...Rangers...

      I'm not sure if you picked up on this, but this post and the one before it were supposed to be one whole thing. Unfortunately, that last one got rather long, so I split it into three different entries. This second post is about the rangers who are suppose to protect these animals, and some of the issues they are having because of poaching.
      At the 4th World Ranger Congress, a survey presented by the International Ranger Federation showed that the number of murders and assaults of game rangers had increased from what it had been five years before (and I might add that this article was published in 2003). Seventeen associations had taken the survey, and they reported that 31 rangers had been killed, and another 32 injured. (I doubt that that number included those who probably were shot at and missed during that time period.)
     You're probably thinking that those numbers are a bit large, even for five years--don't the rangers have everything they need to stop the poachers? Not true, though. It turns out that isn't the case--to quote from the article (and Arrie Schreiber, the chairman of the Game Rangers Association of Africa), "To be effective, game rangers need motivation, equipment, training, and discipline. Where these are lacking, and where there is not the right government commitment to parks, the conservation effort soon collapses. Corruption, poaching, and other criminal activities soon set in, and often the struggling rangers find themselves up against well-equipped and well-trained bandits".  Also, the article states that although rangers in South Africa can get help from the country's security forces if they need to, other countries' rangers don't have this option and end up fending for themselves. While"subsistence poachers" don't pose much of a threat, being people from the nearby poor communities, rangers sometimes have to face commercial poachers who are well-equipped and dangerous. In some parts of Africa, it is actually safer for a ranger to look on as rebel forces move through a reserve while shooting animal for "bush meat" (civil instability does not help the matter). Similar is a case in the Gálapagos Islands, where shark poachers burned down two of the rangers' homes in the new marine reserve, and also burned down a research building. Another such incident occurred on Costa Rica's Cocos Island, Which is a World Heritage Site.The United States has poaching issues, too. Along Arizona's border with Mexico's Sonora state, rangers also have to deal with illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.
        So how do we stop these issues? The chief game ranger of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, John Makombo, says that just arming rangers would not solve the problem. For instance, he carries a gun for self-protection but doesn't want to use it. To quote, "I want to use the mouth so all of us can understand what conservation is." 



      Again, thank you to everyone who has read this blog.
                                                --Skyepika





                                         Sources:

        Marshall, Leon. "Under Fire, World's Park Rangers Seek Protection." http://news.nationalgeographic.com. N.p., 5 Sept. 2003. Web. 24 Apr. 2012.