With the extremely rapid growth of human population many questions arise pertaining to different issues such as ecology and human-related disasters/man-made climate change, natural resources management, etc. Another topic that many would find to be of a lesser importance is the impact of our growth on other species. Some adapt quite well to the new, man-made environments; the rat is in fact thriving on the garbage we produce in mass quantities. Big-size animals such as the elephant, the tiger, the lion or numerous others are rather on the brink of extinction.
The question we must ask ourselves is the following: what is the extent of the efforts we are willing to make so that other species may cohabit with us? Do we have a conflict with other living beings that inhabit the earth and if so, are we open to make some difficult choices in order to share some of our space with them? Unfortunately, most often the answer is no: we see animals, trees, insects, etc. as a menace to our security and/or well-being or sometimes also as obstacles to our progression/domination. Thus we have found ways to suppress/exterminate them or at least push them away.
There are some tribes in Africa where the lion is seen as an enemy, due to the fact the the lion preys on some of the same livestock as tribesmen do. Some outside entities (who could be considered as mediators in some aspects) are trying to make them change this behavior by paying them for not killing the lions. The goal is to change attitudes by compensating livestock losses with tourism industry's potentially huge profits (no lions = no tourism). This may be hard to implement since killing the lions is ingrained in ancestral traditions, which could make the whole change process difficult to set into place.
Is money the only way to go or is there a change that may come from knowledge and from a change of perspective? Could someone “make” the tribesmen admire and love the lions? The question remains unanswered.
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