Beauty and the Beef

Description: African farmers living in areas with wildlife are faced with a serious dilemma: they cannot sell their healthy, free range beef to the lucrative export market. Current international trade practices dictate that they cannot protect the wildlife and, at the same time, farm their cattle in the same general area. If they want to export their beef to wealthy nations, they will have to get rid of all the wild buffalo and put up environmentally damaging veterinary fences. Robin Lyonga lives in the spectacular and largely unspoilt environment of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. He and his community are poor. What should he choose when trying to lift himself and his community out of poverty: protecting the wildlife and pursuing opportunities related to ecotourism and trophy hunting, or turning his back on conservation and selling his cattle into the lucrative beef export market? The truth is that there is a win-win solution: Robin Lyonga and his community can earn an income from conservation and sell their beef to the export market. All that is needed to enable this potentially bright future for millions of African cattle farmers is a small change in attitude on the part of wealthy trading nations. Copyright: University of Pretoria. Video footage and editing: Game trapped in veterinary fences: The Environmental Investigation Agency (UK). Photographs: Game trapped in fences: Arthur Anderson. Production/Graphic design/Animations: M&M Pictures. Voice-over: Mr C Lemba. Permission / Assistance: The following Institutions provide permission and assistance in the gathering of video material: Robin Lyonga and family, Namibia The Mashi Conservancy, Namibia Namushasha Country Lodge, Namibia Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Namibia The Meat Board, Namibia State Veterinary Services, Namibia Namibia Film Commission Integrated Rural Development & Nature Conservation, Namibia. Produced for: Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria. Funded by: The production of this DVD was supported financially by the Institutional Collaboration project between the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, and the Animal Health Department of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. More information is available through the African Veterinary Information Portal (AfriVIP) at: http://www.afrivip.org/education/livestock and http://www.afrivip.org/education/trade-marketing/int-trade-marketing/2014 AfriVIP is not responsible for verifying the proprietary content of the materials. Any veterinary medical information in this material is intended to inform and educate and is not a tool for diagnosis or a replacement for veterinary evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a veterinary professional. Viewer discretion is advised: Some veterinary content is graphic and may not be suitable for all viewers. Copyright: This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (c) 2016 University of Pretoria, South Africa