FOLLOWING ON FROM POSTS YESTERDAY AT FACEBOOK RE THE CRISIS - Daylight is less than a couple of hours away, we're about to set off for an all day recce in the rewilding area. Jeep and foot will take us into deep jungle. We'll learn a lot and make decisions based on that. A lot of the time we'll need to think like leopards.
The problems here in Nepal now are man made combined with an unrelenting landscape plus big time natural events such as the earthquakes. Blaming governments, media, India, China, the guy selling rice down the track is pointless. We all have a duty of care in this, a stake. The small team today are all wildlife people with a deep respect for the jungle and its ecosystems. There is the total awareness about the way biodiversity works together to keep things stable and moving, even if nature can be seemingly harsh sometimes.
When learning about research techniques it was always rammed home the simple principle of find the truth and tell the truth. Don't add your own positive or negative spin, present the raw facts only. What I write about the situation here is based on that, my own feelings on it irrelevant in the wider context. That being said it would be unnatural not to have a lot of concern and I do. I'll keep saying it, if things go belly up here in such a crucial part of the world, the huge feeding system that is the Himalaya, then the whole world suffers.
Balance, in the way wildlife in its natural state attains is the only answer I have because I see it every day in wild places.
And a good laugh sometimes doesn't hurt either because things certainly are crazy here. There are times to be deadly serious about it all as well. In the main it's about keeping cool...
