Using UAVs Against Animal Poachers

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Large mammals such as elephants and rhinos face the risk of extinction because of demand for their horns. This demand has persisted in spite of international  treaties banning the trade in these and other animal trophies. In a number of blog posts such as this I have made the claim that policy based on the need to conserve species such as the elephant have failed to work because the ivory from elephants and rhino are so valuable that a small number of poachers and networks of crime are able to harvest them and illegally appropriate large financial gains. In parts of east Africa, the poachers have continued to utilize high powered weapons to kills elephants in order to meet the large demand for ivory in south eastern Asia generally and in China in particular.  

The claim of this blogger is that while treaties are useful for an coordinated approach to a problem that transcends borders, it is unlikely to be useful because of the strong financial incentives. To my mind, the solution must involve both a market approach and a technological approach. An article in the Scientific American discussed a high end technological approach that includes use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance of vast parks in order to alert rangers to the existence of poachers. This innovative use of technology is a welcome addition to the quest to detect and deter poachers. It is too early to tell how effective this new approach will be but it cannot be the silver bullet to ending poaching. It is still possible that the assignment of property rights on the endangered animals would ensure that a more comprehensive set of approaches are invented to reduce the high premium that poachers extract from illegal trade. 

Will Information Be Free?

"The information revolution did not make information free. What it did was transfer the money from producers of information to the owners of the technologies that deliver it to their audience." Eduardo Porter, in, The Price of Everything; The True Cost of Living. p. 141. 

Is Africa Really Taking Off?

I am a keen student of economic development and transformation and therefore tries to figure out time and again where the growth of regions and nations will come from. Four years ago, it became clear that the world economy could not run entirely on US and European strength as the economic crisis devastated large firms. This also led to unemployment that has hardly been wound down in the US and a majority of European countries. This episode led analysts to look elsewhere and the rise of the BRICs became even more salient. Apart from that, it is clear that the new economic story is that sub-Saharan African nations have been leading in growth with six nations being among the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world in the last decade.

The business and economics press has understandably been stating that a continent once considered completely hopeless seems to have found its feet with impressive GDP growth rates ranging from 5-10% annually for most of these countries in Africa. Writing in Slate Magazine here, Francis Njubi Nesbitt  reiterates the story of emerging Africa and isolates a select number of countries that have done dine very well over the period being reviewed. It is no doubt that everyone is glad to applaud the progress made and to consider that Africa seems to be confounding the pundits. To my mind, it is at such moments that scholars and analysts should be cautious and circumspect.I state four main reasons below.

First, it is clear that the nations of the continent have benefited substantially from the commodities export boom that coincided with this period. It is clear that this is not the exclusive factor alone that has not driven the growth but it is worth stating that the momentum from higher commodity prices has been helpful. For that reason, there is need to be cautious because commodity booms do not last and increased expansion of prospecting for natural resources or expanded acreage in agriculture will reduce returns over the medium term. Except for the countries with a broad economic base (few in Africa have attained this), this growth momentum is still at risk.

Secondly, looking at the historical record, many African nations have had spurts of growth of this nature before. The main problem is that only Mauritius and Botswana have managed medium growth rates for more than one decade. As the report by the Commission on Growth and Development confirms, attaining high rates of growth on its own is difficult though momentarily possible but keeping high growth rates for a long period is historically rare throughout the world. It is not clear to me that the growth for many of these countries has a sufficiently diverse base to ensure that transformation will continue to occur. Credit to the economic managers of sub-Saharan Africa for getting growth up but I see no fundamental reasons that it will endures for throughout the entire set of individual nations.

The third factor straddles the nature of governments and how these will affect the required reforms in African nations. Bearing in mind that many sub-Saharan countries are not fully developed as democracies, there remains a big risk that their full development will continue. This is a critical factor because Ghana and South Africa are exceptions as structured democracies while most of Africa remains in a that half-way place between democracy and autocratic regimes. tThe nature of government remains a big political risk for most of these nations and the stability of regimes is not a given yet.

Finally, my assessment is that the growth that has taken place in sub-Saharan Africa proves that economic reforms undertaken in the mid-1990s and early part of this century were needed. A second phase of deregulation and economic reform to generate efficiency is required to keep the growth momentum going. tThis means that the benefits generated by reforms of one decade ago will be exhausted and will need to be buttressed by a set of reforms including trade liberalization, reduction of tariffs, competition policy enforcement,  increased transparency and public sector reforms. Given the nature of politicians that rule the continent today and the fact that growth has happened, it probably will take another crisis for the second gear of reforms to be engaged. For a continent led by populist leaders, making these bold and politically risky refroms will cause significant discomfort.

Looking at these four reasons, one urges a more incisive diagnosis of sub-Saharan Africa. It is too early to make the claim that the nations of this continent have emerged as future powers. oOf concern to me is the hubris of the leadership, disdain for different views and the talking up of the whole continent by both international and local press. The continent is not out of the woods yet and is certainly not at the same level as Asia. There's more work for its people to do. pPerhaps the savvy leaders should start with some reading of the Growth Commission's Report.