Some time ago you wrote to me about Northern Congo (DRC) and the proposed setting up of a hunting concessions. I pointed out that I had already approached several reputable hunters who had all reported very negative experiences with the DRC in the past. The new hunting deals on the table provided for millions of hectares of national territory being allocated with not a single cent of official tax income in any form changing hands (a 5 year tax holiday and even free import of liquor for the hunting camps). I pointed out that this kind of exploitation of the poor governance quality of the Congo was counterproductive to the development of the country as well as conservation. I also made it clear that the administration officials, pretty much in all parts of the DRC, would see such deals in a similar light: Top officials in the capital having been taken care off to sign the agreements in question, and that the end result would be unworkable local demands once these professional hunters arrived on the ground. It would appear that this is exactly what happened and after giving the local communities an opportunity to play these hunters against conservation NGOs on the ground, at least one hunter walked away with the tail between his legs. The other one, supposedly an operator who has a real reputation in Cameroon and was exposed in the Cook Report as offering gorilla hunts, never even appeared on the scene.

However I did subscribe to your news letter at the time and I did find some of your writing interesting, some outright naive (the belief that anything will change at Bangui airport because one of your club was given an hard time). Actually any foreigner not being given a hard time at Bangui airport would mean the corresponding professional hunter having made corresponding arrangements well in advance.

The other day I read your latest newsletter about the incident in Sierra Leone, where some chimps escaped from a sanctuary and then terrified some of the keepers and visitors. This you classify as the most unusual story you have ever heard of in 25 years of publishing your report. It was indeed a very strange and tragic incident but when analyzed closer not at all strange or surprising.

You have a bunch of chimps which escape from a sanctuary, there are adults among them which have five times the strength of a human. They are very excited since for them these are most unusual circumstances as well. They all have had some pretty bad experiences at the hands of the human race in the past. Most probably in some ways will remember the day when their mother was shot out of a tree and they then were tied around their neck to a post in some village with every kid passing by teasing them (we confiscated one baby chimp in the Congo who had his eyes pocked out for biting somebody).

Now they are out and probably have roamed around for some time and a car drives into "their territory", probably in a setting they are not familiar with (did they see cars in their captive environment?) When one of them confronts the car the driver tries to drive over him. The rest of your tale with the driver getting killed is not that hard to understand.

You conclude your piece by saying: There is a book to be written here that makes a mockery out of the sentimentality of bunny huggers".

This comment, in the above context, really takes the cake. You are talking to a constituency which finds great pleasure in going out there and blasting at things, extinguishing lifes, doing so in confrontations where the other side has no chance at all.

I wonder what would happen if the chimp had another five million years to evolve (which clearly is not going to happen)? Would one of them suggest that they reevaluate their approach and write a book as to when they should stop living in the forest and accept the dominance of this other ape and instead start fighting back (as a recent article in the New York Times implies the elephant species is now doing).

I walked recently on Lake Constance in Switzerland and came across some grafitti which translated stated: "The whole of creation is waiting for mankind to become human". That is the book which needs to be written.

Best regards
Karl Ammann
Nanyuki, Kenya
14/10/2006