Countryside Management Association News

are now open for applications! The award provides three young European conservationists with €3000 to undertake a study visit to one or more protected areas in European countries other than their own. They are awarded by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and the EUROPARC Federation. The deadline for applications is Friday May 11th 2012. Details on www.europarc.org

Armed robbers on Monday 6th February killed a forest guard after molesting and robbing about 140 passengers traveling from Dormaa-Ahenkro to Kofikumikrom, near the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire border. A second forest guard managed to escape.
The body of the 30 year old forest guard, Christian Boakye, was found by a police patrol.

Ranger Margaret Anderson, 34, was shot and killed at Mount Rainier National Park on New Year’s Day. She was attempting to stop a car driven by Benjamin Barnes, who had failed to stop at a checkpoint rangers had set up to assure that all vehicles going into the park had chains on their tires, a safety precaution. Barnes was later found dead in the park.

A ranger who worked for the Ministry of Environment was murdered early in January by people who were illegally making charcoal and farming within the protected area. The murdered ranger was Eligio Eloy Vargas Medrano (43).

Authorities in Peru have recently made contact with an isolated Amazon tribe, but are warning people not to approach them after a ranger was shot with an arrow. During this encounter, members of the tribe were seen wielding bows and arrows whilst running alongside the river where scientists and anthropologists were passing in a motorized canoe. The ranger was hit in the back with an arrow.