football's not a matter of life or death, it's nudge more important than that.
My 6-year-old boy and I were listening to
the keeper talk at the giraffe enclosure in Melbourne Zoo, who gave us the gist
of the following story.
The giraffes in the zoo have come from the Melako
Conservancy in Northern Kenya, one of 26 community conservation areas managed
by the Northern Rangelands Trust.
This area covers about 1500 square miles and,
alongside the giraffes, it is home to approximately 40,000 Rendille people, semi-nomadic
groups who’s main livelihood revolves around rearing of livestock.
In traditional Rendille culture, young men
between the ages of 13 and 25 went through initiation to gain status and become
a warrior.
Among the rituals the hunting and killing
of the native animals such as giraffes, zebras and oryx.
The traditional role of the warrior had
been to protect the community, acquire livestock and, as a by product, demonstrate their 'fitness' and gain subsequent status and reproductive advantages.
The top boys would obviously become tribe leaders of the future, with all the
perks that go with that role.
Times have changed, there’s less imperative
for young Rendille men to become traditional warriors however old habits die
hard and the lads tended to still cause trouble with rival gangs, hunt the wildlife,
to jostle for group status.
The bigger problem now is that certain
species including Beisa oryx, Grevy’s zebra, giraffe and gerenuk are now
becoming endangered.
So the NRT people and representatives from
Zoo’s Victoria came up with an intervention that they hoped would work with the
need for the nascent warriors to compete for group status but divert it away
from the behaviours that put the animals under threat.
It turns out that the Rendille boys other
principle interest other than the activities mentioned, was soccer*.
So the NRT and ZV set about bringing in the
kit needed to set up pitches, balls and strips.
The Melako league now consists of 16 teams.
The nudgey bit is that the teams are named
after the wildlife that were previously under threat and incorporated into the
team badges printed on the team shirt.
The NRT are measuring the impact of this in
a reduction in what they call flight distance.
When wildlife is feels stressed or harassed
it is more difficult for humans to get close to them, resulting in longer
flight distance.
When wildlife feel less wary of humans then
the flight distance is shorter and it is easier to get closer to them, and to
count the numbers.
According to our zookeeper friend, the
numbers are improving.
*I'm using the term soccer so as not to confuse with the strange game that passes as football in Australia, ok?
