by Ian Vorster
Environmental destruction seems to be all-prevalent. All the time. Every morning brings a new set of apocalyptic headlines: Poaching, habitat destruction, growing markets for ivory and rhino horn, with political strife and increasing human population is reducing wildlife numbers for nearly all species.
In the early 90s, it seemed that the rhino had made a successful comeback from the brink of extinction, global elephant numbers rounded out at close to 1.5 million, cheetah-breeding programs seemed to have saved the rare cat from extinction, and estimates put the African lion population at roughly 50,000.
A Great Decline
By 2012, however, the most comprehensive research project completed on lions, carried out by Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, found that only 32,000 lions remained — a 75% decline from its then conservative estimate of 100,000 in 1962. The study notes, “Lion populations in West and Central Africa are acutely threatened with many recent, local extinctions even in nominally protected areas.”
Elephant numbers have dropped to between 450,000 and 700,000. A recently published study found that 100,000 elephants were slaughtered in the 3-year period leading up to the summer of 2014.
As for the rhino… the Indian environmental publication, Down to Earth reported in 2023 that since 2012, white rhino numbers have decreased by 24% to an estimated 15,942. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature Species Survival Commission’s African Rhino Specialist Group reports that the species is still in decline, with poaching the biggest threat. In the first six months of 2023 alone, 231 rhinos were poached in South Africa, while 448 were killed in 2022. In comparison, Botswana reported 138 cases of poaching in the past five years.
The most comprehensive air-survey ever conducted in Botswana (by Dr. Michael Chase of Elephants without Borders) found a 61% decline in 11 species in Ngamiland — the northern region of the country — since a previous 1996 survey. Wildebeest have all but vanished from those plains, their tally having dropped by 90% from 23,538 to 1,985 — far below the minimum sustainable number of breeding pairs. Tsessebe have dropped by 84%, warthogs by 81%, and giraffe by 75%. Africa Geographic magazine, the Royal Geographic magazine and many other news outlets carried this story at the time.
Coal Oil Point Reserve in Santa Barbara, California has achieved remarkable success at balancing human beach recreation with the breeding requirements of the Western snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) which is an endangered species.
Environmental Communications
However, as dire as the situation is for wildlife, the research field of environmental communications has found that when bad news is reported, human indignation or alarm declines. The human brain shuts out bad news and dismal numbers and people resign themselves to the loss as they become gradually indifferent.
Climate change communication — a category that includes scientists, communicators, and journalists — has long been stuck in the hard place of needing to educate and inform the public about the bad news, while finding that the news does not motivate people to act. Somewhat of a rift also exists between scientists who are more conservative in terms of frank communication and those who wish to tell it like it is, also exists.
The question remains: How can environmental communicators stress the urgency of any environmental situation, in particular loss associated with climate change, species extinction and biodiversity, in a way that people not only hear, but which also leads to change?
According to Dr. Mark Meisner, who teaches a course in environmental communications and who served as the founding director of the International Environmental Communication Association, there are several steps that wildlife advocates can take.
Meisner says, “To being with, stop talking about loss and extinction, and stop trying to educate people about the science. Stop talking about wildlife as resources and stop appealing to people’s self-interests. These are counter-productive strategies in the short and long term because they frame the issues using values that run counter to the goal of protecting wildlife. Instead, use your communication opportunities to focus on success stories and what’s working.”
He says we should openly celebrate and share the wonders of the natural world. Try to evoke a sense of shared destiny and compassion for people and the rest of nature. And perhaps most importantly, collaborate with the local Indigenous people to solve the underlying problems that cause habitat loss, poaching and the bush meat trade.
Good News
So, let’s highlight some good news. Scientific American reported that the United States’ greatest oil-producing state, Texas, in 2013 provided up to 38.43% of the energy load at times of low usage—through wind power. While serious questions have been raised about birds and bats flying into wind turbines, this at least speaks of a mounting support for renewables in a conservative leaning state. Texas Comptroller, the State’s economic data site, reports that for the past 17 years, Texas has led the U.S. in wind energy. In 2022, Texas turbines produced 40,556 MW — more than a quarter of all wind-sourced electricity in the U.S. Wind power surpassed the state’s nuclear generation for the first time in 2014 and exceeded coal-fired generation for the first time in 2020.
Also, we live in a time when strange alliances are being formed to help slow biodiversity loss. For example, the African Wildlife Defense Force has recruited U.S. veterans to train and staff anti-poaching patrols in Africa. Princess Aliyah Pandolfi, CEO of the Kashmir World Foundation, founded the worldwide Wildlife Conservation Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Challenge to foster innovation in the use of unmanned aircraft to assist with counter poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. And in 2023, in response to a White Paper put out by the Endangered Wildlife Trust which said that most provincial reserves in South Africa are in a dismal state, private conservation bodies across Africa have rallied to share management and fiscal responsibilities to protect the biodiversity.
With regards to the cheetah, Dr. Laurie Marker, founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund headquartered in Namibia, said that she has been able to help the endangered wild cheetah by improving rural livelihoods through model programs in integrated livestock and wildlife management. Those programs rely on local Indigenous community involvement.
Thanks to pesticide pressure, habitat loss and climate change, the survival of the European honeybee (Apis mellifera Linnaeus) has been highlighted in the news over the last 15 years. Here a feral hive is cut out of an oak tree by a beekeeper called in to do so. Bees usually swarm in the spring.
Hardly Impossible
We might exclude environmental news outlets from the “hopeful communication model” because they argue — with little shortage of proof — that breaking bad news often leads to good solutions.
And so, to end with a positive comment, as Stewart Brand, president of the Long Now Foundation and co-founder of the Revive and Restore project in San Francisco, wrote in his article Rethinking Extinction, “The loss of whole species is not the leading problem in conservation. The leading problem is the decline in wild animal populations, sometimes to a radical degree, often diminishing the health of whole ecosystems.” Brand notes that the word extinction produces panic. But the reality is — as Marker and others have shown with their work — nature can rebound if we focus on restoring ecological richness. The situation is hardly impossible.
A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) rests on fallen leaves beneath a Eucalyptus grove as it warms up after being blown out of its cluster on a souther California winter night.
The success story of the Western snowy plover’s return to an extremely busy university beach. Credit: Ian Vorster.
