The Ultralight Bantam B22J as a Conservation tool in Tanzania
I used to dread anti-poaching in the off-season as I knew I was always in for a lot
of mud, sweat and tears. Sure, the first few hours of being stuck in the mud and
getting bitten to death by tsetse flies is fun, but those tough hours turn into and
long days and longer weeks. I used to cringe for those poor vehicles being pushed
over the limit, with a heavy load in deep water, thick mud and soft black cotton
soil, the winch even with a snatch block wouldn’t budge the stuck vehicles. And all
of this for what??
The best thing about the wildlife areas in Tanzania is that they are large tracts
of land, which are unfenced and game is thus allowed to move freely to where ever
they please. Boundaries, be it of National Parks, Game Reserves, Game Controlled
Areas, or open areas and the concessions within, are merely divided by a dry river
bed, mountain or dirt track. Back in the day when human population numbers were low,
the wildlife could migrate freely to greener pastures following the rains and wild
fires from season to season. Nowadays with the ever increasing human population,
from day to day every village, town and city is growing in size from, decreasing
the natural area where wildlife can find refuge. Natural wildlife migration routes
have been being cut off leaving only small isolated populations. It is therefore
imperative that we conserve these last remaining wildlife areas for generations to
come.
The single biggest threat the Tanzania’s wildlife is poaching, which comes in many
forms – ivory, meat (commercial and subsistence), mining, grazing of domestic stock,
timber, honey gathering and manufacture of coal. Most poaching activity occurs between
December and May when the hunting outfitters are not operating in the area. By law,
it is the responsibility of all hunting Outfitters to conduct anti-poaching patrols
in their respective areas and not the Government. However, in order to conduct effective
anti-poaching patrols, it costs serious amounts of money, money that the majority
of Outfitters don’t have, so most wildlife areas unfortunately go unprotected for
6 months of the year.
Once the rains start in December, nearly all of the central and southern Game Reserves
are inaccessible by vehicle until May, this limits anti-poaching patrols only to
the few accessible areas on the outskirts of Reserves. Tanzania Wildlife Company
(TWC) has blocks slap bang in the centre of both the Selous and Rungwa Game Reserves,
with other concessions acting as buffer zones to the villages, so fortunately poaching
in our areas is limited simply due to distance. However, when times are tough, a
poacher is prepared to walk hundreds of kilometres so poaching does occur in our
areas. Being so deep into the Game Reserve, we as TWC face serious anti-poaching
limitations, just getting into our areas is a major problem! Previously we would
attempt go into Rungwa in February, the distance from the edge of the Game Reserve
to our block is only 100 km but would take us 7 days to complete in the horrendous
conditions. The Land Cruisers loaded heavily with 3 months worth of rations and diesel
really battle in the wet conditions, in the end the vehicles get absolutely destroyed.
Once we finally reached our Block, our movements were always gravely restricted
due to the wet conditions, limiting us to inefficient foot patrols from base camp.
Adequately patrolling a 200,000 acre area on foot from a base camp is impossible.
Throughout Tanzania, all Outfitters are faced with similar challenges…
For Years now, the Kruger National Park has been using a Bantam Ultra-light as a
conservation tool. Still with their intensive all weather road networks, their ground
patrols were ineffective so they looked to air and chose the Bantam. Now the KNP
has purchased a couple Bantams and they play an integral part in their conservation
programs. Due to the success KNP has had with it, TWC also bought a Bantam to aid
in their anti-poaching and conservation efforts. Manufactured in New Zealand and
assembled in South Africa, the fixed-winged, conventionally controlled Bantam is
the ultimate tool in African conservation. The powerful 6-cylinder Jabiru engine
can either run on AVGAS or regular 95 Unleaded, cruising at 65 knots, a fuel consumption
of 18 litres an hour should be obtained. The 80 litre fuel tank allows one to fly
safely for almost 4 hours. With an open cockpit and stall speed of 36 Knots, the
visibility from the slow flying Bantam is amazing. With its large wingspan and flaperons,
the Bantam is extremely responsive yet easy to fly. Fitted with the extra large tyres,
all the bantam needs is a rough 200 m strip to safely takeoff and land. At a little
under US$ 40,000, the Bantam is a lot cheaper than a new rigged out Land Cruiser
and 100 times more effective.
But application of the Bantam is so much more than just spotting poaching activity
from the air. In addition to anti-poaching, seasonal game movement and migration
routes can be figured out, game census’s and vegetation assessments be conducted,
road networks improved, new water points and sources found and the photographic and
videographic opportunity is mind blowing. The list could go on and on…
Yes the Bantam is going to aid us in capturing more poachers, but more importantly
it’s the visible presence of the aircraft in the area that’s going to be more of
a deterrent to poachers than anything else. Hopefully TWC has started a new craze
in the Tanzanian conservation circles, if there were more Bantams out there, Tanzania’s
wildlife would be a lot better off!
