Conservation
A topic that becomes more and more relevant unfortunately
The subject of conservation in a continent that has so much, but also so little, has always been a tricky undertaking. Part of the problem is that the large majority of the wealth is distributed amongst a very small number and the rest have to exist on virtually nothing....attempting to explain to a local herder that he can't graze his starving cattle on land that has been set aside for lion, wildebeest and safari activities, understandably, is not an easy task. Until that herder sees some benefit in his day to day existence from doing so, it is made almost impossible.
The understanding of this distinction, over the last 20 years or so, has meant many huge advancements in the protection of many of Africa's last safari and wilderness areas. Slowly there has been development of once marginal land into productive areas for wildlife and revenue generating land for the local communities...this is a model that has been working very well in Kenya and looks like it could be a good template for the future of Tanzania as well.
Botswana, similarly, has been showing the rest of Africa how to do things with their high yield, low footfall model of safari...allowing only the best camps and a very select few to access their wilderness areas so that the impact on the land and the animals has been kept to an utmost minimum. This model has worked very well and, where hunting has always been the way to really generate revenue, the photographic camps are managing to now compete and, in many cases outbid them.
Both of these models work on a smaller scale and have been very effective in pockets of land throughout Africa, but the largest problem at the moment is the plight of Africa's lions and how to protect the larger areas of land such as the Selous in Tanzania. This is still not so apparent as, with the reduction in poaching through the 90s and naughties, the prices for illegal substances such as rhino horn and ivory has sky rocketed. Being able to police huge tracts of land is just not possible and so these issues are, once again, becoming a problem.
There is no doubt that Africa and its wildlife is still very much in danger. With the continuing expansion of communities and their need for primary land, animals are being pushed, more and more, into marginal land where their existence becomes even harder than it already is. Unless something is done on a government level to truly protect this resource and realise a way that will suit both the human and the animal element fear that the slow decline is just going to continue until there are just a few "zoos" where it is possible to see the last of these animals on a "safari".