We have completed the DVD production Tembo: Use or Lose in support of down listing the African elephant from CITES Appendix I to Appendix II in Tanzania and Zambia. This production will be featured on the next Safari Newsreel DVD which will be sent out in every issue of the next African Hunting Gazette (Subscribers and Newsstands)

An email from John Jackson:

Zig,

Last week we sent out the Tembo: Use or Lose DVD to all the CITES Authorities in the world. We also sent a box of them to Eugene Lapointe, past CITES Secretariat, for him to distribute. He called today elated at the DVD video. He said it is nicely presented, even entertaining and the narrator is clear and the presentation logical. He could not say enough. He wants to use it as he tours the world the next couple of weeks and at CITES because of its quality.

Thanks for a job well done.

Best,
John

Zig Mackintosh.

Outstanding! I look forward to watching it when my next issue of AHG comes.

How can i get hold of it?where to buy it?

African Sporting Gazette is now African Hunting Gazette. It now has a DVD included with each issue. I believe he's saying that will be the next DVD included. You can get a subscription on line.

Brett

Zig,
Looking forward to getting the DVD with my next issue of ASG! BTW, I think a video is a great way to make an appeal to CITIES to downlist a species... the old adage a picture is worth a 1000 words rings true!

Thanks for the comments. I hope that the next Safari Newsreel, which features Tanzania, meets your expectations. Donner, you can subscribe online to African Hunting Gazette http://www.africansportinggazette.com/

I forgot to mention that John Jackson is from Conservation Force, http://www.conservationforce.org/

Bwanamrm, you are absolutely right, a video is a far more effective way to get the message across than a pile of scientific papers which probably don't get read anyway. BTW the video is neutral on the issue of the sale of stockpiled ivory. Our only concern is the down listing of elephant in Tanzania and Zambia from Appendix I to Appendix II so as to facilitate the trophy hunting of elephant in these two countries.

Zig Mackintosh.

http://www.safarinewsreel.com/

donner,

You can now view this video online at http://www.safarinewsreel.com/blog/?p=660

Very well done presentation. Most interesting comments on USF&W near the end. They have taken similar positions on Cheetah from Namibia and Polar Bear from Canada. Just try asking their agents about the bans; they get testy very quickly, as they know it is indefensible.

Thanks for posting the video.

Mike,

Thanks for your compliment. I personally think that the USFWS has an anti-hunter agenda but Ron Thomson, who is one of the more vocal pro hunting wildlife experts in Africa (check out his blog at http://www.safarinewsreel.com/blog/?cat=1) has an interesting take on government officials. This is what he has to say:

First and second order thinking.

Most responsible people want to solve the problems that face our wildlife today. The way that most people have been conditioned to think, however, makes it impossible for them to recognize even the most logical solutions that are staring them in the face.

When seeking solutions to problems most people search for them only within the framework of our society’s accepted norms and values. This places boundaries on our thinking processes. It is called First Order Thinking ‑ which makes us conform to that which we know is already acceptable. It gives us tunnel vision and it makes us lose sight of what we are trying to do ‑ which is to find workable solutions whether they conform to socially acceptable ideas or not.

First Order Thinking people put a box around the problem they are trying to solve which demarcates the boundaries of social conformity, and they will not look for solutions outside that box. As a consequence they are not pre pared to even consider new ideas ‑ even ones that will clearly solve persistent problems. They would rather plod on with whatever is acceptable to society even though it has never really worked.

First Order Thinking people rarely discover workable solutions to difficult problems!

Second order thinking people, by contrast, are those who do not confine their thoughts only to those ideas and values that are acceptable by society. They look for ‑ and normally find ‑ solutions to even the most difficult of problems outside the box. Second Order Thinking People are much more likely to find very good solutions to difficult problems.

One of the tragedies of government bureaucracies is that public servants are forced to be First Order Thinking people. They have to work and to think within very prescribed boundaries. If they don’t they will very quickly find themselves unemployed. Their operating policies are rigid. They cannot function outside government rules and regulations. As a consequence civil servants are never allowed to become Second Order Thinking people – and they resent and resist the ideas of open-minded Second Order Thinking people.

We will never solve the sometimes seemingly impossible problems that confront our wildlife. at this time, unless we approach the problem-solving process in a Second Order Thinking manner.

I reckon it's that very sideways thinking that makes Ron's writings so good. Whilst of us only see what we percieve as the obvious, Ron looks deeper, sees the entire problem and solves it...... often in a way that hadn't occurred to most of us.

Unfortunately, he's rather a voice in the wilderness when it comes to game manangement issues but I reckon he's bloody brilliant!

Steve,

You are right that his writings are a voice in the wilderness and that is exactly why we need to promote his ideas where and when we can.