Gregory Warner

Can Economics Save The African Rhino?

Gregory Warner — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:32:00 +0000

When Duan Biggs was growing up in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, he used to watch elephants and rhinos walking past his bedroom window. He left home to pursue degrees in biology and economics, and when he returned in 2011 the park looked and sounded "like a pseudo war zone," he says.

"There'd be helicopters flying overhead all the time," he says. "I remember one afternoon coming back to my home from a game drive and the bush was crawling with people with assault rifles, from the army, from the police, and from National Parks.

To Count Elephants In The Forest, Look Down

Gregory Warner — Sat, 11 May 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Imagine you're flying in a two-seater plane over Africa, and, in an effort to see how elephants are faring, your job is to count all the ones you see. Over the savannah, that's easy. But how do you peer into the forests, where all you see is treetops?

For years, the zoologists who tried to do this just guessed. But in the late 1980s, conservationist Richard Barnes devised a method to take an elephant census in the densest of forests.

To do this, he recruited young scientists. Winnie Kiiru had just finished grad school in biology and returned to her native Kenya.

With Robocalls, Eritrean Exiles Organize Passive Resistance

Gregory Warner — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:35:00 +0000

Tucked in the northeast corner of Africa, Eritrea is one of the most closed societies in the world, so much so that it's sometimes dubbed the "North Korea of Africa."

President Isaias Afwerki does not tolerate any independent media. The Internet is restricted. Reporters without Borders recently named it 179th out of 179 countries for freedom of expression.

It's illegal to criticize the government — which could mean something as simple as complaining about the city power outage.

787 Dreamliner Could Mean Big Things For Africa's 'Air Wars'

Gregory Warner — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:06:00 +0000

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish. The Dreamliner is coming back. FAA regulators have approved a fix for the Boeing Dreamliner 787, which was grounded around the world out of safety concerns. The first redesigned plane could retake to the skies as soon as this weekend out of Ethiopia. NPR's Gregory Warner explains what the world's most modern aircraft means to the cradle of humanity.

GREGORY WARNER, BYLINE: You know a sector is hot when it gets its own trade magazine.

Western Money, African Boots: A Formula For Africa's Conflicts

Gregory Warner — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:24:00 +0000

For the past six years in Somalia, Western countries have been putting up the cash and African nations have been supplying the soldiers, a formula that has pushed back al-Qaida-linked militants and allowed Somalia to elect it's first democratic government in 20 years.

"We can fix our problems in Africa," says Brig. Michael Ondoga, a contingent commander with the African Union Mission in Somalia or AMISOM.