Africa Geographic September 2003 [antikvár]

Editorial volume n numbers SEPTEMB ER 200 3IThe opportunity to reinforce, in the strongest terms, the global importance of conservation areas is now, here in Africa was asked on a recent radio interview for my mostmemorable wildlife moments. I'm not sure why, but . one memory that came surging to the fore was not of wild dogs and their pups, nor of lions making a kill, but of being halfway up Table Mountain and hearing, out of the silence, a muted thmmming on the air. Turning, I saw a pair of black eagles gliding past, no more than a few metres from my head. They banked and seemed to hang in the air as they looked at me. Then, with haughty indifference, they dipped their wings and glided swiftly away.Eagles in all their shapes and forms are magnificent creatures and 'up close' experiences of them areunforgettable. We can't promise you these in reality, but we can introduce you, if only vicariously, to the 'big five' of the African skies, so I hope you enjoy Andrew Jenkins' feature (page 48) and the superb photography that accompanies it. Eagles, too, are particularly appropriate to this issue as, almost by definition, they need vast areas of natural terrain to thrive. These regal icons of our skies are a litmus test of the biological health of the land, for without wilderness - or at least something approximating it - they become scarce and disappear. And with so much land already transformed and degraded through human activity, the importance of conservation areas, especially national parks, cannot be overstated.The opportunity to reinforce this priority in the strongest terms is now, here in Africa. For this month South Africa hosts the lUCN's Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban. It is the first time that the congress venue has been on African soil and the theme 'Benefits beyond Boundaries' (page 12) appropriately highlights the realisation that conservation areas worldwide cannot survive as pockets of nature protection in isolation from the people who surround them. Internationally, conservation thinking and application is undergoing transformation and nowhere more so than in South Africa, where the management of fundamental change provides experience on which the whole world can draw.Nelson Mandela, patron of the congress, puts it with characteristic to-the-point candour: 'To treasure and retain the rich biodiversity of Africa we must ensure that national parks are transformed we need to break with traditional thinking, to catalyse a new vision and to join hands in new partnerships.'It was the recognition of this that spurred Hector Magome, head of conservation at South African National Parks, to motivate and commission the publication of a book (page 44) not only to commemorate the congress in Durban, but also to provide a lasting reminder of the astonishing wealth of biodiversity here at the southern tip of the continent and for which we are the custodians. In support, and alongside features that provide glimpses of parks in the DRC and Uganda, we decided to give much of this issue over to our own tribute to South Africa's proud network of 20 national parks (page 28).