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Wildlife

Wildlife

                      

 

The Milgis ecosystem is host to an extraordinary variety of flora and fauna because of the variation of unique habitats from the desert sands to the mountains and thick rainforestsThis promotes incredible diversity and is why the Milgis has such a wide array of species, some being endemic to the area.

 Mammals

Many different species of mammals call the Milgis home with vast open spaces, plentiful natural resources and the capability of the pastoral peoples to co-exist with them, what more could they want!

Aside from the megafauna, there is a huge variety of smaller creatures. These images show the different species living alongside each other, exhibiting the diversity of the fauna found in this area!

An array of the smaller Milgis residents!

The Problem

Intensive commercial hunting and poaching which the local people were dragged into, reached a crescendo at the end of the last century. This resulted in a drastic decline in populations of many animals, particularly effecting the large predators and elephants as well as completely wiping out black rhino from the area.

Of late, livestock predation and competition for grass and water is the most common form of human-wildlife conflict. (This HUGE elephant below died in a rain of bullets over a misunderstanding in the elephants behaviour as he looked for water.)  Amoungst other things further loss of life manifests through fires and disease. 

The Solution

Our solution is to employ responsible persons that have been chosen by their respective communities who become our scouts and lkiramats. The most important part of their job is to make sure the wildlife and the environment are kept intact and not irresponsibly abused.  In turn the healthy ecosystem is to the benefit of all that depend upon it.

A large part of our conservation strategy is the implementation of projects which help the communities with some of their challenges. We have managed to get people to understand that by caring for the environment, ecotourism will increase in the area creating income for the people as well as allowing the Milgis to implement the health, education and water projects.

Therefore, this brings us to our way of looking at conservation, considering the health of the people depends on the health of the environment, of which the wildlife is vitally important;

"You can't talk conservation until you have satisfied the most basic of the communities' needs"

Employ Community Based Scout
Decision to implement project based on community's attitude towards wildlife and ecosystem management is made
Community programme/
project/initiative is implemented
Community benefit from having a scout and lkiramats in their area and see wildlife as their voice 
Scout monitors environment, wildlife and anthropogenic issues in his community
Scout reports any issues back to base on a  twice - daily basis

Main supporters of this programme

Milgis Stiftelsen (Norge)

Edward Peake

CHK Charities Limited

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