Hunger for avocados puts elephants at risk
A key elephant migration route in east Africa is under threat from demand for the hipsters’ favourite brunch.
The soaring craving for avocados has resulted in Kenyans betting their farms on the fruit known as ‘‘green gold’’.
Conservationists are alarmed by plans to choke the Kimana wildlife corridor, which is used by 2000 elephants and hundreds of Masai herders, with 70 hectares of nurseries to produce avocados.
Kenya has the ideal climate for avocados, and exports soared 33 per cent in the 12 months to last October.
Communities on the wildlife corridor near Amboseli National Park are thrilled at the prospect of new jobs, according to Jeremiah Salaash, from commercial farming company KiliAvo Fresh. ‘‘Farms like this bring in employment, increase land value, and show the locals how to better manage their land,’’ he said.
Environmentalists claim, however, that building on the wildlife corridor will force animals to stay put or seek more hazardous migration routes to find grazing and water.
Over three years, researchers
observed elephants making 10,000 trips along the route earmarked for avocado growing, between Amboseli, Tsavo and Chyulu national parks, and more than 25,000 movements by zebra.
‘‘If they are trapped in one place, populations will collapse,’’ said Ernest Lenkoina, a humanelephant conflict specialist at conservation organisation Big Life Foundation. ‘‘The Masai way of life and elephants browsing beneath Mt Kilimanjaro could go forever.’’
Part of the rise in demand for avocados is being driven by young people in China, who are emulating Westerners in developing a taste for guacamole and crushed avocado on sourdough toast.