM hoping we’d find one to film while conducting some WWF staff interviews in the field for the ABC piece. We drove a good distance, then decided to abandon truck and walk for about 6 miles over a couple of ridges in hopes of seeing a rhino. I was all decked out with my camera set up and was worried about walking so far with so much weight, but I didn’t want to miss a chance to photograph one, especially a wild free roaming black rhino without a photo resume. The rocks and mountains here are thin, crumble easily, and make trekking interesting. Half the time you’re worried about where one is placing your feet, and then there is this voice in the back of my mind thinking I should be watching out for lions and other critters. LOL I was impressed with how well the ABC crew could keep up with everyone. When one sits down and hears where they’ve been in Africa and the difficulty of bushwhacking to film gorillas and such, it quickly becomes apparent how dedicated and rugged these guys can be in chasing their amazing stories.

I did talk to Dan about some of his recent journalism projects and I asked him what was the most dangerous reporting assignment he has been on, and he immediately said Afghanistan is no joke and he does not wish to go back. He had to wear bulletproof vests and commented how everyone seems to want to cut your head off because you’re an American. They both commented on how the scenery between Northwest Namibia and Afghanistan is similar.
Back to rhinos.

There was miss communication with the guide about the distance we’d have to walk to see the rhino, and if we didn’t have a flight for the film crew to catch, we probably would have walked much further to see this one. Regardless, the scenery was beautiful and we stopped at one of the more scenic places I saw during the whole trip to finish up interviews and hope the rhino might come out of a mountain crevasse to say hello. But this chase has fueled my curiosity about this animal and wanting to find at least one before I go back home to the states. I can’t be specific about where we were looking and I won’t ever reveal the location if I do see one –poachers… Its almost a scared knowledge if you find one.

The spring bock are the most densely populated of the mammals we found on the drive, and their grazing and movement patterns are almost a mystery to scientists and other wildlife managers. Rain is a huge driver of where one finds wildlife and some of the pastoral tribes we came across. I took a picture of a nice trophy spring bock laying down in the grass. When I showed it to WWF’s main hunting specialist he about fell over and asked where I saw this trophy male. We’re having talks about taking me out to his cousin’s farm to hunt an Oryx. I can’t wait.
Many people comment about my REI boots in the communal areas [much like our US reservations]. Its sad to see people walking around with few essentials or what I think is essential –especially decent footwear if you’re working in the field and around poisonous snakes and scorpions. Many of the children wear no diapers and have these traditional leather straps that cover everything up. Its extremely common to see goats and cattle grazing and walking around the houses, and these areas are all usually pretty bare because the animals have to be herded up at night to protect them from problem animals. Many of the cattle have impressive condition and build, while others I’ve seen were not looking so great.

I visited Onguta and the Ehiroviuka conservancy with Larkin and Uapii to conduct Larkin’s Fullbright surveys that will track the impacts of conservancies of communal and freehold members. We came across an interesting community meeting. A large NGO, IRDNC was conducting a holistic grazing meeting and it reminded me of my ranch back home and our holistic approach we’ve adopted.

A future blog will go into the idea of development, what has worked, what hasn't worked and possibly why, and contrast it with the current Namibian community based resource development. I was incredibly moved by the living conditions I experienced. Also, the Northern Great Plains Tour group ended yesterday and we had an incredible discussion I'll share at a later date.

I've been so busy with office work and developing Strategic Planning plans with WWF DC people and feel so blessed to be participating in the future goals of an org that has done so much with government and NGO's making Namibia the conservancy success story it is. No one knows about the scale and success of Namibia's conservnacy system and I hope the ABC video and other media projects will put it on the map.

Thank-you for reading! I'm off to Swakupmond this weekend to do some serious birding, ocean, sand dune, and funky port city life activities. Stay tuned for pictures.

A. E. Price

MTC Internet and Power Adapters...

2009-06-28T14:58:00.000+01:00

Well, I finally moved out of my old apartment here in Windhoek. Chris, my boss, has a second house he's in the middle of selling and its a great set up. There is a nice brick grill out back and I hope to be grilling soon 8D

There is a good chance I'll be living at my old place again, even if the new guy decides to stay. Jergen talked it over with his wife and told me he understands my situation and being so close to work while living with his family and offered to put me up in a nice little place right in front of the pool! He showed me the set up and it has a kitchen area, an L shaped table in the corner, shower, and I actually hope the new guy stays so I can move down there! There is even a potters wheel in this room.

It would be so nice to wake up with a pool/lemon tree view every morning while having a spacious living area. Either way, I'll be moving back in with Jergen and his family 8D

A group from WWF DC are here helping WWF Namibia work through a 10 year Strategic Planning session. SO lucky to be a part of this discussion. I'm hoping to make one of the new initiatives a huge part of my thesis and become part of the greatest African conservation story ever. I'll talk more about this when are planning session is over.

Today, my new colleague/roommate Erica and I had a successful shopping day at the mall here in Windhoek. Its handy having a grocery store located in mall! We picked up some random camping gear, food, and I splurged on a South Africa rugby jersey. Yesterday, Erica, Kieth, and myself joined Greg and Richard for a Lions vs. Springbok Rugby game and I was impressed with South Africa, thus decided to by one of their jerseys. I'm not convinced rugby players hit has hard as the NFL players do in the states [those hits would kill a person] and the tackling and hitting style is different, but still entertaining. Erica and I are planning to hike around our new place before heading out tonight to watch the US and Brazil soccer match with other WWF colleagues.

I also finally have really slow Internet. MTC, the local cell phone provider has a modem Internet stick and I'm able to check my emails at night and during the weekends too. Its not very good with facebook or many news sites, but Internet is so expensive here -can't complain too much.

I'm in dire need of a American/Namibia power adapter! My computer only has a few minutes of life left, but I'm just dropping a line to let everyone know all is well here in Namibia and I'll follow through with last week's game count stories.

A.E. Price

Photograph Links

2009-06-25T10:17:00.000+01:00

Greetings Everyone:

I'm going to eventually use Flickr and post photos on here, but size limitations will force me to be extremely selective about which photos to post on these sites. So, I'm going to provide some Facebook public links to my most recent photographs.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85627&id=512643068&l=7652ba896e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85653&id=512643068&l=ccef6e8e29

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85739&id=512643068&l=9a24441b6b

Enjoy! Cheers!

A. E. Price

Post Damaraland

2009-06-22T19:19:00.000+01:00

I had such an incredible week up in Damaraland and I do plan on blogging more about this experience soon. I apoligize for being out of touch, but I wasn't anywhere near the internet for a whole week, but its slowly breaking my facebook addition!

Recent News:
The WWF Great Plains tour kicked off their Namibia tour today. I'm making some great connections with many people on this year's tour. Dan O' Brien and his other half Jill flew in and I've always admired Dan's writing. He is one of the authors for Mike Forsberg's [National Geographic] new photography book coming out in September. Its a great group and I wish I could attend more of the tour, but because Namibia is such a large country, flying is often cheaper but limited in space. But I'll catch the recap and a few other local events. Some fellow sandhillers did make it over here too.

It was great to see my friends and neighbors, The Switzers, Calamus Outfitters, and participate in amazing round table discussion about the conservancy system here and its possible applications back home in the Great Plains. There are some new insights developing about how our ranches can work together like the freehold conservancies here in Namibia and I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by my incredible colleagues and others during this process. More to come on this subject soon. Back to the game count and previous week...

Basically, I participated in the world's largest game count, the Sesphontein Game Count. It was my first introduction in the Namibian bush. And what a great way to kick things off. This is some of the best scenery in the country. There is NO ONE out here in this part of Namibia and I'll find the number of KM we drove but we only came across two other cars in 4 days of driving around and we made our rounds. I could see the Atlantic Ocean at one point and Angola was only a 5 hour drive.

This count covers 16 million acres, requires nearly 300 people, 60 cars, and 7 different routes to gather this information. I finally saw my first elephants on this count and have plenty of elephant stories. I can't wait to tell the one about Nils, a very naughty elephant who stormed my colleagues camp and forced us to stay in a lodge the falling day when I arrived with the ABC film crew! I was also mocked charged by a mamma elephant while we were on the count [15 yards away], but managed to snap 5 good pictures before I fell on my back on top of the WWF truck. Don't worry, Dan and Almean captured everything on film and I have a hunch it will make the 6 minute ABC news cut! Only one other route saw elephants like ours did.

One of the main highlights of the trip I'll write more about later, was having Dan Harris from ABC news come along with his producer. They're doing a 6 minute piece on Namibia's conservancies and how its helped the communal areas. Luckily, I brought along my new camera and big lens. Many of my photos will be linked to the story online and might even be featured in the 6 minute video story. This piece will air on Primetime, Dateline, and Good Morning America and its estimated to reach 60-80 million people. I took nearly 1300 photos this last week and I'm only beginning to sort everything out and edit.

I'm so thrilled to have this amazing opportunity to show my photographs of Namibia 8D If one of my photos can make someone think, "Oh, thats just beautiful and what a great concept and cause. I must go visit Namibia" I've done my job as a conservationist photographer. I finally feel comfortable calling myself one.

I also saw some extreme poverty conditions in the communal conservancies. There is so much to tell, but spending a few days with these amazing farmers and mothers gave me new inspiration and energy for the work WWF does with conservancies and other NGO's. Totally life changing experience to say the least. Having kids reach their hands in your pockets asking for food and money with snoty noses, hardly any clothes, and large starving bellies would change anyone.

There is a horrible cold bug floating around and I picked it up during the tail end of my trip. Trust me, there is nothing worse than having a burning throat in the middle of the bush, while worrying about a naughty elephant wandering around the bush looking for water and apples. Sure makes one feel alive when you feel like dying. But it makes for good stories I will tell later.

AE Price