Experts estimate that in Africa alone, conservation efforts have created 14 million "conservation refugees" since the colonial era. In this model, some of the indigenous people, if they were lucky enough, could work as park wardens, preventing their relatives from entering the protected zones.
Do we wonder why people are poaching and refusing to listen to the cries of those who want the animals and their habitat preserved? When they see the royal families of Europe (Juan Carlos) and America (Romney's boys) going into such areas to kill for sport?
In the case of the Romney's, of course they'd enjoy hunting and killing animals, getting ready for bigger game, on two legs. Mitt's business practices had the thrill of the hunt, as people's lives were destroyed. It's a characteristic of royalty to indulge themselves in blood sport to prepare their sons for wars on lesser peoples.
Most believe in preserving parks, wilderness and wildlife. Often times, though, we don't take into account the 'lesser people' in other countries or here in the USA, either. It is not the poor who are stealing habitat, it is the rich. They are taking away the spiritual places that people need to be in to rejuvenate and connect to the Earth, for their own profit and power.
For a long time, people in Africa have seen the western wildlife preservation organizations as part of colonialism. But many love their natural heritage and want to preserve it, as well. This story is a reminder of my disappointment with a number of what I call phony foundations used to hide the money of predators and steal the commons from all of us.
Because we want good things to happen and we sacrifice many things to make that so. They feed on our good intent. They get their lackeys to cut the funding to keep the parks in the USA as a haven for Americans to enjoy, then as they close them, they call them vacant land and give them to their buddies for pennies on the dollar. I've see the non-profits put on the pretty face of doing something good when all they are doing is getting our consent and turning the land over to corporations with no respect for life.
Really, the worth of these lands is beyond the value of money. And they were stolen from the native people, and if the American government cannot afford to maintain them, they should return them, not sell them to destruction. Just a few ideas, not necessarily on point with the article but I feel we need to confront this.
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