{"id":230209,"date":"2021-04-19T10:18:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T07:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/rangers-battle-human-encroachment-in-sudans-biggest-park\/"},"modified":"2021-04-19T10:18:05","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T07:18:05","slug":"rangers-battle-human-encroachment-in-sudans-biggest-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/rangers-battle-human-encroachment-in-sudans-biggest-park\/","title":{"rendered":"#Rangers battle human encroachment in Sudan’s biggest park"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Rangers battle human encroachment in Sudan’s biggest park<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Spread
\n Spread over more than 10,000 square kilometres (3,800 square miles), 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Khartoum, the Dinder National Park is Sudan’s biggest
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tucked away by the Ethiopian border, Sudan’s Dinder National Park boasts the country’s most diverse wildlife, but rangers face a daily battle to protect it as human encroachment mounts.<\/p>\n


\n <\/section>\n

Spread over more than 10,000 square kilometres (3,800 square miles), 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Khartoum, the park is Sudan’s biggest and abuts Ethiopia’s Alatash National Park. <\/p>\n

Sandwiched between the vast grasslands of the Sahel and the forests of the Ethiopian highlands, the park boasts a variety of habitats that have made it a haven for wildlife.<\/p>\n

Freshwater lakes dot the park’s woodlands and savannah, making it an important flyway for migratory birds as well.<\/p>\n

“It enjoys the richest wildlife in Sudan,” said Albadri Alhassan, head of the park’s development organisation. “But the growing human violations threaten to diminish the wilderness.” <\/p>\n

When the park was first declared a protected reserve under Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1935, the area was sparsely inhabited.<\/p>\n

But in recent decades, the population has soared in the villages that dot the park and its surrounding buffer zone, creating huge pressure for new land to grow crops.<\/p>\n

And as cattle herders’ traditional grazing lands have been ploughed up, they in turn have increasingly encroached on the park in search of pasture.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Sandwiched
\n Sandwiched between the vast grasslands of the Sahel and the forests of the Ethiopian highlands, the park boasts a variety of habitats that have made it a haven for wildlife
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“Such behaviours are posing an immense threat to the reserve,” said the head of Dinder’s wildlife research station, Omar Mohamed.<\/p>\n

Among the hardest-hit species has been the giraffe, which has disapp<\/a>eared from the park in the face of habitat loss and other environmental factors, Mohamed said.<\/p>\n

‘Great harm to wildlife’<\/b><\/p>\n

Villagers say they do their best to follow park restrictions but add that they desperately need more land to feed themselves.<\/p>\n

“We use traditional agriculture and we prevent our animals from grazing outside our village,” said farmer Abubakr Ibrahim from Mai Carato, a village on the west bank of the Rahad river, which flows through the reserve. <\/p>\n

He complains that some regulations are “very hard and impractical” to follow in the growing villages.<\/p>\n

“Our village alone has an estimated population of around 2,000 people,” he said, adding that its allotted five square kilometres of land was “too small”. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Human
\n Human encroachment disturbs the park’s wildlife in different ways
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“It is not enough for us,” he said, arguing that “the reserve is vast, so giving us more space will not do any harm”. <\/p>\n

But conservationists disagree. <\/p>\n

“Any expansion to the villages will greatly harm the reserve, disturb the wildlife and reduce their resources,” Mohamed said. <\/p>\n

“It would be best to move those villages to better serviced areas outside the reserve.” <\/p>\n

Human encroachment disturbs the park’s wildlife in other ways too. <\/p>\n

Hungry villagers often harvest wild honey from the park’s woods, lighting fires to create smoke to ward off the bees, in breach of park rules.<\/p>\n

Rangers patrol the rugged terrain in search of violators, who can face hefty fines or up to six months in prison depending on the offence.<\/p>\n

“We try to pursue them but sometimes they flee before we arrive,” ranger Mohamed Makki told AFP. <\/p>\n