When I worked as a foreign correspondent and journalist in Africa during the last Century, I had the incredible privilege to meet, interview and become friendly with a panopoly of people in all walks of life. They all left me so much richer for the experience.

One of the most notable of these extraordinary people was an ex-soldier and chartered accountant who became a mentor to me. He was Col. Mervyn Hugh Cowie C.B.E. who about 80 years ago singlehandedly took on Britain’s Colonial Office in London and managed to get the British Government to change its policy of encouraging the hunting of all wild animals as a means of gaining foreign tourist dollars and spreading urbanisation through land clearing.

To achieve this extraordinary effort in the face of stiff political opposition from determined Government officials in Whitehall and from thousands of local wildlife hunters, Mervyn used the theory of reverse psychology. He wrote a series of letters published in the East African Standard, calling for all non-domestic animals in the wild to be shot and killed in favour of creating more farmlands.

This well architected ploy created such a public furore in East Africa and London that the British Government relented, changed its policy and the governments of Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda agreed to the establishment of national parks in their territories, just as Mervyn had planned.

The now famous Nairobi National Park was Mervyn’s first ‘baby’ with it being established shortly after World War 11. This was followed by the creation of a series of national parks throughout East Africa, including that on the well tourist visited Serengeti Plains with its annual wildebeest and zebra run.

My friend soon became Kenya’s Director of Wildlife and Minister for Manpower and in 1952 was responsible for persuading the late Prince Philip to start the World Wildlife Fund. This was when Mervyn was host to Princess Elizabeth and her husband on a royal tour of Kenya and when the Princess became Queen on the death of the King, her father.

Mervyn had always given his unflinching and full support to the WWF and, after his retirement in Kenya, took over the organisation’s reins. He sadly died in 1996 and is particularly well-known for his five books including “I Walk With The Lions.” And walk with the lions he certainly did without as much as a sign of fear on his face.

A hands-on conservationist, Mervyn was responsible for the preservation of millions of animals which managed to multiply for over three decades as a result of the shelter he provided them from harm.

There is no doubt that Col. Mervyn Cowie would turn in his grave if he knew how the more recent droughts and poaching in East Africa have seriously diminished the number of animals of all species.

As Africa’s forests, rivers and grazing lands continue to disappear, it is clear that habitat loss is currently the greatest threat to wildlife on that continent. There are, in fact, fewer and fewer places for Mervyn’s previous wildlife charges to call home.

It is officially estimated that the survival of over 2,000 species of animals are currently under threat. Poaching was responsible last year for 23 tons of illegal ivory seized by police and representing the death of over 2,500 elephants. Urbanisation has done the rest.

Since Mervyn’s days, Africa’s guerilla population has been whittled down to 40 per cent following a need for poachers to provide guerilla meat on the black market.

The 40,000 head of game in Nairobi National Park has been seriously reduced by 20 per cent and, three years ago, starvation caused the death of 85 rhinoceroses in Tsavo National Park, leaving only an estimated 2,000 left throughout Kenya. These great lumbering animals are dying at an annual rate of about 500 head but only an average of 125 are being born during the same period.

Unlike the time when Mervyn took on officialdom to recognise the welfare of wild animals, the authorities of today believe that game parks and animals are a threat to agriculture and are dismantling some of Mervyn’s original conservation work.

As for Mervyn the man, I have heard him say that human beings will only have respect for themselves when they respect all the animals on this globe, including the wildest of those in Africa.