There are a bunch of USAID funded projects going on to assist the creation of the new Ministries in Southern Sudan. Mike Fay is right now doing a wild animal census (he's already found elephants that everyone thought had disappeared) and other consultants are drafting enabling acts and other legislation for the new government. But guess what, nobody is even considering hunting as an integral part of the wildlife management approach and chances are hunting will be banned. The reason is that no one has come to present the case for big game hunting as a wildlife management system to the Ministry of Wildlife. Where is SCI and all the others with the money to promote this? Sitting behind desks in the USA? The window of opportunity on this is from now until about 4 months from now when Parliament will convene to adopt all the new legislation. If any of you have any clout with SCI or any other organisation that can send a mission to Juba to present a plan to the government, please get on the telephones and start screaming.

I know at least 2 PH's who hunted and worked in the Sudan of old (one of them with connection in the former authority) that has been pushing to re-allow hunting there ofr at least a few years. Hopefully they are stating their case to the right people!

2 PH's won't amount to much unless they know how to draft enabling legislation defining the legal role of the Ministry and the right to hunt. Tom Mattanovich knows the SPLA very well but I don't think he's a lawyer as well. Besides, there are teams of environmental experts now roving around Southern Sudan and sitting in the Ministry setting up the different departments, apportioning responsiblities, etc. Once that is done, and if it is done without hunting being an integral part of it, good luck to your 2 PHs.

Wink,

I wrote SCI with the link to this thread. I don't know any of the mucketymucks, but maybe it will help.

-Steve

Well,

That was quick. I got the following back:

Steve - thanx for this info. I will definitely pass it on to our
international team.

One question for my own edification - isn't the military issue in Darfur
going to over shadow any wildlife issues in the rest of the country? I
don't know the region that well so I'm curious.

Thanx much
Ken


Ken copied a bunch of others in his reply to me.

Wink, Can you follow up directly with Ken? I'll PM you his email address.

-Steve

Good job Wink and Steve!

Mattanovich has sold out and pretty much retired. He's suffering from Parkinson's I believe. This S. Sudan business
sounds like a job for John Jackson's Conservation Force to me.
Rich Elliott

Here's an interesting web page on Sudan wildlife and hunting from the Sudan Embassy in the UK:

http://www.sudan-embassy.co.uk/infobook/wildlife.php

Recent articles in The Hunting Report spoke of two recent Nubian Ibex hunts in the Red Sea Hills of northern Sudan with a guy by the name of Angelo Dacey (adacey@ sudanwlsaf.com). Also says that "the US Treasury Department has given the green light to hunting in Sudan".

The Sudan sure gave me the greatest hunts in my 35 years of going to Africa. I've had some good ones, but the memories of the Sudan.......they just linger, loved that forest area, no all of it!!!!!!!!!!

Bill,
Angelo is one of the PH's I referred to above. The other is Anthony moore.

Steve, thanks for the contact info, I will follow up. I'm in Djibouti now, looking forward to sundowners with ROMAG.

It is US taxpayer dollars (USAID) that are funding the overall effort for setting up the different Ministries in Southern Sudan, and the reason I go there as well. The firm I work for is doing the Capacity Building for the new Ministry of Transport & Roads. Another US firm is in charge of the Ministry of Environment & Wildlife. I really do intend to follow up but somehow I think that what is needed is someone who has participated in the same initiative in another African country. Can anyone remember the name most associated with the Campfire program in Zimbabe? Is it David Childs?

Not everyone is up to speed on current events. Darfour is not in Southern Sudan, it is in the western part of Northern Sudan.

Southern Sudan gained signficant sovereign authority under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and now has its own government, based in Juba. This new government is receiving aid from the USA to create its own government institutions as well as for capital development programs. The Southern population is not majority Muslim and the orientation of government is more along western institutional lines. It's too bad the Bush government has Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran so high on its radar screen because what America is doing in Southern Sudan is a good thing, and going much better than in those other countries.

Tim Carney who posts here on occasion used to be the US ambassador to Sudan and wrote a book in the past few years on the country. Hopefully Tim will see this and give his thoughts. Bob

I PM'ed Tim and here is his reply:

quote:

PM from Tim Carney: Yes, I spent two years in Sudan from August 1995 to November 1997 and hunted dorcas gazelle, sand grouse, geese, guinea fowl and korry bustard there. Used a Ruger No. 1 in 7x57 to take the dorcas. In October of 2005 an English photographer friend, Michael Freeman, my wife and I did a large format 336-page book on all of Sudan entitled, Sudan: The Land and the People. It's available from Amazon.com and is the only book that covers the whole country from its pre-history to the signing of the peace agreement ending the north-south civil war in Jan. 2005 with 305 color plates. Hope that helps. Best, Tim

Here's the Link to Tim's Book at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sudan-Land-People-Timothy-Carney/dp/029598533X

All,

Glad to see this thread, but lucky to do so as I'm back in Baghdad, having accepted the Secretary of State's invitation to help out for four or five months. Not much time to follow the Board...

Lots of focus on hunting in Sudan when peace talks between north and south were underway in Nairobi and came to fruition in January of 2005. Unfortunatley, I've no files with me and can't recall just who in Nairobi was working on it, but I do know that SCI was engaged, perhaps as part of an effort to get a survey done of the massive Southern National Park. Suggest a google with the right terms and maybe something will winkle out.

Part of the photography for the book British photographer Michael Freeman, I and our wives did (Sudan: The Land and the People NB Amazon.com has it) included a trip to the Boma plateau in the southeast with the then rebel SPLM/A, now part of a coalition gov't after the peace accords. We hoped to see the migration of white-eared kob, but got there too early and only saw herds of a hundred or so walking to the rains and the new grass wsw of Boma. Still, Michael got a great pix of a running group of cows and a good bull from a very low flying cessna caravan.
Regards, Tim