[wvns] Sudan's Paradise Not Lost
An interesting example of conservation as imperialism - WVNS
SUDAN
And finding a paradise not yet lost
Jul 26th 2007
The Economist
http://economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9557886
IN MANY respects, south Sudan is already its own country. It issues
its own visas, decides most its own policies and mishandles its own
budget.
Of course, tricky deals over the ownership of oil and the Nile waters
must be negotiated before full independence. And there is always a
small chance that the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which
runs the south, may do well enough in elections for all of Sudan (due
to be held in 2009) to alter the shape of Sudanese politics overall,
the north included. But as things stand, almost all southerners
believe that, after a referendum promised by the central government in
Khartoum, south Sudan will become a sovereign country by 2011.
That raises new questions. For one thing, what would the new country
be called? The betting is on New Sudan, the name favoured by John
Garang, the SPLM's charismatic leader killed in a helicopter crash in
2005. But establishing the new country's identity will be harder. Even
SPLM zealots accept that the largely Christian and animist south
cannot define itself just negatively, in opposition to the Muslim north.
Many leading lights in the south Sudanese government, including the
president, Salva Kiir, want the new country, whatever it is called, to
become part of east Africa rather than a southern spin-off from the
rest of Sudan, which is mainly Arab and Muslim and looks more to the
Arab world. South Sudan's economy would tilt to the south and east.
Most trade goes via Uganda. In Juba, the southern capital, the
most-used mobile-phone network operates from Uganda with a Ugandan
code and Ugandan local rates, while calls to Khartoum are deemed
international. There is also talk (in South African and German
circles, among others) of building a railway from Juba, south Sudan's
capital, to Gulu in Uganda, to connect with the main east-African
network. Most of south Sudan's diplomatic links are through Kenya.
Some schools are already replacing Arabic with English.
Another new way to nudge south Sudan into east Africa is through
wildlife and tourism, especially after a recent discovery that south
Sudan's wild game is far more abundant than had previously been
reckoned. Earlier this year, the Wildlife Conservation Society, an
American outfit, uncovered one of the world's biggest animal
migrations in south Sudan. Conservationists flying low over uncharted
territory discovered a vast array of wildlife, especially in Boma,
along the border with Ethiopia. Paul Elkan, the Kenya-based Wildlife
Conservation Society's main man for south Sudan, says the scale of
migration may exceed that of Tanzania's Serengeti.
"It is a paradise not yet lost," says an ecstatic Mr Kiir, who has
already signed agreements with the conservationists. An immediate goal
is to limit the destruction caused by the oil business. Thanks to
graft and negligence, Chinese and other contractors have installed
massive and polluting infrastructure across the south with no
environmental oversight.
In the long run, Mr Kiir hopes to set up a national parks system to
protect the Boma migration, improve land management and provide jobs
for former fighters as rangers and guides. A grander hope is that it
could bolster New Sudan's new identity--and its claim to be part of
east Africa.
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