Gabonese Ticks Inspire Green-think

Reporting from West Africa

Heading back from a Treks in a Wild World shoot....still plucking Gabonese ticks out of my hindquarters, but I want to float an idea…..

Five years ago Gabon’s President Bongo set aside 10 percent of the country to be protected as natural parks.  Crazy good news for the rainforest and all its creatures. The research community is ecstatic and Gabon looks forward to a time when eco-tourism—not logging—makes up a big part of its GNP (getting there will be a long rocky road, but it’s something to work toward). In Gabon, I spent a zillion hours hiding in ad hoc leaf forts waiting for hundreds of mandrills to traipse by (they did), for forest elephants to show themselves in the rare jungle clearing (they did), and for lowland silverbacks to majestically appear out of the green thick and thump their chests (they didn’t). Anyway, I ended up spending many of those long, seated hours whispering to the dedicated folks of the Wildlife Conservation Society (such as honcho Lee White, and Ruth Starkey, who heads up their Langoue outpost), and it got me to thinking….