4 - Sunday, January 8, 1989 ~ North Shore News BoB HUNTER DIAN FOSSEY, the woman who lost her life trying to pro- tect the last of the great apes of Africa from their human predators, was no ivory tower intellectual or sentimental animal-lover. She may have started out, asa researcher, with a lot of innocent ideas about the nobility cf study- ing the mountain gorillas of Rwanda, and she was dazzied, to be sure, by the fact that she had the backing of such a prestigious organization as the National Geographic Society. But she quickly discovered that the great apes were being hunted to the point of extinction by poachers and that petty officials of the gov- ernment of the impoverished African country where the gorillas had the misfortune to live were turning a blind eye, thanks to widespread bribery and corrup- tion. Not one to throw up her hands in despair, Fossey organized and armed a tiny army of Africans who went out daily to smash poachers’ traps, confiscate their weapons, ora oe. Scientists a5, group are every bit as ego-driven, as greedy, as selfish, as ambitious as any of the rest of us ordinary mortals.’’ Do and generally chase them down from the mountains, sometimes at gunpoint. Her efforts, while heroic, were thwarted not only by Rwandan bureaucrats, but by a far more debilitating enemy — the well- intentioned ‘‘conservaticnists’’ of Europe and North America who were eager to work out backroom deals with African officials, rather than get involved with any ‘‘radi- cal” actions such as Fossey was undertaking. Farley Mowat’s book about Fossey is informative, just in case one should happen to get the fatal impression that just because big, international conservation organizations get involved in a cause, all is well. Or, worse, that just because one has sent money to one of these organizations, there is nothing more to worry about. Poor Dian Fossey found out the hard way that the corruption of the highest is often the worst. several of her favorite goril- tas had been killed and mutilated native U.S.A. to set up a fund to finance the protection of the goril- las She was introduced to all serts of nice people who swore to help her out. But once she returned to the front lines in Africa, it was to discover all these nice people were somehow diverting the donations that came in to their own ‘‘gorilla projects,”’ which involved dcal- making with Rwandan officials, rather than ‘‘active conservation,’’ as Fossey liked to calf her methods. Fossey became a kind of female Paul Watson, taking the poachers | P Ardagh 986-4366. ersonal Injury Hunter Barristers & Solicitors #300-1401 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver Free Initial Consultation _ on in virtual hand-to-hand com- bat. But behind her back, her erstwhile supporters were under- mining her efforts at every turn. Worse, other researchers and scientists whom she had trained in the field were returning home to lobby against her, hoping to be able to take over the facilities she had built up so laboriously in the jungle. Just in case this point is lost on anyone, scientists as a group are every bit as ego-driven, as greedy, as selfish, as ambitious as any of the rest of us ordinary mortals. And conservationists, I might add, are all too frequently just as prone to these nasty traits. Dian Fossey was cut off from funding by the likes of the Na- tional Geographic Society when she crossed the line between passive ‘‘objective’’ journalistic research and activism. To her hor- ror, she saw organizations such as the Mountain Gorilla Project soak up donations that were intended for her and use them to back the ultimately destructive idea of using the gorilffas as a tourist attraction. Fossey foresaw the time coming when humans would encroach so much on gorilla habitat that the two species — so much closer in every respect than humans want to admit — would begin to interact in anew and awful way, just as Europeans did with native North Americans and Pacific isinnders. No sooner had she gotten poaching under control by her militant resistance than she discovered gorillas dying from diseases they could only have pick- ed up from human visitors. Once the idea got through that the great apes were in fact mostly gentle, shy and non-aggressive, despite their fabulous reputation as monsters, it was inevitable that people would start wanting to gawk at them and take pictures, even make movies. Fossey’s last campaign was aim- ed at preventing any organized tourism schemes on the grounds that sooner or later the gorillas of Virunga would be wiped out by diseases brought into the jungie by people. She absolutely opposed the peopte involved in the Gorilla Mountain Project, which today, in the wake of Dian Fosscy’s murder, is fully in charge of the destiny of the great apes. Farley Mowat concludes in his bock that Fossey was killed by an African hired by ‘‘influentia!l peo- ple who increasingly viewed Dian as a dangerous impediment to the exploitation”’ of the gorillas as a source of tourism bucks. Note that he does not say these people were necessarily Rwandans. And what is happening to the gorillas now? In the first half of 1988, five of the surviving 150 died of respiratory diseases and another of measles — diseases gorillas have never died from before. Dian Fossey must indeed be twisting in her grave. Turner oe Wo insurance lands man in jail A WHITE Rock man was sentenc- ed Dec. 29 in West Vancouver provincial court to 14 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle without valid insurance. 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