Richard Leakey

Richard Leakey is one of the most well-known and controversial conservationists alive today. As well as being a respected conservationist, he is also a palaeo-anthropologist and a politician, living and working in his home country of Kenya. His conservation programmes have been hugely beneficial for animals right across Africa, and he continues to support Africa’s wildlife through new initiatives up to the present day.

Early Years

Richard Leakey is the son of famous archaeologist Louis Leakey. He was born on December 19^th 1944 in Nairobi, Kenya, and grew up during the Mau Mau Rebellion. He did not perform well at school, and as soon as he left at 16 he became an entrepreneur, setting up a trapping business. This later grew into a safari business, and his early love of animals would later prove significant when he moved into conservation.

Fossil Hunter

Leakey had been involved in palaeo-anthropology since birth, mainly as a result of his parents, and this became an important activity for him. As part of his safari business he carried out tours to Olduvai by plane, and it was from his plane that he noticed that Lake Natron could be a prime spot for fossil hunting.

He started to go on fossil-hunting expeditions, including excavations to Omo River in Ethiopia and organising his own expeditions to Allia Bay on Lake Turkana. During this period of 1967 and 1968, he also formed the Kenya Museum Associates and got promoted to the administrative director of the museum.

In 1984 he made perhaps his most important archaeological find in the Turkana Boy. This was a 1.6-million-year-old Homo Erectus boy skeleton, and is one of the most significant finds of recent times.

Richard Leakey

Conservation

His other great passion was conservation, and in 1989 he was made the head of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department. Poaching of elephants had become a huge problem in Kenya, and the international outcry led President Daniel Arap Moi to appoint Leakey to the role.

It was here that he won a major publicity coup when he organised the burning of 12 tonnes of ivory in Nairobi National Park, sending a clear message to illegal poachers that they would not be tolerated.

A year later the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department was replaced by the Kenya Wildlife Service, of which Leakey became chairman. He took a proactive approach to poaching by setting up special armed units to form a successful deterrent. This had a significant impact on the level of poaching, leading the World Bank to approve loans of $140 million for further work.

Controversy

Despite his conservation achievements, Leakey has never been far from controversy. He has always maintained that the national parks should not be a place where people should watch animals, and that instead the animals should be left alone free from human interference. This did not endear him to many, and he has been known to get on the wrong side of politicians.

In 1993 he was involved in a plane crash where he lost both his legs. There were claims of sabotage due to his unpopularity in some quarters, but nothing has ever been proved.

Wildlife Direct

Leakey established WildlifeDirect in 2004 to overcome the inadequate funding that he believes is at the heart of conservation problems in developing countries. It encourages people to support field conservation projects around the world through making online donations.

Wildlife Direct

Elephant Tusks

Kenyan authorities have reported the discovery of a huge haul of illegal ivory that was destined to head to the Asian market. In total, 684 kilograms were seized at Nairobi Airport, comprising entirely of elephant tusks.

This is a huge haul that is worth millions of dollars on the black market. Kenya Wildlife Service also revealed that a similar sized haul was found in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia at the same time. Back in July, another large haul of ivory was found in Kenya, consisting of 16 elephant tusks and two rhino horns, suggesting that poaching and the illegal ivory trade is still thriving in East Africa.

Asian Connection

The most recent haul was destined to travel to Bangkok. The demand for ivory in Asia is very high, and China is an especially popular destination. Some experts believe that the increasing Chinese workers across Africa are playing a role in the growth of the trade in recent years. Many of them are on low salaries, and as a result they have turned into middle men for the potentially lucrative trade. Ivory sells for up to $1,000 a kilogram, making it a tempting proposition for many.

A Growing Trade

Ivory

So far this year, poachers in Kenya have killed 128 elephants for their ivory. This was up from last year when 98 elephants were killed. Although all killing of game has been outlawed since 2003 in the country, restrictions are occasionally lifted on a one-off basis, which only serves to exacerbate the problem.

How to Help

Elephants may not suffer from the same endangered status as other large mammals in Africa, such as mountain gorillas and rhinoceroses. But they are still under threat all across the continent due to poaching and problems caused when they come into contact with people.

Save the Elephants is one of the biggest and most active charities dedicated exclusively to the protection of elephants across Africa. The charity focuses on different key areas to protect the animals and ensure their continued survival.

These include research through such schemes as GPS tracking to gain a greater insight into the behaviour of the animals which can lead to new and more effective protection methods. They also focus on education at a grassroots level, working on the belief that the local communities are the best ambassadors for elephants as they share the land with the animals.

Another important aspect of the charity’s work is protection. Elephants are constantly at risk from the illegal ivory trade, and poaching is rife. In order to combat poaching, effective deterrents must be put in place. Radio tracking and aerial surveillance are used to combat illegal poaching, and it is initiatives like this that help to ensure the protection of the species.

There are many other charities that support elephant conservation, two of which are Born Free and ACF (African Conservation Foundation). Visit the websites to find out more about the plight of the elephants and to find out what you can do to help.

NTV Kenya