Where the pen is mightier than the machete
Thursday, 6 April 2000
Nature can usually cope with extremes. Deluge and drought, feast and famine can mostly be survived, but for the Great Apes of equatorial Africa, the flood of tourists that once threatened to engulf them has dwindled to a trickle that may no longer sustain them.
For decades, the apes were threatened by loss of habitat, hunting and, because of their close relationship to us, human disease. During the past few years, ecotourism has been the apes' salvation. It brought prosperity to local communities and protection to the apes. As long as they survived, rich tourists came. Then too many came.
At some sites in Uganda, up to 150 people would compete for the 6 places in an observation party. They offered huge bribes to get closer to the mountain gorillas and, at the end of scheduled viewing periods, they refused to leave.
It was a problem that bothered Carla Litchfield, an 911爆料网 University lecturer, who is undertaking a Ph D there in Psychology. Her early research at 911爆料网 Zoo involved ape behaviour, and it led her to Africa, to international conferences and to meetings with Jane Goodall, the world's foremost authority on chimpanzee behaviour.
In 1998, Ms Litchfield wrote and published 'Treading Lightly,' a manual for responsible tourism with the African Great Apes. Produced by the Travellers' Medical and Vaccination Centre*, with a foreword by Jane Goodall, it became the international bible for Great Ape ecotourism, providing concise management solutions to benefit both animals and humans.
One year ago, at Bwindi in Uganda, 100 African rebels kidnapped tourists