非洲自然保护：犀牛角、爪子和底线

Horns, claws and the bottom line

Governments have mostly failed to protect Africa’s wildlife. But other models— involving hunters, rich conservationists and local farmers—are showing promise

非洲野生动物保护，政府几乎前功尽弃；然而其他模式则前程似锦，如狩猎模式、借助富裕的自然保护主义者的力量、以及依靠当地农民努力等。

Sep 2nd 2010 | goma, LAIKIPIA, selinda and TSWALU

ONLY eight specimens of the northern white rhino are left alive on the planet, and they are all in captivity. The handful that remained in the wild in Congo have not been seen in years; they are almost certainly dead. A final effort to save the sub-species earlier this year saw four northern whites shipped from a zoo in the Czech Republic to the Ol Pejeta conservancy on the Laikipia reserve in Kenya.

地球现在仅存八只北白犀牛，这八只犀牛全部处于保护中。刚果原来还有几只野生白犀牛，但也好几年没有看到过了，几乎就可以断定这些野生犀牛都死了。今年年初，捷克一动物园将四头北白犀牛送到肯尼亚莱基皮亚自然保护区（Laikipia reserve）的奥佩亚塔野生动物保护区（Ol Pejeta conservancy），这是挽救该亚物种的最后努力了。

The senses of these rhinos had been dulled by the cold concrete of Slav zoo life. In Africa, by contrast, they found themselves under open skies, with wild browse, the trees filled with weaver birds, the red soil interrupted with termite mounds and the land sweeping away to the icy peak of Mount Kenya. In such an environment the hearing of the rhinos soon sharpened and their agility returned. “They became wild again,” says Berry White, a rhino expert who oversaw the move.

在捷克动物冰冷的钢筋之中，这些犀牛的感觉都迟钝了。然而，到了非洲，他们就置身于开阔的天空之下，广阔的视野之中，树上栖满织巢鸟，红土地上星星点点散着白蚁丘，风把沙土一并扫到寒冷刺骨的肯尼亚山顶。在这样的环境中，犀牛的听力很快提高，其野性也回归了。监督此次运送的犀牛教授巴利·怀特说，“他们又成为野生动物了。”

Yet the chances of saving the northern white are remote. Short of re-engineering it from frozen samples in the future, the best hope of preserving its genetic stock is to breed the last individuals with southern whites. That means the end of a creature that has probably been distinct for a million years. Indeed, the decline of the African rhino—which includes the black rhino as well as the white—is among the sorriest and most instructive tales in conservation.

然而，拯救北白犀牛的几率还是非常低。除了未来利用冷冻标本重塑之外，要想保存白犀牛的基因库，让最后这几头北方亚种和南方亚种交配是最大的希望。但这也意味着，保持了约百万年独特性的北方亚种可能就此终结。必须承认的是，非洲犀牛数量减少，不仅仅是白犀牛，还包括黑犀牛数量的减少，都是自然保护史上最遗憾，也是最有启示作用的案例。

When President Theodore Roosevelt came to east Africa in 1909 an estimated 300,000 rhinos roamed the region. Now there are perhaps 2,000. The problem is not that the rhinos are half-blind, lumbering, and often infertile—which they are. It is economic: the ornamental and medicinal value of rhino horn makes it hard for the rhino to pay its way alive.

1909年，罗斯福总统访问东非，当时该地区还约有30万头犀牛。时至今日，犀牛的数量只剩下约2000头。犀牛视力极差、行动缓慢、生育率往往低，这是事实，但这些都不是问题所在。这是经济问题：犀牛角具有装饰及药用价值，这是犀牛难以靠自己活下去的原因。

The value of rhino horn in China, ounce for ounce, is higher than gold. It is likely to keep rising with an ageing population; in Chinese medicine the horn is ground into a powder to alleviate fevers and pain, particularly for terminally ill patients. With more Chinese contractors working in Africa, the risk of poaching seems to have increased. Market forces are insistent. Even at Ol Pejeta, which is protected by electric fences and armed guards, the horns of the four northern whites have had to be filed down to limit the risk of poaching. An inside job at one private ranch in Kenya last Christmas saw a rhino killed and its horns hacked off. The Kenya Wildlife Service later tracked down the culprits and recovered the horns, along with $8,500 in cash the poachers had been paid, with the balance payable on delivery. Sold in 10g increments in Guangzhou, the seven kilos of horn would be worth $250,000.

中国一盎司犀牛角的价值超过同等重量的黄金，随着中国老龄化加剧，其价值还可能继续上涨；中医将犀牛角磨成粉解热止痛，对慢性病患者尤为有用。如今在非工作的中国工人越来越多，偷猎的风险也随之加大。市场力很顽强。即使是在奥佩亚塔重重电篱笆和武装警备的保护下，这四头北白犀牛的角还是必须削掉以绝后患。去年圣诞节，肯尼亚一家大牧场内贼作案，此案一头犀牛遭到猎杀，犀牛角被砍了下来。肯尼亚野生动物保护局（Kenya Wildlife Service）后找到犯人，除追缴到犀牛角外，保护局还找到犯人收到的8500美金赃款，余款则等到货到时一并付清。以10克为单位在广州出售，这7克犀牛角将价格高达25万美元。

The story of the rhino is an extreme example of a wider decline of biodiversity in Africa. A recent study by the London Zoological Society and the United Nations Environment programme claims that the population of big animals in African national parks (excluding elephant and rhino) has dropped by 59% since 1970. Poaching for meat is only part of the problem; few people eat zebra. The real pressure is from the expansion of human settlements.

犀牛只是非洲生态多样性减少的一个极端例子。伦敦动物协会和联合国环境署近期一份演讲指出，自1970年以来，非洲国家公园的大型动物（不包括象和犀牛）数量减少了59%。肉用只是问题的一小部分，毕竟几乎没人会吃斑马。真正的压力来自人类居留地不断扩大。

Population density in Africa is not high and the continent is a negligible polluter, producing less than one tonne of CO2 per head against 20 tonnes in the United States. But because most Africans depend on what they inefficiently grow or gather, and because there is little investment in sustainable farming and forestry, ecosystems suffer. According to the Global Footprint Network, a San Francisco think-tank which seeks to quantify demand and supply of natural resources, the “biocapacity” of Africa per person has fallen by half since 1960 (see chart).

非洲人口密度不高，其造成的污染也非常小，非洲人均二氧化碳排放量还不到一吨，而美国该数值高达20吨。然而，非洲生态系统还是遭到了破坏，这一方面是由于多数非洲人只是粗放地种植或采集食物，另一方面是因为对可持续农林业投资少。圣弗朗西斯科智库环球足迹网络（Global Footprint Network）力求确定自然资源供需量，它表示，1960年以来，非洲人均生物供给力（biocapacity）降低了一半。

As smallholdings, or shambas, are subdivided, children who have inherited nothing move to new areas. More wire is rolled out, more poison set down, scrub and trees burned and water sources appropriated. This steady and silent loss of habitat—shambafication, if you will—transforms ecosystems into a monoculture fit for humans. It also fragments range, limiting the ability of wild animals to hunt, forage or migrate. Shambafication has been particularly hard on the big cats, which need a lot of space. Some advocates reckon that the number of lions in Africa has dropped from 400,000 in 1955 to 20,000 today. “If nothing changes, there will be no lions left on the planet by 2020,” asserts Dereck Joubert, who heads National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative.

而萨姆巴（shamba），即当地的小农户，土地本来就少，因此没有继承土地的孩子就会搬到其他地方。铺设的电缆越来越多，投放的有毒物质不断增加，灌木、树林被付之一炬，水资源被挪为己用。动物的栖息地在悄然中不断流失，生态系统就是在这个过程—如果你听了不舒服的话，我们也可以把它称为“沙姆巴化”过程—中转变成适合人类生存的单系统，萨姆巴化对大型猫科动物来说尤为残酷，因为这些动物需要大量空间。一些动物保护者表示，从1955年到现在，非洲狮子数量从40万头下降到2万头。“如果事情没有改变，到2020年地球上将没有狮子。”《国家地理》的大型猫科动物计划负责人德瑞克·朱伯特（Dereck Joubert）如此说到。

That may be an overstatement. Ol Pejeta had no lions until two found their way under a culvert in 1985 to start a new pride. Now there are 55 lions; 35 more have been shot over the years to control the population. “It repopulated itself,” says Richard Vigne, the head of the conservancy. Yet no matter how fecund nature is, humans are more so. With Africa’s human population set to double to 2 billion by 2050, new thinking is needed to preserve the continent’s remaining biodiversity.

这可能有点言过其实了。1985年，两只狮子出现在奥佩亚塔的一个涵洞中，从那时起，该保护区才多了这个新种群。现在保护区内共有55头狮子，为了控制数量，过去几年共打死35头。保护区负责人理查德·瓦因说：“它们会重新繁衍出来。”然而，不管自然界繁衍的速度有多快，都比不上人口增长速度。预计2050年非洲人口将会翻一番，达到20亿人，要想保住这块大陆余下的生态多样性，人们需要新思路。

The first step is plain economics: a recognition that the wild has to pay its way. Take the Koyiaki ranch on the edge of Kenya’s Masai Mara reserve. The number of Masai huts on the property has increased from 44 to 2,735 since 1950. More Masai mean more cattle, carving up the vegetation and polluting the waterholes. But the cows provide the Masai with milk, blood, prestige, and a sense of belonging. The giraffe, by contrast, stands toweringly mute and uncompetitive. Just beyond Koyiaki the commercial wheat farms begin and the giraffe has even less chance of earning its way. The results are lethal: some aerial surveys suggest giraffe numbers around the Mara have fallen by 80% since 1979.

第一步是简单的经济学思维：人们应该认识到，野生动物需为自己生存买单。以肯尼亚马赛马拉动物保护区（Masai Mara reserve）边缘的蔲伊阿卡农场（Koyiaki ranch）为例，1950年此处仅有44间小屋，现在小屋已增加到2735间了。马赛人越多，牛群就越多，分食植物、污染水源。但牛群能给马赛人提供牛奶、牛血、威信和归属感。相对的，长颈鹿则太沉默而与世无争。蔲伊阿卡农场远处已兴建商业小麦农场，这样长颈鹿给生存的几率又减少了。结果是致命的：一些航空勘测发现，自1979以来，马拉的长颈鹿数量已下降了80%。

The hunting debate

狩猎之争

Some environmental economists contend that the failure of conservationists to take local cost-benefit analysis seriously has accelerated the loss of biodiversity. They feel strongly that the private sector should step in. “Private management structures are a lot more effective in capturing the economic value of biodiversity,” says Wolf Krug, a German environmental economist. He also criticises some animal-rights groups for campaigning against hunting; that tactic, he says, devalues the animals they are trying to save. When pressed, and in private, a surprising number of conservationists say they would like to see limited hunting to provide an income stream for local communities.

一些环境经济学家认为，自然保护主义者没有好好对待当地的成本效益分析，这加速了生态多样性减少的速度。他们强烈认为私人部门应当涉足该领域。德国环境经济学家沃尔夫·库克（Wolf Krug）表示：“私人管理模式在抓住生态多样性的经济价值上有效率得多。”就若干动物权利组织抗议狩猎一事，他也提出了批评。他说，“这些人试图挽救动物，但这种策略反而减少了动物的价值。”经过一番劝说或者私下里，也有令人惊讶的大批自然保护主义者表示，他们认同适度狩猎，以为当地提供收入来源。

Some countries have had success with hunting. Namibia, for instance, has increased the absolute numbers of its game animals by allowing oryx, hartebeest, kudu and springbok to be hunted and harvested as high-protein low-fat meat for regional supermarkets. Peter Lindsey of the University of Pretoria argues that animal-rights groups are denying Africa the wise use of its elephants—whose ivory is a resource, in his view, because elephants’ fertility suggests it could be harvested sustainably. He reckons trophy-hunting in Africa is worth $200m a year: a potential bonanza for local communities.

一些国家在狩猎方面也获得了成功，比如纳米比亚，该国允许狩猎大羚羊、麋鹿、弯角羚和跳羚，并作为高蛋低脂的肉类食用在超市出售，而这些猎物的绝对数量恰恰增加了。比勒陀利亚大学（University of Pretoria）教授彼得·林赛（Peter Lindsey）就认为，这些动物权利组织剥夺了非洲明智利用大象的机会，象牙是一大资源，在他看来，象群的繁殖能力表明，象可以可持续地生存下去。他提到，每年在非洲狩猎就可创造20亿美元的价值：这是当地潜在的生财之路。

But animal-rights organisations like the Born Free Foundation object to hunting on ethical grounds. They argue that many hunters who start with gazelles end up going after predators, often illegally. And the money does not reach the locals: much of what is generated is taken offshore. The debate is bitter. The pro-hunting lobby complains that animal-righters have a lot of money to splash around, and are even writing legislation in several African countries in return for donations to government wildlife services. Hunters say their activities complement tourism: their clients are happy to stay in shabby, dusty places as long as they get their kill. But the bloodthirsty history of big-game hunting in Africa means that hunters still need to show that they have an economic value.

然而，生而自由基金会（Born Free Foundation）等动物权利组织则从伦理角度驳斥狩猎行为。他们认为，不少猎人刚开始只是打打瞪羚，最后却捕猎食肉动物，而这些行为又往往是非法而为。而且这些钱往往也不会到当地人手中：创造的价值往往为离岸国家所得。辩论非常辛辣。支持狩猎的一方抱怨，动物权力的维权志士有能力四处砸钱，他们对一些非洲的政府野生动物服务给予大量捐款，因此一些非洲国家甚至开始制定相关动物权利法案。猎人说，他们的活动可以促进旅游业发展：只要能狩猎，他们的客户甘心呆在破烂、肮脏的地方。但非洲过去狩猎大型动物的血腥历史意味着猎人必须证明它们真有经济价值。

Hunting aside, there is broad agreement on how to improve conservation in Africa. A first step is to upgrade the continent’s national parks. Outside South Africa, Namibia and Botswana these have an indifferent record, and tend to mirror the competence of their governments. There is, all agree, no chance of creating new ones; the costs are too high. But where a government has failed there may be a case for privatising park services such as accounting, tourism and even security. Indeed, it may be better for the entire management to be handed over to outsiders.

撇开狩猎不谈，就如何提高非洲保护区一事则有广泛的共识。首先，必须要优化升级非洲的国家公园。除了南非、纳米比亚、博茨瓦纳，其他国家在这方面表现漠然，而这也往往能够反映出该国政府是否称职。然而，各方面取得的共识是建立新政府是不可能，这样做的代价太高。但是，政府失利的地方却可能是公园服务私营化的契机，例如会计、旅游，甚至证券化的契机。实际上，把整个管理工作都交给外人来做可能是更好的做法。

The African Parks Network, a South African charity, runs national parks for several African countries. Its biggest contract is for the 1.2m-hectare Garamba National Park in Congo. The head of African Parks, Peter Fearnhead, cites Malawi as the charity’s biggest success so far. In six years a 70,000-hectare park has been restocked with animals and a tourism industry built up. For many countries the renewal of their national parks is probably the best first step in protecting biodiversity. Only 2% of big game in Uganda lives outside the country’s underfunded national parks. If Uganda were to invest in them, offering concessions to safari operators and even allowing some property development nearby, it could expand the protected area and boost earnings at the same time.

南非慈善机构非洲公园网（African Parks Network）为数个非洲国家管理国家公园。其手头最大的一份合同是管理刚果120万公顷的加兰巴国家公园（Garamba National Park）。组织负责人彼得·费恩黑德则认为，迄今为止，马维拉的国家公园是该组织最成功的案例。组织在这个70万公顷的公园中花了六年的时间，期间动物数量增加，旅游业得到开发。对很多国家来说，要想保护生态多样性，第一步可能最好是复兴其国家公园。乌干达国家公园资金不足，而生活在公园外的大型猎物仅占总数的2%。如果乌干达愿意在这方面投资，对游猎让步，甚至允许在公园附近开发房产，那么该国就能扩大保护区域的同时，增加收入。

Private conservancies are an even bigger opportunity. Some of these are owned by individuals or conservation groups; Ol Pejeta is a not-for-profit company with shareholders. Others are community initiatives, where local people receive an income for promoting conservation. Conservancies can earn money directly from tourism, hunting, farming, forestry and exploiting plants for medicines and cosmetics. They can also be paid for preserving a watershed, stopping flooding and runoff, or for offsetting carbon emissions. But the biggest potential is probably in “non-use” earnings, where large numbers of people around the world pay small sums to buy shares in African biodiversity not to use it, but simply because they believe its protection is important to the planet. The trick is to create a non-use market that works.

私人保护区则是更大的机遇。一些保护区就为私人或环保组织所有。奥佩亚塔就是非盈利股份公司。此外还有一些社区主导的保护区：地方居民促进自然保护，自己也能相应获得一笔钱。保护区只可以直接从旅游、狩猎、农业、林业、利用药用和化妆品用植物中盈利。此外，地方居民也能通过保护集水区、防止洪水、溢流、碳排放抵减赚钱。但潜力最大的恐怕应该是从“不使用”（non-use）盈利，所谓“不使用”，就是世界各地大量人没人支付一小笔金钱，以购得非洲生物多样性，但不付诸使用，这种行为的理由仅仅是因为他们相信这样的保护措施对地球非常重要。关键就是要创造一个可行的“不使用”市场。

A spectacular example of individual generosity is Tswalu, South Africa’s largest private conservancy. It stands high in the Kalahari desert, towards Botswana. It is a harsh and beautiful landscape, painted in shades of yellow and grey. Temperatures drop below freezing in the winter. Water is scarce. Some conservationists might sniff at Tswalu’s tarmac airstrip and the power lines running across the property. But that misses the larger land reclamation: 43 farms aggregated into a 100,000-hectare block and turned over to wildlife preservation. “Our aim is to restore the Kalahari to itself,” says Tswalu’s owner, Nicky Oppenheimer, who also serves as chairman of De Beers, a diamond firm. Tswalu’s head of wildlife, Gus Van Dyk, says that the farmers had killed almost everything that had teeth or claws. Rehabilitation is a long-term project, he says, but eagles are returning and mountain zebras are back.

说到个人对此的慷慨行为，茨瓦卢（Tswalu）真是让人拍案叫绝的一例。茨瓦卢是南非最大的私人动物保护区。他面朝博茨瓦纳，高居卡拉哈里沙漠之上。该地色彩瑰丽、风光旖旎，由各种黄、灰色渲染而成。冬天气温降至冰点以下。水资源稀缺。沥青铺设的飞机跑道、区内架设的电线，恐怕会让一些保护者嗤之以鼻，但这样却忽略了更大范围的土地开发：43个农庄聚合成一个10万公顷的街区，并转变为野生动物保护区。茨瓦卢的老板尼基·奥本海默（Nicky Oppenheimer）同时也是钻石公司戴比尔斯的主席，他说：“我们的目标是让卡拉哈里恢复原貌。”茨瓦卢野生动物负责人古丝·凡·戴克（Gus Van Dyk）说，“几乎所有带獠牙、带爪的动物都被农民杀了。”他说，“恢复原貌是一个长期工程，但鹰已经逐渐回来，山斑马也回归了。”

Mr Oppenheimer admits that the economics of Tswalu do not add up. His family puts in several million dollars a year to balance the books. It is not clear if money earned from the live-capture and sale of oryx, springbok and other animals, supplemented by earnings from a lodge that charges $850 a night, will ever be enough to make it pay. The conservancy must look after local residents as well as roads and equipment. New housing has been built, along with a kindergarten and a clinic. Making a dent in local poverty is important. Mr Van Dyk cautiously says that rates of illiteracy and alcoholism among those living on Tswalu seem to be falling.

奥本海默承认，茨瓦卢入不敷出，其家族每年要支付几百万美元弥补亏损。茨瓦卢是否能通过现场狩猎、出售羚羊、跳羚等动物，以及每晚850美金的旅馆收回成本这还不明确。保护区必须顾及地方居民，同时还要维护道路和其他设置。现在还在兴建新的房子，一所幼儿园和一间诊所。减轻当地的贫苦程度非常重要。凡·戴克谨慎地表示，茨瓦卢居民的文盲率和酗酒率似乎在下降。

Some of the oldest rock art in the world has been found in a remote gully on the reserve. Yet the scale of Tswalu is so huge that nature dominates. “The value of this place is not what we know, but what we don’t know,” says Mr Van Dyk—the ways of the burrowing animals that live there, or the virtues of the desert grasses. Meanwhile, natural processes are returning. Lightning sets fire to dry grass. Lions drive the boks into bigger herds. As invasive species are removed, springs bubble up. This year, a stream ran for the first time in a decade. “If you give it time and space, nature is very forgiving,” says Mr Van Dyk.

保护区深处的溪谷中有一些世界上最古老的岩画，然而，茨瓦卢规模毕竟太大，最主要的还是自然界。“这个地方的价值不在于已知的，而在于未知的。”凡·戴克表示，——“即底栖生物的生存方式，或者沙漠之物的价值等。”同时，自然现象也在不断复苏。干燥的草地因闪电燃烧。羚羊因狮群威胁数量增加。清除了入侵生物后，泉水汩汩涌出。20年来，保护区内今年头一次出现溪流。“如果你能给予时间和空间，自然界也不会记恨。”凡·戴克说到。

Africa does not have enough time or enough Oppenheimers to pull off many Tswalus. According to Sam Lawson of the Nature Conservancy, a Washington-based charity, perhaps only 20,000 people in the world are rich enough to underwrite a conservancy of Tswalu’s ambition, and few of them are interested in the African bush. “There is not enough philanthropy,” emphasises Mr Lawson. “You need to look at what is economically sustainable.”

但非洲没有那么多时间，没有那么多奥本海默家族来建成大量茨瓦卢。总部设于华盛顿的慈善机构大自然保护协会（Nature Conservancy）的山姆·劳森（Sam Lawson）表示，有能力资助茨瓦卢这样目标的保护区的富人，世界上恐怕只有2万个，而且，对非洲灌木感兴趣的又寥寥无几。劳森强调：“博爱的人没那么多，要做的应该是寻求经济可持续的方法。”

Involving the locals

让当地居民参与进来

Just as the stately homes of Europe were forced to open up to the public, so conservancies in Africa have to open up to their neighbours. “A fortress mentality is clearly unacceptable in countries with high levels of poverty,” says Chris Thouless, a zoologist based in Kenya.

欧洲庄园必须要对公众开放，同样的，非洲的保护区也应该对近邻开放。主要活动范围在肯尼亚的动物学家克里斯·索勒斯（Chris Thouless）认为：“在贫困率极高的国家还保持闭关心态明显是不可行的。”

This means that a conservancy has to earn more for locals than it would if they exploited the land. Because conservation in Africa has to compete at market prices and provide for locals, it will probably be forced into marginal areas which cannot be farmed. So the future for private conservation in Africa will increasingly be in drier, remoter areas. Even there, it will be expensive. Costs can be offset by selling a luxury home to jet-setters who will also receive a seat on the board of the conservancy. Or an endowment might be raised by a conservation organisation to pay for running costs. Either way, overseas capital will be needed—which could create political problems.

这就是说，当地居民从保护区挣得的利润应当比他们利用土地来得多才行。由于非洲的保护区要竞争市场价格，保护区很可能只能设在不能农耕的边缘地带。因此，非洲私人保护区的未来很可能会越来越往干燥、偏远的地方推移。即使如此，花费依然庞大。向四处旅游的富翁出售豪宅，且一并提供保护区董事会的席位给他，这样成本可能降低。或者自然保护团体也可以募捐运营成本。但不管是哪一种方法都需要国外资本，而这就可能带来政治问题。

Community initiatives may be cheaper and more politically durable. South Africa recently decided to give farmers the right to own wild animals on their land. This allows them to sell on the animals and their offspring, admit paying tourists and, in the case of rhinos, enjoy tax breaks. The result has been a dramatic rise in the number of southern white rhinos in the country: from 20 individuals in 1900, there are 16,000 now. Namibia already has 6.5m hectares of land under community projects, supporting 230,000 people. It has increased the amount of wildlife on community and private land by 60% since the 1960s.

社区方针可能更便宜，在政治上也更持久。南非近期决定，在自己土地上出现的野生动物农民可据为己有。他们就能出售该动物及其后代、供游人付费观赏，如果出现的是犀牛的话，就可以享受减税优惠。结果就是，该国的南白犀牛数量剧增：1900年，南白犀牛仅有20头，现在数量已经增长到16000头了。纳米比亚现在有650万公顷的土地在实施社区方针，23万人因此获益。自上世纪60年代以来，社区和私人土地上的野生动物数量增加了60%。

The situation is more complicated in a country like Kenya, where the pressure on land is higher. Ian Craig helped set up Lewa, a 23,000-hectare conservancy not far from Ol Pejeta. Now that a $16m buyout by the Nature Conservancy seems to have secured Lewa’s immediate future, Mr Craig has turned his attention to saving nature in the vast expanses of northern Kenya through working with communities. He maintains that “small and local” is better than “big and foreign”. His Northern Rangelands Trust, for example, is setting up a slaughterhouse so that, in return for conservation work—protecting wildlife, planting trees, keeping water holes for wild animals—Boran, Rendille and Samburu tribesmen can fatten and slaughter their cattle and sell the beef at premium prices to the market in Nairobi. The test of Mr Craig’s model will come later this year, when black rhinos will be introduced into the wild in northern Kenya without fences or armed guards, relying simply on the local community for protection.

在像肯尼亚的国家里，问题就更复杂了，这些地方土地压力更大。伊安·克雷格（Ian Craig）是乐瓦（Lewa）保护区的一名创始人，这个保护区占地23000公顷，与奥佩亚塔距离不远。大自然保护协会以1600万的价格购入乐瓦，暂时保住了保护区，既此，克雷格的注意力就转向通过和当地社区合作，保护肯尼亚北部广阔的自然环境。他坚持，“小与地方”比“大与国际”来得好。比如，他的北部农场信托（Northern Rangelands Trust）就成立了一个屠宰场，这样，博兰（Boran）、朗迪耶（Rendille）、撒布鲁（Samburu）等部族的人在自然保护—包括保护野生动物、种树、给野生动物留下水坑—的同时饲养、屠宰牛，并以优惠价格将牛肉出售到内罗毕。克雷格模式将在今年年末迎来挑战，届时，黑犀牛将被放回肯尼亚北部，不再依靠篱笆或武装警备保护，而全部交由当地社区保护。

Then there is tourism. The debate here is how upmarket the safari business—looking at wildlife, rather than shooting it—should go. “As upmarket as possible,” says Colin Bell, a South African pioneer of luxury safaris. One of Mr Bell’s camps is Selinda, in northern Botswana. Its 125,000 hectares of mopane woodland and waterways are leased from the Botswana government. Security is no problem. Botswana provides its own anti-poaching patrols and the country’s president, Ian Khama, is a partner in the enterprise. The land is flat and soft, the rocks covered in layers of ancient soil. It has one of the highest densities of elephants in the world. The Selinda spillway fills with floodwaters from the Angolan hills once every 20 or 30 years, bringing tilapia, hippos, pelicans, snub-nosed ducks and rafts of water lily which locals eat as a delicacy. It is a special place—at a special price. Selinda costs around $1,400 a night, not including the cost of the small plane that gets you there.

接着就是旅游业。在这方面争论的焦点是非洲的游猎业—指观赏野生动物，但不狩猎—的高端程度。南非奢侈游猎的一名先行者科林·贝尔（Colin Bell）认为，“越高端越好”。赛林达营区是贝尔的产业。营区位于博茨瓦纳北部，营区占地12.5万公顷，营地内的莫便尼林地（mopane woodland）和水道均是向政府租赁而来。安全不是问题。博茨瓦纳政府向营地提供其反偷猎巡逻队，而且，该国总统伊恩·卡马（Ian Khama）也是营地的合伙人。土地非常平整、松软，岩石又被陈年土壤所覆盖。营地也是世界上象群密度最高的地方之一。每隔二、三十年，营地的泄洪道都会充斥着自安哥拉山上倾泻而来的洪水，随之而来的，是罗非鱼、河马、鹈鹕、塌鼻鸭（snub-nosed duck）和大量当地人做成小吃的睡莲。这是个特别的地方——价钱也很特别。营区每晚收费1400美元，这还不包括到达此地搭乘的小飞机的费用。

Mr Bell brushes aside complaints about exclusivity. “The best model for the wilderness is no visitors at all,” he says; if they must come, better to have a high price and low numbers. All the same, his safaris beat hunting: “Hunters get 12 visitors a year, we get 12 visitors a day.” Botswana has been less interested in fostering tourist numbers than in moving from the bargain basement of safaris to the top end but, all the same, tourism revenues have grown from $300m in the 1990s to about $3 billion today. Around 40% of the country is now under some kind of wildlife protection, and Mr Khama wants to push that higher.

而对奢侈游猎排他性的抱怨声，贝尔并不赞同。“对自然界的处女地，最好的模式是完全禁止游客，”他说“但如果非要有游客不可的话，最好就是价高而人少。”基于同样的理由，游猎胜于狩猎：“每年打猎的有12个人，但我们每天都能迎来12个游人。”比起吸引游客，博茨瓦纳更想把游猎业从低端转为高端，上世纪90年代，该国旅游收率仅3亿，如今已达30亿。该国约40%土地都有某些野生动物保护措施，卡马总统还希望能进一步提高该比例。

But the safari business has shown little interest in extending operations to Africa’s jungles or even to Francophone Africa, where wild animals are under more pressure than anywhere else on the continent. In insecure areas such as eastern Congo charities like the Gorilla Organisation, a London-based group, end up doing the hard work. Its 70,000-hectare Walikale community initiative aims to protect 750 gorillas in 80 families. The locals are keen; they have no motive to poach them. Rangers are supposed to collect gorilla stools and send them to Germany for DNA analysis. But the Walikale exists only on paper. Since it was set up in 2001, rebel activity and lack of funds have limited surveys to the most accessible parts of the reserve.

但游猎业似乎无意将业务扩展到非洲丛林，甚至是说法语的非洲国家，但这些地方的野生动物面临的压力恰恰是这块大陆最大的。而像刚果东部等一些不安全的区域里，慈善机构就面临重重困难，如总部设于伦敦的大猩猩组织（Gorilla Organisation）就是一例。组织制定的瓦利卡乐（Walikale）社区计划覆盖7万公顷，计划目标利用80个家庭保护750只大猩猩。当地居民很热情；他们没有任何理由偷猎猩猩。而管理人员则收集大猩猩的粪便，并将其送往德国进行DNA分析。然而，该计划仅停留在理论上。计划是在2001年制定的，然而，由于反叛事件、资金不足，因此调查只能局限在保护区最容易进入的地方。

Groups like Greenpeace question the point of spending limited funds and media coverage to save yet another piece of savannah when the entire Congo basin is threatened by illegal logging. The safari industry argues back that, for decades, it has stimulated interest in Africa. Nevertheless, the bling of that industry gives pause: a tent with Afghan carpets and a deep English bath, not to mention a native guard standing by with a spear, may have more to do with pampering customers than with stewardship of the land.

目前整个刚果盆地都受到非法砍伐威胁，在这种情况下，还要把有限的资金和媒体注意力放到拯救另一块大草原上，这样做究竟有多大的意义，绿色和平等组织也提出了质疑。游猎业反驳，认为在过去几十年间，该行业已经刺激了人们对非洲的兴趣。不过，该行业的做法的确是值得思考：帐篷里铺着阿富汗地毯、装有英国大浴缸，更不用说还有当地人手持长矛在一旁做护卫，这样的做法与其说是在保护土地，倒不如说是只是骄纵顾客罢了。

In the end, though, there is more in play than science. In terms of biodiversity, Mr Thouless admits that Texas could serve as a safer home for rhinos than Ol Pejeta. But there are other considerations. Beauty, for instance. Mr Joubert of the Big Cats Initiative has spent most of his life photographing lions and other beasts in the African bush. “There is a spiritual value to untouched land which cannot be measured,” he maintains. “It belongs to the people who have not yet been born.” If space and silence do have a universal value, wealthy Chinese and Indians, as well as Africans, may eventually contribute to the conservation effort. For now, though, the task is to leave them something to take care of.

然而，最后还是要说，实践比科学要复杂。在生态多样性这个问题上，索勒斯也承认，相比奥佩亚塔，德州还更适合犀牛生存。但此外还有诸多考虑因素，比如说，“美”。大型猫科动物计划（Big Cats Initiative）的茹贝尔大半生都在拍摄狮群和其他生活于非洲灌木里的动物。“这块未被染指的土地存在的精神价值无可估量。”他说，“它属于尚未出生的孩子们。”倘若空间和静谧确实具有普世价值，那么富有的中国人和印度人，以及非洲人，最后都会在自然保护上贡献力量。然而，就目前而言，我们的任务只是给他们留一些可以照料的东西。

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