The thin green line

January 22, 2018 6:17 AM

"When you are having your morning cup of tea before taking a jeep “safari”, some of them would have left for the day’s job, often four or five kilometres away, walking along jungle roads, possibly seeing the steaming dung heaps of an elephant or the pugmarks of a tiger that has gone by a mere half hour ago. He will pause for a bit, ears alert for a crackle of branches as an elephant shifts weight from one leg to the other, or wait for the cackle of jungle fowl. If the forest holds its silence, he will walk on to the waterhole that has to be cleaned or bushes by the side of the road that have to be trimmed. If he is back when you are having your evening cup of tea, perhaps, you could treat him to a cup, too."

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Despite the critical role rangers play in the poaching crisis, conservation organizations tend to overlook the need for everyday resources... "Donors outside of Africa want to see sexy, high-tech solutions like drones and ground sensors, not to hear about the need for warm clothing, boots, and better food for rangers. Large nongovernmental groups spend huge amounts, yet there are rangers calling me for socks."

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From the LA Times:

"Defending the environment has become a suicide mission in many parts of the world. Environmental activists around the globe are being killed as they struggle to protect fragile ecosystems. From Brazil to Congo, the Philippines to Tanzania, the toll is heaviest in countries beset by corruption and weak enforcement, where entrenched government and business elites break laws with impunity."

-‘Am I going to get out of here alive?’ In one of Africa’s most dangerous corners, a fight to the death for the elephants.
-A 16-year-old anti-mining activist from Guatemala killed by the mining company.
- A Philippines grandmother fought to get a toxic coal stockpile out of her neighborhood. Three bullets stopped her.
- A farmers activist is beaten to death, and the video goes viral. How tensions over land are tearing at Myanmar.
- He defended the sacred lands of Mexico’s Tarahumara people. Then a gunman cut him down.
- 'They should be thought of as heroes': Why killings of environmental activists are rising globally.

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What it's like to be married to the men doing the most dangerous conservation job in the world: "The rangers’ jobs are difficult, to be sure. But sometimes the work is even harder on their wives. Frequently on their own at home on the fringes of the forest while their husbands are patrolling, these women face regular harassment and displacement. Armed groups threaten to invade their villages seeking resources; meanwhile, villagers frustrated when anti-poaching efforts interfere with their lives target rangers’ spouses for revenge."

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Wildlife rangers ... routinely face death, injury, or torture from poachers, and the wild animals they protect can kill them too. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been riven by almost two decades of civil war and political instability, about 150 rangers have been killed in Virunga alone since 2004. Rangers are exposed to deeply disturbing scenes, with each poached carcass a frustrating and grisly reminder of failure, and they operate in the bush under harsh physical conditions, often with inadequate equipment, pay, and support. "Worldwide, about two rangers are killed every week," says Sean Willmore, president of the International Ranger Federation and founder of the Thin Green Line Foundation, a charity that trains rangers and supports the widows of those killed in the line of duty. "But that's only partial data," he adds. "It could be double that amount."

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"The poor and hazardous working conditions of wildlife rangers are well known to anyone working in the field and are now appearing more frequently in the media. Yet little has been done to systemically study and report on ranger working conditions; nor has there been an attempt to better understand how rangers feel about their work, their major concerns, challenges, rewards, as well as overall job satisfaction."
To address that, WWF carried out surveys on Ranger Perceptions in Africa (pdf, 972 kb)
and Asia (pdf, 1.32 mb)

posted by ChuraChura (4 comments total)

Those are heartbreaking stories. Who sends people armed with sticks into a forest with tigers? And poachers; you’re probably on safer ground with the tigers.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:42 AM on January 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I was vaguely aware of this before, but only vaguely; thank you for bringing the issue(s) into sharper relief for me. Completely new to me was the effect on the rangers' spouses. The whole situation is heartbreaking indeed - so thanks also for the link to the Foundation.
posted by dendritejungle at 11:45 AM on January 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

Good post, reminds me of the story the other day about the people who enforce the fishing quotas.
posted by subdee at 12:13 PM on January 22, 2018

Great post.

I think many in the West pretty clearly only think of "environmental activist" as a young, white, middle- to upper-middle class person. That the parks and the wildlife in them might matter as much or more to people who live around them and cherish them as part of their own local and national heritage doesn't seem to occur to them.
posted by biogeo at 9:44 PM on January 22, 2018 [2 favorites]