Porini. In the Wilderness, by Bill Harvey and Rolf D. Baldus

Porini. In the Wilderness, by Bill Harvey and Rolf D. Baldus. Self-published. Bad Honnef, Germany 2022. ISBN 9783000713491 / ISBN 978-3-00-071349-1

Porini. In the Wilderness, by Bill Harvey, who wrote his memoirs in the 1940s, and Rolf D. Baldus, who self-published Bill Harvey's manuscript in 2022.

Rolf D. Baldus  

[...] As if that was not enough, the Tanzanian Government, under the late President Magufuli, commissioned a large hydro-electric dam at Stiegler's Gorge in the heart of the Selous in 2019. This hydropower project was started without adequate technical, economic and environmental planning. One day it might turn out to he another "white elephant", hut the heart of the Selous along the Rufiji River with its lakes, wetlands and once abounding wildlife is being destroyed forever Presently additional infrastructural projects and surveys for minerals are ongoing, and it is obvious that the economic exploitation and fragmentation of Africa's largest protected area is on the official agenda. It is all done with zero respect for wildlife and nature. Moreover, the Selous has been split into a reserve and a national park - an action that was taken without rational planning or following the legal procedures. Most of the new Nyerere National Park is unsuitable for photographic tourism, and it will in all likelihood become an additional financial burden for the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TA-NAPA) while depriving the Tanzania Wildlife Authority (TAWA) of essential income from sustainable hunting tourism. What was once a win-win situation for conservation has become a lose-lose situation. When I started to work in the Selous in late 1987 an old game scout in the Msolwa outstation said to me: "Doctor, Selous andkufa" - the Selous is dying. Fortunately, we were able to turn the tide, as it has happened several times during the varied history since 1896, when it was created by the far-sighted German Governor Hermann von Wissmann. I am not sure whether this can happen again. When elephants are poached, the population can recover within a few years, as soon as good management and conservation is reintroduced. However, now that the ecosystem is being modified for other land use purposes, this is irreversible. The damage done will stay. The prospects for the Selous are therefore bleak. It can only be hoped that these dark days will pass and that the legacy of people like Bill Harvey will not be lost. Let me - despite my depressive thoughts about the future of the Selous - end on a positive note. Whatever will happen with the Selous in the future, there will still be wild spaces left due to its enormous size for quite some time. Luke Samaras, a PH and hunting operator with more than fifty years experience in the reserve, wrote me recently: „There are still corners where no human has been and where the Selous is as unique and natural as when the earth was created." For those who look for an opportunity to enjoy Triple A in the wild, off the beaten tourist tracks, they will find a place in the Selous, be it for game viewing, hiking, birding, fishing or hunting. She or he must only listen to the spirits of the pori creeping in one's soul, as Bill Harvey describes it at the end of his book. For those who can listen, these spirits call loudly and even louder: "Twende porini, bwana, twende, twende!" - "Let us go into the bush, man, let us go, let us go!" However, we all who have been in the Selous, be it for long or for short, should never forget Bill Harvey's words: When you have earned the freedom of the pori, remember that you are one of its guardians.

This is an excerpt from Porini - In the Wilderness, by Bill Harvey and Rolf D. Baldus.

Title: Porini
Subtitle: In the wilderness
Author: Bill Harvey
Editor: Rolf D. Baldus
Illustrations: Bodo Meier
Bad Honnef, Germany 2022
ISBN 9783000713491 / ISBN 978-3-00-071349-1
Hardcover, 18 x 25 cm, 270 pages, numerous photographs and watercolor illustrations, 6 maps