Rumble in the jungle

WWF is changing its traditional role. To achieve sustainable conservation, more responsibility is placed with local populations. The latest human victims are Kes and Fraser Smith, who this summer were forced out from their 14-year tenure in charge of Garamba NP. Until recently, WWF portrayed Kes Smith, an English zoologist and her Zimbabwean game-warden husband as conservation heroes. But the wind of change in African conservaytiion has swept them from their posts. John Watkins of the Africa Conservation Centre in Nairobi says that throwing out the Smiths in the name of people-centred conservation may spell the end of the northern white rhino. The achievements of the Garamba project are enormous and due solely to these two individuals.