Exploring Africa

Reading audio



2004-11-16

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
Today we visit Africa with a well known biologist and explorer.

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J. Michael Fay, Explorer.<br />
(Picture - PBS)
J. Michael Fay, Explorer.
(Picture - PBS)

VOICE ONE:

On World Environment Day last June, explorer J. Michael Fay began
exploring Africa from the air. Mister Fay is flying over one hundred
sixty thousand kilometers of the continent's wildest forests and
most densely populated areas. He and his pilot, Peter Ragg of
Austria, are making photographic records of fifty of the fifty-four
countries of Africa.

The two also are meeting with African environmental activists and
government officials. Mister Fay wants to find places that could be
officially declared areas of conservation where wildlife can be
protected. And he also wants a closer look at the populated areas.

VOICE TWO:

Many people believe that Africa has endless undeveloped land.
Michael Fay does not think so. He says humans are changing some of
the world's last totally wild areas. And he believes it is important
to save parts of Africa in their natural form.

Michael Fay was born and educated in the United States. He earned
a doctorate degree in anthropology from Washington University in
Saint Louis, Missouri. He went to Africa as an unpaid worker with
the Peace Corps in nineteen seventy-eight. That is when he
discovered the place that would guide his life's work.

For more than twenty years, he has lived in central Africa. The
continent is now his home. It is also the heart of his work. Mister
Fay is an expert about plants and animals. He is also an expert
photographer. In his forty-five years, he has explored thousands of
kilometers of land. Michael Fay has survived many dangers. One very
bad day, he was attacked and injured by an angry elephant.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Fay is now flying over Africa in a forty-year-old,
single-engine airplane. The pilot, Peter Ragg, owns the plane. He
painted it bright red. The National Geographic Society and the
Wildlife Conservation Society are paying for the trip. Both groups
have headquarters in the United States. The trip is called the
Africa MegaFlyover. It is expected to end next August. It is the
most far-reaching study by air of the people, animals and plants of
Africa.

VOICE TWO:

Michael Fay's flying conservation project began June fifth with
great ceremony at the Swartkop Air Force Base in South Africa. One
hundred eighty-two people celebrated the launch of the MegaFlyover.
The United States ambassador to South Africa, Cameron Hume, was
among the guests. So was Virginia Rathebe (Rah TEH bay), a
traditional tribal healer. She offered good wishes for the
exploration.

Other aircraft also lifted off with Mister Fay's plane. They
included members of the Bataleurs, a team of South African pilots.
This group is named for a bird. Its members fly over Africa for
environmental causes. The Bateleurs are supporting Mister Fay's
project in a number of ways.

A South African Air Force helicopter also started with the
MegaFlyover team. The helicopter carried twelve photographers. They
recorded the beginning of the air travels of Michael Fay and Peter
Ragg.

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VOICE ONE:

J. Michael Fay has made many extended and difficult trips. In
nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand, for example, he walked three
thousand two-hundred kilometers across Africa. This project was
called the Megatransect. His goal was to record every kind of plant
and animal he found on his walk. A team of Africans walked with him.
At times, National Geographic magazine photographer Michael Nichols
joined the group.

Their explorations took them through the Central African
Republic, Congo and Cameroon. The walk took fifteen months and ended
in Gabon. Mister Fay chose areas to explore where few or no people
lived. He called these places the Last of the Wild, or the Wildest
of the Wild.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Fay's travels showed the world that Gabon had areas that
needed to be protected. After his visit, Gabon's President Omar
Bongo officially opened thirteen national parks in the nation.
Mister Fay's Megatransect walk raised more than one hundred million
dollars. The money is aiding six central African nations to protect
their wild areas.

He said the results of his walking travels caused him to start
his current flying trip. He said he wanted to do for all of Africa
what he had done for Gabon.

VOICE ONE:

As you might think, Mister Fay's Megatransect walk was not easy.
His team had to cross rivers and jungles. They had to deal with wild
animals, snakes and insects. Gorillas and elephants visited the
explorers. They watched the group before retreating back into the
thick green jungle. Some of the members of the team suffered
diseases including malaria, hepatitis and pneumonia.

VOICE TWO:

An unusual map helped make possible both Mister Fay's walking
trip and his current air travels. He was able to use such a map
because the world changed dramatically during the nineteen nineties.
Many years of tensions ended between western nations and the former
Soviet Union.After that, the American government released some
satellite images. Civilians now can map the whole world much better
than before.

VOICE ONE:

The new information helped scientists in New York City make an
extremely useful map. Workers at the Wildlife Conservation Society
and New York University created this Human Footprint Map. The map
got its name because it recognizes areas of human activity.

It also shows land cover, roads, rivers and coastlines. It shows
different areas like deserts and wet lands. It shows electrical
power use at night. From this information, it has become clear that
people have used and changed most of the livable surface of the
planet.

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VOICE TWO:

Michael Fay and Peter Ragg are following the Human Footprint Map
from their plane. They also are adding to it. They are taking
photographs with a digital camera every sixteen seconds. The images
show uses of land and kinds of soil. When these images are combined,
they should make a complete picture of the Wildest of the Wild.

Mister Fay hopes to propose detailed conservation projects in
Africa from the observations. He will present these plans to the
United States and other governments and organizations. His goal, as
always, is to help save the wild areas for the future of humanity.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Fay's observations about Africa do not stop with
conservation efforts. He observes crowded areas near national
borders. Then he notes nearby unpopulated land.

The explorer says people without land traditionally move into
empty land. For example, he says central Africans are moving west
even though they may cross political borders. He believes that
border crossings are causing conflicts in the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda
and Sudan.

Mister Fay says observations made possible by the Human Footprint
Map have created a whole new science. He says this science can tell
what group will attack another --- and when this could happen.

The results of people moving to get natural resources may be
political, Mister Fay reasons. But he says the conflict is really
not about politics. Instead, he says it involves use or misuse of
the resources. For example, he charges that most of the wood cut in
central Africa is burned or wasted.

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VOICE TWO:

Some of the most dramatic problems of Michael Fay's MegaFlyover
took place during its early months. That is when the little red
plane passed over wildlife protection areas, national animal parks
and totally unpopulated areas in South Africa. By the time the team
left South Africa for Namibia, it had equaled the distance between
Paris, France and Bangkok, Thailand.

Their plane has given the explorers some bad moments. For
example, on an extremely windy day, the pilot was trying to land the
plane. Mister Fay reported to the Bateleurs that the speed of the
plane jumped from fifty to one hundred fifty knots. Then it slowed
again. He compared the flight to a rollercoaster ride at an
amusement park.

VOICE ONE:

But the plane landed safely. If they continue to have good luck,
the flying environmental explorers will finish their work in about
nine months. By that time, Michael Fay should have a very good idea
of where to protect African land that is the Wildest of the Wild.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario
Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another
EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.


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