By Dave Harcourt •
May 21, 2009
Thirty years after being listed as a World Heritage Sites the Ngorongoro Conservation area is in danger of being ‘deleted’ from the prestigious listing. This legendary wildlife-filled crater, is a 8,300 square kilometer part of Tanzania’s Serengeti.
The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has set the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority very tight goals which must be met if Ngorongoro is to retain its World Heritage Sites listing.
By Kay Sexton •
April 28, 2009
Around Matabeleland elephants have broken into the crop fields and eaten the crops being grown by villagers. As well as elephant, wild pigs and baboons from Hwange National Park have begun to roam into agricultural land, causing havoc wherever crops are grown.
On a recent trip to India, it finally dawned on me. I love Zimbabwe. Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t say I love the seesaw economy, the shoddy politics, the hypocrisy and the corruption that comes along with the nation. I simply hold an undying love for the place of my birth and its diverse people.
What is it about India that made me realise this, you might ask. Visiting the sacred temples and sampling the aromatic food was breath-taking. And losing myself within the crowds of anonymous people released me from all of the responsibility I have to shoulder in my ‘real’ existence everyday. But ultimately, I could not really turn to any one of those well-meaning people and look at any of them with a twinge of painful familiarity and say, “We’ve come a long way.”
By Dave Harcourt •
March 11, 2009
Mopane worms are critical to nutrition and income generation for most households in those rural areas in Africa where the mopane tree grows. However, climate change and over harvesting of the worms as one of the few income generating opportunities in rural areas are threatening the species’ survival.
Mopane worms are the caterpillar stage of the Emperor Moth, Gonimbrasia belina, which feed almost exclusively on the mopane tree Colophospermum mopane. The mopane worm harvest in South Africa is estimated at $40 million a year, of which approximately 40 percent goes to producers who are primarily poor rural women. In addition to the income generated dried mopane worms can contribute significantly to rural household nutrition mainly through their 53.3 percent dry weight digestible protein content.
By Timothy B. Hurst •
January 10, 2009
Faced with skyrocketing inflation, a tanking economy, and incredible political instability, the government of Zimbabwe is turning to elephant meat in a desperate attempt to feed hungry soldiers.
A senior officer in the Zimbabwe Defence Forces told ZimOnline that Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority struck a deal resulting in the slaughter of elephants to feed soldiers at army barracks across the country. The officer, who remained anonymous, said there were six elephant carcasses delivered to military barracks last week and that the delivery was a welcome relief.
The ZDF has been instrumental in keeping embattled President Robert Mugabe in power, despite his having lost in a general election to the main opposition party of Morgan Tsvangirai in April of 2008. But the economic turmoil in Zimbabwe is putting considerable strain on a government that had little money to effectively govern in the first place.
By Elizabeth Redmond •
December 12, 2007
Add this biomimetic project to the board! Architect, Mick Pierce and engineers at Arup Associates successfully took inspiration from nature when designing the heating and cooling system of the Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, the country’s largest office and shopping complex. Where did they get this inspiration? African Termites!
If you’ve ever seen a termite mound you should still be impressed by these built by African termites in Zimbabwe. The termites build mounds reaching multiple feet in order to farm a fungus that feeds them. The finicky fungus must live at exactly 87 degrees F. While temperatures outside the mound walls vary by about 70 degrees F, they had a problem to solve. “The termites achieve this remarkable feat by constantly opening and closing a series of heating and cooling vents throughout the mound over the course of the day. With a system of carefully adjusted convection currents, air is sucked in at the lower part of the mound, down into enclosures with muddy walls, and up through a channel to the peak of the termite mound. The industrious termites constantly dig new vents and plug up old ones in order to regulate the temperature,” describes Abigail of Inhabitat.
