by Barbara Miller
Cheetahs are major draws for the international tourist industry in southern African countries. In Namibia, home of one-fourth of the world’s population of cheetahs, tourists pay big money for the chance of a close-up look at these large cats. The cheetah population has been declining in recent decades, however, mainly due to being killed by farmers. The tourist industry therefore cannot guarantee a sighting to high-paying visitors.
In an article in the Financial Times, journalist Colin Barraclough describes his stay at the Okonjima Lodge in Namibia where a double room costs between US $250-1000 per night. The AfriCat Foundation, based at the Lodge, is a nonprofit organization established to help protect Namibia’s big cats. Barraclough saw pens where injured and orphaned cats are housed in preparation for their return to the wild. While this effort may warm the heart of animal lovers, it’s not done out of altruistic feelings about the animals but to protect profits from high-end tourism.
A major challenge in cheetah population management is tracking the whereabouts of wild cheetahs. Conservationists need data on their numbers and location so they can step in to help if a problem arises that would affect cheetah health and wellbeing. But cheetahs don’t like to be monitored. Radio collaring, for example, causes them stress. The age-old way of reading their tracks appears promising as a non-invasive method. The article proclaims: “San Bushmen can consistently identify individual cheetahs from their footprints.”
So, the tourist industry and conservationists want to track cheetahs and San Bushmen know how to track them. Does this sound like a wonderful opportunity for the San to benefit from tourism by using their traditional tracking knowledge?
No such luck. The article further states that AfriCat is partnering with WildTrack, an animal monitoring group that aims to use computers to produce an algorithim to track free-roaming cheetahs based on data about their footprints. Computers will digest San knowledge and generate output for scientifically technicians to use.
Here is a shining example of how indigenous knowledge has potential to contribute to conservation and cultural survival by providing employment to the San people who have been harshly displaced from their homelands. Instead, once again, a takeover — only this time of knowledge instead of land. The takeover is glaringly obvious in the article’s proclamation: “Bushmen put scientists on the right track” followed by the words of a European cheetah researcher at a wildlife sanctuary in Namibia: “We hope computers can do the same.”
Photo, “Cheetah”, from Flickr via Creative Commons.
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