_Africa: November 2007 Archives

African safari trips are one of the fastest-growing trends in tourism, so IT was interested to hear about an award-winning model in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, where the lodge owners partnered with the Maasai community to repopulate the dwindling wildlife and help stimulate the local economy.

When Anthony Russell, a Kenyan architect and safari tour operator, reached out to local Maasai leader John Lengio about building an eco-lodge in the Shompole region, he proposed a plan that would allow for the community to become partners in the lodge (they now own 11 percent, with the option of buying up to 80 percent of the project at any time). In return for their partnership, Russell asked that the community of over 2,000 locals be responsible for conserving the wildlife. ABC News reports:

They set aside one area just for conservation and used local Maasai men as the rangers. In seven years, the area has seen a huge increase in wildlife; the lion population, in particular, has gone from five to more than 50. The increase in wildlife means more tourists, which means more money for all.

...Last month the U.N. Development Program awarded Shompole Lodge with the   Equator Prize, one of the highest honors in eco-tourism. While there are many eco-friendly luxury lodges in Kenya, the program singled out Shompole for being unique in combining grassroots conservation with business.

On November 23, a team of Brits began the "first ever carbon-negative driving expedition." Andy Pag of London and John Grimshaw of Poole will drive their recycled BioTruck some 4,500 miles from the U.K. across the Sahara to Timbuktu in Mali, West Africa.

The catch? Their truck runs on chocolate fuel.

UK-based Ecotec has "developed a process for converting waste chocolate from a nearby factory into bio-ethanol on an industrial scale," says the BioTruck site. "Previously this waste product was thrown away in landfill sites but now the bio-ethanol can be used to make fuel for petrol cars and in the production of Biodiesel."

We thought "waste chocolate" was an oxymoron, but for now, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt:

In case you wondered, National Geographic is a bit like a college campus. We have a cafeteria, a whole lot of knowledgeable folks milling around, and an ongoing series of events and lectures to keep us learning. And now, for a little while at least, we also have a mascot.

This past week National Geographic unveiled a 110-million-year-old dinosaur, which is currently in residence in our lobby. The 30-foot skeleton of the Nigersaurus taqueti, (which we at IT have dubbed Nigel) is the cause celébre of the new "Extreme Dinosaur: Africa's Long-Necked Fern Mower" exhibit, which will be on display through March 18. It's also an extension of the Extreme Dinosaur story in the December issue of National Geographic Magazine, which features an introductory essay by John Updike (you can read and hear a Q&A with Updike online).

"Nigel" was discovered by Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno in 1997. Most of its bones were collected from the Sahara region in Niger, and it's known for having a distinctively different mouth (which reminds us a bit of a stapler). NG's Insider reports:

"It had a broad, straight-edged muzzle with more than 50 columns of tiny teeth—500 altogether—lining the jaw. The construction of its mouth enabled the Nigersaurus to work close to the ground, mowing down mouthfuls of greenery."

In his presentation at the unveiling, Sereno called Nigel and its peers the "cows of the Mesozoic."

Another cool element in Nigel's backstory is that Sereno teamed up with a group of Chicago-area high school students to help pull the exhibit together. Through an organization called Project Exploration, the students did fieldwork, visited fossil labs, and read through research studies to help supplement Sereno's excavation. The students were on hand yesterday for the unveiling, and you can learn more about the project, and the delegates here.

To learn more about Nigel's anatomy and lifestyle visit the research report published by PLoS One, the online journal from the Public Library of Science. Or come down to the lobby and check out Nigel for yourself.

Photos: Above, Kate Baylor; Below, Mike Hettwer, Project Exploration

Can't decide whether you want to safari in Africa or scuba dive in a coral reef? Well, one tour company offers a unique scuba sea safari that should satisfy your craving for both land and sea adventures.

One Earth Safaris offers "scuba sea safaris" between Zanzibar, Pemba Island, and Kenya, (where sharks and humpback whales are plentiful) with visits to places like the Samburu National Reserve and Masai Mara National Reserve for sightings of the Big Five (elephant, white rhino, buffalo, lion, and leopard). Company founder Ranjit Sondhi says that seeing the Annual Wildebeest Migration is a must when visiting East Africa. One Earth guests can also track gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda in groups from 4 to 35 people. The company is currently developing plans for an underwater hotel off of Pemba Island.

The One Earth team (comprised of ecologists, ethnologists, and naturalists) has also developed One Earth Sukuma Voluntourism, a volunteer program on a wildlife conservancy that acts as a buffer to Tsavo National Park (the largest in Kenya) and as a safe haven for buffalo, elephants, antelope, giraffes, and zebras. One Earth Safaris supports sustainable tourism, which gets a huge plus in our books.

Photo: Russell Hunkin, One Earth Safaris