Showing 41 to 45 of 103 blog articles.
The Unsustainable Underbelly of Ski Resorts by George Kingston

George Kingston is an all-out outdoor person. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.S. in Sustainability Science & Practices from Stanford University. His training has motivated him to advocate for greater sustainability and accessibility within outdoor activities. These days, George is working as an actor and screenwriter to depict our relationships with the natural world.

We never thought about this and here at Mojostreaming, we thank George for educating us! 

Please read:  https://www.stories.requipper.com/post/the-unsustainable-underbelly-of-ski-resorts?fbclid=IwAR2KDi-ES5pbgycFo0qgM05P1VEs_gPpC26ImMfiKGNtnQJ7wN-wUjDZxPA

We would like to hear from you. Do you have any other suggestions on what other changes can be made?

  2 years ago
The Tribe Endangered No. 5 The Life of Brian

Not that Brian
The one who lived next door
And was mistaken for, the Messiah 
Our Brian is a Pongo
Similar to humans in many ways
Who had the misfortune
Of living next to human food production 
He was orphaned, forsaken
Lets switch to his story
‘The Brian of Life’
Little Man of the too little forest
Clinging to his kind's name
Swinging as he is wont to do
Tarzan-like from tree to tree
Living in the treetops, born free
But as with all these stories
Sagas of the Tribe Endangered
Something has gone wrong
Or he wouldn’t be invited 
To join this exclusive Tribe
Instinctively non-extinctive
But heading and helped along that way
By his catastrophe creating cousin
The Man Who Felled The Earth
Not just one, the species
The hungry collective
Insatiable appetites for sweet oily ‘food’
The treat in the palm of their hand
Oiled by the Palm grown on the land
Brian’s only home - homeland 
Brian’s trees must be cleared away
For neat and orderly rows of production
Nothing can be grown in the chaos
Of the jungle, just oversized weeds
Choking the productive fields and hills
In the big scheme of human snacking
In one fell swoop Brian fell afoul
His home was felled with one hand
Taking his mother with it, down
But another hand, the helping kind
Lifted him out to safety and sanctuary
His life was saved but complicated
What’s a guy got to do
To catch a break!
It started well, a kind female adopted him
And in the love and company of his kind
He grew, and so did the Manhood of his Forest
In no time he would be searching for a mate
Kind Rosa raised him for some two years
From three to five years old
Showed him the jungle ropes
So to speak
But after she became a mother
Left to roam, leaving Brian alone
So he struck out on his own
And struck out when confronted 
By the dominant male of the territory 
Stood his tree bravely, didn’t back down
Narrowly avoiding being banged up by Bangkal
But his carers thought it prudent
To take their Orang student of forest life
To a different patch of forest
Strike two!
This time Brian maybe didn’t follow jungle lore
Might have stood up like before
But took a savage beating 
You don’t call the local big guy Yokel
It’s Yoko, appellation ’Sir’
Battered, injured and bleeding
He was brought back in needing
Time out for treatment and healing
And processing his harsh lessons
Don’t venture into a dominant male’s range
Too cocky and haughty
Don’t fracas with him
Don’t even look sideways at his mates
Don’t talk back, but fallback
Find your own range
And therein lies his dilemma 
Still critically endangered
Young Man of the Trees
As the trees are chainsawed down
Range options diminishing
Homeland dwindling 
Life can be so harsh
For Brian of Life

Thanks to the kind hands
And watchful eyes
Of the Orangutan Foundation
His still has a sanctuary
A small patch to patrol
To live the life of Brian
Help the helping hands
To hold him dear
And keep him here

A. E. Lovell 

ae4e.me/blog

  2 years ago
LOZIBA! THAKA VALLEY.. BLACK RHINO REWILDING

Right in the heart of Zululand Northern Natal, is a place of breath-taking outstanding natural beauty, where an ambitious project is taking shape to rewild the area and create a conservancy. The conservancy will include resident elephants, communities and private game reserves. Ultimately it will offer a haven for the critically endangered Black Rhino.
In 2018 Thaka Valley rural farmers and Mawana Reserve reached out for assistance with human elephant conflict. A small team led by Grant Fowlds of Project Rhino spent 6 hours searching for the elephants by helicopter, luckily the elephants had moved on. Grant began surveying this valley and concluded that establishing a conservancy here would be a successful partnership for the communities, the animals, and the landowners.
This is truly a project that needs to succeed and cannot be written in a short story…
Consisting of 37 various reserves/farms the valley targeted is around 100,000 hectares of which Loziba could encompass 20,000 hectares in phase one and 40,000 hectares or more in staggered inclusions and be part of the Thaka Valley Communal Wild Conservancy (CWC). The area is lush with a wide variety of flora and fauna, large koppies and majestic flat-topped mountains. Endless grassland plains are supplied with abundant water flowing from two rivers, and various waterfalls. Further down the Thaka Valley there are eternal hot water springs and pools of luscious green mineral mud. It is truly a spectacular wonder.
According to local folklore this was the bathing area of King Shaka the legendary Zulu King.
The mighty Black Umfolozi winds itself through the valley and fills it with life, some parts wild and bubbling, others narrow and calm. The Hlonyani River crosses through and has impressive breathtaking areas of wide flat rocks on different levels, creating a bounty of pools and natural water features.
Culturally the Valley is rich with history. Many small communities lie dotted around the Koppies in the same areas of their ancestors. Situated high up on the slopes and tops, this enabled communities to see enemies approaching and sight herds of game. Today they live and farm corps such as mielies here. The impressive flat topped mountain known as Isihlalo Kashaka is said to have been the place King Shaka surveyed his kingdom from.
35 elephants live here and it is their home, unfortunately much of the fencing is broken, so the elephants are roaming out of the area and communities conflict with them. In a combined effort, 5 of these elephants where collared to enable them to be monitored daily via satellite. Tragically two years ago, during an attempt to herd a young raiding bull away from the community, Beyers Coetzee lost his life. A memorial to this great man by sculptor Andres Botha sits was erected at the site. He was a huge part of Loziba and this project will honour his legacy and love of the wild.
The urgent funding for the first phase of Loziba is vital to the elephants safety by restoring the fences on one of the reserves, which will prevent them from entering the communities crops.
There are over 7000 head of game here which include both brown and spotted hyena, leopards, giraffes, rooikat, servals, zebras, waterbuck, rooi hartebeest, reedbuck, warthog, and an amazing array of snakes including the African python. Baboons and vervets call this their home too. An array of birds including the secretary bird and our vulnerable vulture..
I observed many giraffes and noted the young bulls have more muscular legs, larger ossicones and are thicker set than their Kruger cousins. Their hides are glossy in the sun. While Grant and I drove up one steep path I was entranced by a young bull as he cantered gracefully all the way in front of us before disappearing into the Acacia.
The African Thorn Bush – Acacia - which is the most recognizable and iconic tree of Africa, is bountiful here and certain areas have perfect vegetation for Black Rhino...
On a hike up one of the flat-topped mountains where the team was spread out, I literally collided into a large herd of zebra who raced away up a huge grass escarpment that swept up towards the sky in a large spoon shape. From the other side it would have been one of the flat top mountains we had driven around on a previous day and gazed up at the sheer scale of the cliff. Now here we were on the wide flat plain at the top. This left me breathless and I will never forget crossing the flat yellow veld grass and gazing over the cliffs at the incredible vast plains below.
It was here that I looked up and right there in the sky for a moment - a cloud formation - a Rhino. See my photo of the cloud. Thaka Valley once was the home of the Black Rhino. Their spirit is strong here and tangible in the land that bore them.
It is vital for the Black Rhino to bring them back here.
The closest natural historic range where these iconic critically endangered animals live is the Hluluwe Umfolozi Park.
This valley was also the historic hunting grounds of the Zulu Kingdom, and perhaps all these elements meeting here is why they chose this place. It is a whole eco system. A world on its own. A truly African Eden.
Many visionary minds have mapped and researched here for this project. Thousands of hours of planning, building relationships with reserve owners and communities. Time has been invested in the education of the community and showing them how they can benefit from the conservation of endangered species.
A tree planting project is also already employing 8 people.
Loziba ,as its planned will be a gamechanger for the black rhino and will include all the “Big 5”. A first phase size of 10, 000 hectares will be the core sanctuary area for endangered species, the black rhino, white rhino, elephant, giraffe and Lion. In the next phase it hopes to reach 33,000 to 40,000 hectares. Adding to this will be areas allocated for various luxurious lodges, budget lodges, and could include regeneration of the incredible Thangami Spa where the hot springs are eternal even during drought. The whole Thaka Valley is an eco-tourists dream, with endless mountain biking, hiking, game viewing and wild camping. Rafting and river walking on parts of the Black Umfolozi are in my sights.
This Short Story…
We had large bonfires at night, normally Sundowners with a fire on a Koppie to see the red African sun, as it set over the Mawana Mountain, and then back to our lodge, where we sat around the fire, talking and laughing, surrounded by the barking of Hyena, and a galaxy of stars…
We had some serious driving testing skills and glad to say all vehicles where undamaged and no one was injured!
We ate delicious Puto Pap (wonderful local African meal made from maize enjoyed across all our cultures) and meat braaied by Kallie..
As a gesture to kickstart investment many thanks go to Mr John Charter of Human Elephant Foundation, the recently formed US based Truwild and three philanthropists who purchased farm Zoekmij.
Soon to be introduced will be a donation effort where you can “own” your piece of Loziba.
Grant Fowlds of Loziba and Project Rhino, James Arnott of CWC Africa and of Loziba, David White CEO of DRG Outsourcing, John Charter of Human Elephant Foundation and myself were hosted by Karel “Kallie" De Walt of Mawana.
Please join us to rewild the land here. The time is crucial to our endangered species.
Spread the word and buy that hectare to help Save the Rhino.
See Loziba website for more information https://www.loziba.com
CWC Africa Projects https://cwcafricaprojects.com
See the MOJO Streaming interview here.
Please feel free to comment here and share or message me directly.
LONG LIVE LOZIBA!
*Reference words
Koppie: An Afrikaans word for a small hill rising from the veld.
Veld: Afrikaans word for field
Meilie: Afrikaans word for corn

  2 years ago
INDIVIDUAL INVOLVEMENT

On my today’s thoughts i will talking  about Africa in relation to conservation. Well In Africa, the conservation story has long been told from an external perspective, the perspective of science, and the West. The African people , cultures, heritage, knowledge and aspirations have only been a small part of the conversation, an afterthought. Together with mojo live streaming, We need to change this, and reclaim our  role in the fight to save the planet and the future of Animals and humans.

Africa’s human population is expected to double by 2050.

That would be approximately 2.5 billion people, meaning more than a quarter of the world’s people will be in Africa. And almost 70 percent of Africans will be under the age of 40. This will undoubtedly add to the momentum of the continent’s development.


But on the other hand, nature is already being destroyed at unprecedented rates in Africa in the name of development. The way we produce and consume food and energy, coupled with the blatant disregard for the environment entrenched in our economic system, have already brought the natural world of the continent to a breaking point. A rapid increase in population is likely to speed up this destruction.

However, together with mojo live streaming, it is still possible to build a future in which the continent’s biodiversity is protected, under which its people are fed, industries are running, and its economies are sustainable and prosperous.


To achieve this, we need to make conservation a primary concern for all Africans and the rest of the world And perhaps more importantly,

we (AFRICANS) need to realise that we are not the only Africans. For me it would be arrogant for us to think that other species sharing this continent with us should pay the price for our development. 

Mountain Gorillas,Giraffes, for example, are only found in Africa, and therefore, they are as African as we are. They have a right to exist as much as we do. And their survival is tied to our survival.

To be continued in my next episode…… 

  2 years ago
Chake Conservancy Masai Mara.

Chake rangers ready for the bush patrols.
Who is ready to support them stay in the bush for snare removal, poachers tracking?
We need more tents, sleeping bags and boots.
Due to a big drought in Kenya which has been experienced for the last few months ago, people been going without food due to scarcity of food, vegetables and water. Poachers has moved to the game reserves and in animal dispersal areas to set snare traps for bush meat. We as Chake conservancy has planned a two weeks patrol in the bush to look for poachers and snare removal. We're requesting animal lovers and those interested in supporting the wildlife protection to join us and help such facilitations.
We're checking out if all things are in order. chakeconservancy.org
Checking our supplies.

  2 years ago