Visiting Artist? Dr Peter Smallwood

Not technically an artist but I went to see Peter Smallwood's, lecture titled "Wildlife Conservation in Conflict Zones," held in the Pace Center church on Wednesday. He's a University of Richmond professor and Wildlife Conservation Society worker, and the most intriguing thing I found out in his lecture was how biodiverse Afghanistan, the country in which he's been working, really is. I've always thought of the place as essentially a desert, but in fact there are many different environments including high altitude, middle highlands, and wetlands, that all house a wide variety of species. For example there are a total of 9 different native cat species, and until just recently that number was in the double digits. One of them, the snow leopard, lives in the mountains on the NE strip extending from the country, and is extremely rare. It was only fairly recently that it was even caught on film. The country also has black bears very similar to ours, porcupines, and even flamingos.

















He also stressed the importance of working with the local people since, as I touched on in earlier posts, their needs must often be met in order to protect those of the wildlife. This is especially the case there, as the biggest threat to the wildlife is overpopulation. While the highlands were generally a safe-haven, conservationists had to be weary when working in the mainland areas, as over 2/3 of it is considered very insecure and susceptible to conflict. He also spoke about his efforts to create Band-i-Amir National Park, located in one of the most rigid and beautiful areas of the country that represents the closest icon of national identity that the people have. The landscape is splintered with jagged peaks and lakes that can actually be raised above the ground, held by ribbon-like walls of rock. I've never seen anything like it before. The final thing he mentioned that I found interesting were the opportunities that students back in Richmond had to take part in the efforts. They assisted in documenting the country's species, and even took part in a video conference with the local scientists.

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