Countryside Management Association News

This year the camp was held in the west of England in the Mendip Hills AONB from 24thto 31st July 2010.

Forty Junior Rangers and their mentors from 12 protected areas in 8 European countries came together to participate in a programme of outdoor activities on a "Biodiversity" theme.

We will be featuring a report on this event in RANGER 94 in the autumn.

CMA members should by now have all received a letter that asks for your opinions on a potential merger between the CMA and IEEM (the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management). This is a potentially huge change for the future of our organisation so we are using as many methods as possible to get feedback on the idea. We have set-up a "chat room" where members can speak frankly if they wish to do so. If you'd like to join in the discussion, you can do so by sending an email to the CMA webmaster, Matthew Chatfield at cma.ieem@pinkeyegraphics.co.uk giving your name. He will email you back details of how to log on and join in.

The CMA Yahoo e-group can also be used to make comments and discuss if you wish (but remember that both members and non-members have access to this).

Either way, please also respond to the letter directly as well as we are asking you to express your preference as to various options that are currently possible for the future direction of CMA.

Dan Barnett
CMA Vice-Chair

The government of Queensland has announced the creation of four new national parks and expanded another six to give more than 60,000 hectares of the state the greatest possible protection. These new parks will help protect Queensland’s amazing biodiversity and also help insulate the state against the impacts of climate change. The new protected areas serve as vital habitat corridors and ecosystems for rare, native species including frogs, rock wallabies, cassowaries and many other types of birds.

More than half a century after George Adamson released Elsa, the orphaned lion cub, into the wild, his former assistant is to create a new haven for young lions at the Kenyan reserve in which the 'Born Free' conservationist worked. Tony Fitzjohn plans to introduce a new litter of cubs, including orphans, into Kora National Park, where the number of lions has dwindled due to poaching and poisoning by farmers. He has rebuilt Adamson's former camp, ravaged by fire in the years after his murder by bandits in 1989 and is in talks with zoos and other wildlife sanctuaries to obtain the cubs. The story of how Adamson and his wife, Joy, raised Elsa and decided to reintroduce her into the wild was told in the book 'Born Free'. It was later turned into a hugely successful film with the same name. Fitzjohn hopes the restored camp will primarily have an educational impact, as well as attracting tourists. His memoirs, 'Born Wild', will be published soon.

Two suspected poachers have been arrested and a third is believed to have been killed by a lion in Kruger National Park, South Africa. According to the two who were caught, the trio went into the park on the night of March 12th 2010 to set up snares to catch animals. According to a park spokesman, "they returned on the night of the 13th to see if they caught anything. On their way back they came across some hippos, which charged them and they ran in different directions." Two of them got out of the park safely, but got worried when their friend didn't return. The two men were arrested in and took the police to the spot where they had last seen their accomplice: "Some blood and torn clothing were found." Rangers found a human skull shortly thereafter. It’s believed that the third man was caught and eaten by a lion. The arrested men were known and wanted by police for poaching.