Authors: Anthony Bourke

Lion Called Christian (18 page)

BOOK: Lion Called Christian

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Forty years later George's work is still continuing, and Christian's magic is again inspiring us to think about the interrelationship of all living creatures, and the urgency of action for wildlife conservation. If all of us touched by Christian's story came together to address some of the issues faced by the global community, what could we achieve together in the spirit of Christian's love and love of life?

The George Adamson
Wildlife Preservation Trust

The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust was founded in 1980 by a group of George's friends and supporters. Following George's murder by poachers at Kora in 1989, Tony Fitzjohn, who had been George's assistant for eighteen years, became the Field Director of the Trust.

The original chairman of the Trust was the late Dr. Keith Eltringham, lecturer in Applied Biology at the University of Cambridge. The present chairman is Bob Marshall Andrews Q.C. M.P., and the trustees are Alan Toulson and Andrew Mortimer, (all old school friends of Tony's at Mill Hill School in London), Anthony Marrian, a Kenyan friend of George and Tony's, Major Bruce Kinloch MG, a former District Gommissioner in Kenya, Chief Game Warden in Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi, and Brian Jackman, the distinguished wildlife journalist and feature writer for the
Sunday Times.
Additional U.K. trustees are John Rendall, Paul Chauveau, James Lucas, Tim Peet, and Peter Wakeham, all of whom bring relevant skills and experience to the development and well-being of the project. Trusts have also been established in the United States, Kenya, Tanzania, Germany, and the Netherlands.

In 1989 the Royal Geographical Society hosted a reception for GAWPT to mark the launch of The Mkomazi Project in Tanzania.

The Mkomazi Game Reserve in northern Tanzania had become degraded with rampant poaching, burning, hunting and widespread human encroachment. In 1988 the Tanzanian government decided to restore the reserve as a wilderness area. Tony Fitzjohn, in conjunction with GAWPT, was offered the opportunity to work in partnership with the Tanzanian government on a program of rehabilitation. This is a multidiscipline program of habitat restoration, infrastructural development, endangered-species programs for the African wild dog and black rhino, community outreach programs for the villages surrounding Mkomazi Game Reserve, and an environmental education program for school pupils from these villages.

Twenty years later Tony and the network of George Adamson trusts can proudly show that the financial support from generous friends and a number of notable charitable trusts has resulted in the upgrading of Mkomazi Game Reserve to National Park status, a successful rhino sanctuary (the only one in Tanzania), and an ongoing captive breeding, veterinary, and reintroduction program for the African wild dog.

Since George's death in 1989, Kora National Park has degenerated from lack of management, funding, and protection from poaching and illegal grazing. The Trust is currently negotiating with Kenyan Wildlife Services to return to Kora, restore George's camp, and rehabilitate the Park.