in fact that sounds like anybody is keen on making the most of it............
wait for confirmation ......
if negative information comes in - we will stop fostering immediately - we have just renewed the fostering of 3 elephants and gave two as gifts to our parents!
there is no excuse exaptable for this kind of behaviour!
we'll wait for more information!

Pippa:

Please don't stop fostering your orphans. The Sheldrick Trust needs us even more now than before if the numbers of people visiting the Trust have greatly declined, meaning also fewer donations and fewer adoptions. The work they do is herculean. Continue to adopt, but if you feel stongly against the new KWS policy, just don't visit the NNP and the Trust. I will certainly continue supporting my 17 orphans because I know personally of some of the wonderful work the Sheldricks do, not only with the orphans but with other Kenyan wildlife issues.

I'm going to paste below a notice I just posted on Fodors. I am certainly not an authority on either Sheldrick Trust or KWS. It is just that I care so damned much about both these organizations that I follow their work closely and listen to what people are saying in Kenya:

" To: Predator Biologist

You have made some good points.

However, your assumption that money going to KWS will also be used for wildlife conservation is not necessarily so, and you may be looking at them through rose colored glasses. In the last several years KWS has been on a quest to amass huge sums of money and it doesn’t appear to be doing much for wildlife. On my trip in August I spent 18 days in two parks and never once saw a ranger. This is totally unacceptable. A year ago when an elephant was mired up to the top of his back in a mudhole, it took an hour for four rangers to show up, though they were 15 minutes away, and it was the men who volunteered from a lodge that actually saved the elephant. Incidents of drivers harassing wildlife are greatly increasing as are incidents of off-road driving – nothing is being done.

KWS has been exceptionally good at their help in rescuing orphaned animals, their translocations, their veterinary care and their anti-poaching units (though they need more of these). These units are kept busy and do their work well. However it seems to stop here. They need to be out patrolling the park/reserve roads to spot ill/injured animals, fining poor tour company drivers harassing wildlife, blocking roads, or driving off-road. They need to be reporting bad road situations and calling in the necessary graders to fix them. There is so much more they can and should be doing.

From an unnamed Kenyan I know (not the Sheldricks) who understands what is going on, “I am afraid that no matter how much we complain to KWS we will never get their decisions reversed. The Director is a very financially motivated gentleman. Minimum service for maximum money seems to be their motto. Others have had to build the bridge at Aruba for them, put pumps on the Ndara Dam, lend pumps and motors for Aruba waterhole before they put in the windmill.”

In addition to this, I know of several people who were Kenya Wildlife people and who quit within the last couple of years because they couldn’t stand to see the direction that KWS was heading into.

In an article in the Kenyan papers in August, KWS stated they were raising their park fees from $40.00 - $60.00, and the money was going “to the communities” (not to wildlife). I suppose they think that by giving a clinic or school to a community it will help decrease the people poaching, spearing, bushmeat trade, etc. I think this is very naïve thinking. So they build a clinic or school, it is not putting money into the pockets of the people who need it and is not going to change people’s thinking about poaching, spearing and bushmeat trade. Instead, if they hired several thousand more rangers including people who live near the parks with that money, thousands more people would benefit financially and PERHAPS might change their thinking.

Sheldrick Trust has been one of the leading wildlife organizations in Kenya over a period of many years. They not only rescue the orphaned/ill rhinos and elephants, but they have purchased fuel for KWS vehicles, purchased an engine for KWS’s anti-poaching plane, put in boreholes for water for the animals, have installed fences in high human-wildlife conflict areas in Tsavo, have worked with the schools to try to encourage the children to conserve their wildlife, initiated six desnaring tearms that walk the borders of Tsavo to collect snares and free any animals that are still alive, worked with KWS and Vier Pfoten to set up two veterinary teams, one that handles Tsavo and Amboseli and another that handles the Mara and the northern area of Kenya and thousands of other things beneficial to KWS, the Kenyan government and its people and wildlife in general.

KWS should encourage the work they do and encourage people to visit the Trust with no added park charge for that one hour visit, and allow them to leave their donations and adopt because it will only help all wildlife, including those that KWS is mandated to protect.

KWS has, after all, been hired to be stewards of wildlife, and it seems they should be more protectors of wildlife and less concerned about amassing huge sums of money to go to things that may or may not benefit wildlife."

I received this from a very reliable source who wishes to remain anonymous due to the situation which is very understandable –

Quote -
“To answer your questions I will talk to someone Directly and find out about the park fee situation – to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised. Some family from the UK went there recently and didn’t mention it but I will ask them too. Re Sheldricks getting pushed out of the park – there is a lot of underground resentment towards them which as the author says is very shameful. It is all about jealousy and a resentment towards successful white conservationists. This is not new but ongoing.. Nyamera is 100% right about what it means re visitors to Kenya. There are many short sighted moves like this – eg Mark Jenkins being pushed out of Meru National Park as Senior Warden despite all the rehabilitation work and fundraising he did for the area.”
- Edited by Nico on 29.10.2007, 17:49 -

I have just recieved 2 further disturbing e mails and one directly from a source at Sheldrick - confirming everything.

I quote the e mail sent on my behalf through my contact: -

"I heard that they were going to start charging visitors to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Orphanage park fees? Are the rumours true?" -

Answer -

"Very true, in place & hurting us - a nightmare."

END QUOTE -

These guys are working for the better of Kenya and Wildlife - this is the way they are thanked and helped internally; unless someone can tell me what DSWT Orphanage is doing wrong - why block them off and why place them in such situations...??

This I will send to some of the larger NGO's and see what they say - I am sure non of them will react... for a change!!

Thanks for the info, Nico. Though it looks like your secret informant has mixed me up with Jan. The info seems to confirm some suspicions I’ve expressed on Fodor’s. Unfortunately, I’ve ruined that thread with some kind of conflict with a saintlike person. You’re lucky I don’t have that much time to post on Bushdrums. I was going to donate some $$ to Sheldrick’s for Christmas, but I think I’ll do it right now instead.

Asante sana Nymera. Donations are now down by 80% and they are hurting. Hopefully by the end of the week there will be better news and I'll be able to share more with you.