DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 6-7, 2016

Caution or Calculation

At least 30 African safari businesses show up in the “Panama Papers” information dump.  Nothing here is illegal, but it raises the question:  why do businesses that profit from Africa move those profits to off-shore, secretive tax havens?  Considering the disastrous economics of many African nations, the utilization of off-shore financial resources may be a viable option.

John Stevens and his family run a safari company based in Zimbabwe.

Created in 2011, Stevens’ Guided Safaris Africa Inc. was headquartered on paper in the British Virgin Islands, a speck of land in the Caribbean nearly 100 times smaller than Zimbabwe’s largest safari reserve. It was set up to manage the Stevens’ family wealth and to act as a booking agent for an estimated $250,000 a year in “safari revenue,” according to files received by Mossack Fonseca. The company held a bank account in the Isle of Man, an offshore financial center in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland, and was owned by Stevens’ family trust.

Stevens’ company is one of at least 30 offshore African safari businesses created by Mossack Fonseca, according to an analysis of the Panama-based law firm’s records. While most of them are officially based in the British Virgin Islands, their day-to-day ventures are safaris that operate across southern and eastern Africa, from Namibia through Zimbabwe and Botswana up into Tanzania and Kenya. One operator could be found as far north as Egypt, offering a steel-hull pleasure yacht for a “live-aboard diving safari” in the Red Sea.

Mossack Fonseca is one of the world’s largest creators of offshore companies, businesses that have few or no employees and are usually located not where the company operates but where taxes are low or secrecy is high.

European Union Opposes Ivory Trade Ban

There is a possibility that African elephants will be extinct in the wild in 25 years.  A main driving force in this extinction catastrophe is poaching of ivory.  Apparently the E.U. and a trio of African nations are in favor of the development of elephant farming as a better solution than action to save wild elephants.

In 2014, 20,000 African elephants were killed by poachers and between 2009 and 2015, Tanzania and Mozambique lost over half their elephant populations, with similar figures reported across east and central Africa.

The most recent figures show a 61 per cent decline in African elephants between 1980 and 2013.The death rate is such that every 15 minutes, an elephant in Africa somewhere is killed by poachers.

The EU is the world's largest exporter of pre-convention ivory - ivory acquired before the creation, in 1976, of the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora (CITES), the body that regulates wildlife trade.

Between 2011 and 2014, member states reported seizures of around 4500 ivory items reported as specimens and an additional 780 kg as reported by weight. Between 2003 and 2014, 92 per cent of EU exports of pre-convention tusks went to China or Hong Kong.

The African Elephant Coalition (AEC) - a coalition of 29 African states - has presented its proposals, which include a global ban, to CITES and recently met senior EU officials in Brussels to build support for its campaign.

However, on 1 July, the EU announced that it opposes a comprehensive global ban on the ivory trade. It would be better to encourage countries with growing elephant numbers to "sustainably manage" their populations, it says.

An existing global embargo on ivory sales is due to end in 2017 and Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Botswana are pushing for it to be replaced with a decision-making mechanism for future tusk trading.

AEC is warning of a mass extinction on the continent within 25 years, unless elephants are given an Annex I CITES listing, which would ban any future domestic ivory trade.

Bred for the Bullet

Trophy hunting may be financially important to some African conservancies, but Blood Lions in not about trophy hunting, it is about trophy murder of captive bred lions.  Bred to be shot down for the pleasure of “hunters”.

Durban - Growing numbers of tourism operators, including Tourvest and Thompsons, are throwing their weight behind a Born to Live Wild campaign that discourages tourists from visiting facilities where direct engagement with captive predators is permitted.

The campaign is an offshoot of the Blood Lions documentary which premiered at the 2015 Durban International Film Festival, before hitting the worldwide big screen circuit.

The documentary blew the lid on how vague legislation in South Africa had allowed the practice of “canned lion hunting” to morph into a murky, multimillion-rand industry also involving “cub petting” and “walking with lions”.

The worldwide campaign against lions being bred for the bullet has now reached more than 11 million people with a weekly Facebook audience of 60 000, said Blood Lions marketing manager, Lauren van Niekerk.

Van Niekerk said a Blood Lions delegation would attend the next Cites CoP17 Conference being held in Johannesburg in September. A youth awareness drive will also see Blood Lions screened at more schools and universities countrywide, and its offshoot, Born to Live Wild, has been endorsed by more than 85 tourism operators and partners in southern Africa and abroad.

Give it a Try

Interesting camera trap photos of mostly wild animals out in their world.  Fun project for the kids around the house as well.

A critical part of protecting big cats and their landscapes is documenting the presence and behavior of wild cats using camera-traps. Every year, Panthera’s motion-activated cameras collect hundreds of thousands of wildlife images. With your help, we can analyze these photos to identify the animals shown, enabling us to track wild cat population trends over time and determine what conservation actions are needed to better protect these species. Join us!