CONSERVATION ALERT: Save Mana Pools

[Morkel Erasmus]

Apologies if this isn't the right forum - perhaps we should have a forum for these issues as well??

This is important, though.

After my recent visit to the Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, I have been enamoured with the place. It's one of the last true wilderness Edens in Africa - a really primal place that makes you feel like you are walking in the Africa that Hemingway and Livingstone experienced and described.
Unfortunately there is a threat of mining exploration in this wonderful place! I don't think there is enough attention on this - and if we can give this some coverage we might be able to mobilise enough attention to get intervention to occur (like the Mapungubwe saga in South Africa).

Please have a look at this petition which details all the shocking events that led to these exploration rights being granted, and share with your circle of conservation-focused friends. Let's spread the word!!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Sto...at_Mana_Pools/

Also check out the Facebook group SAVE MANA POOLS here:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/104842256217442/

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

Thanks for doing this, as photographers we should all do what we can to preserve these areas otherwise we will have nowhere to practice our hobby, nor will non-obsessed people have anywhere left to view the magnificence of Africa.

Whilst the world certainly needs the many minerals currently being exploited in Africa, mostly by Western companies and the African politicians certainly need to top up their Swiss bank accounts, surely something can be done.

It is not only Mana Pools the Central Kalahari is under extreme threat.

SIGN THE PETITION!!!!!!

This sort of action stopped the ludicrously large hotel being built just across the Zambezi river in Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia, so it can work.

[Humberto Ramos]

Just sign

[Gerald Kelberg]

... But be aware that if you do sign, you will receive emails every week asking you to sign another petition for another cause; and that unsubscribing from avaaz may not actually stop them from coming! Which is fine if you feel committed to every cause going, but it may be an annoyance if you are not. And today it was a donation request...

Sorry to be so cynical! I don't wish to detract from the importance of preserving the Mana Pools Park, but I feel that by espousing, and mailing me about, at least one cause a week, avaaz is diminishing its own credibility in any one cause. It isn't the causes, it is avaaz and the "Community Petitions Site" that I am unhappy about.

Gerald

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Signed.