(source: Southern Sudan Referendum Commission & Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau)

As expected, a near unanimous choice for independence was cast by the more than 3.8 million voters who voted 98.83% for secession. The Governments of Sudan and Southern Sudan now have until July 9 — when the declaration of independence is scheduled — to negotiate through a series of unresolved issues.

On January 27, I spoke with Bonifacio Taban Kuich, a reporter based in the Southern Sudanese town of Bentiu in the heart of oil the producing region of Unity State. His reporting can be read at the Sudan Tribune as well as on Voice of America. He tells us about the situation in Unity state: the return of over 100,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from Khartoum and elsewhere; the military buildup of SAF and SPLA troops in the border regions; the reactions to the referendum results of northern merchants living in the south and of southern oil workers; and other issues affecting Unity State.

The following audio report podcast taken from the interview was aired Wednesday, February 2 during weekly the African Issues show, Amandla on Montréal’s CKUT Radio 90.3 FM.

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According to the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission, 3,755,512 voters registered in Southern Sudan, while 116,857 voters registered in Northern Sudan and another 60,219 voters registered in 8 designated out-of-country locations (Australia, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the UK and the USA.)  According to reports like this one, the 60% voter participation threshold was reached on the third day of voting, thereby validating the process.

(Children pose beside a damaged water tanker outside of a school in Abyei, April 2009)

SouthSudanInfo.net’s blogger, David Widgington, spoke with Montréal broadcaster, Gwendolyn Schulman, on the CKUT weekly (Wed. 7-8pm) radio show about African issues, Amandla. In the recording below, Gwen and David discuss the following unresolved issues 1) the border demarcation between north and south, including Abyei; 2) Sharing of oil revenue and infrastructure; 3) the management of the Nile floodwaters; 4) citizenship, right to return and security; 5) repayment of the Sudan national debt.

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PODCAST

Below are a few maps from various sources, pilfered from the BBC and elsewhere that display information about Sudan’s physical geography, ethnic group distribution, infant mortality rates, access to water & sanitation facilities, education rates, food consumption percentages, location of oil production infrastructure, language diversity and religions practiced. They are recent additions to my Mapping Sudan page that I share with you here.

Satellite Image Map

(Source: NASA)

Ethnic Group Distribution

(Source: Dr. M. Isady, http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/maps.shtml)

Distribution of Religion

(Source: Dr. M. Isady, http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/maps.shtml)

Languages in Sudan

(Source: Dr. M. Isady, http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/maps.shtml)

Infant Mortality Rates

(Source: Sudan Household Health Survey, 2006)

Percentage Using ‘Improved’ Water & Sanitation

(Source: Sudan Household Health Survey, 2006)

Percentage of Children Who Completed Primary School

(Source: Sudan Household Health Survey, 2006)

Percentage Households with ‘Poor’ Food Consumption

(Source: Sudan Household Health Survey, 2006)

(source: Drilling Info International)

[Montréal, Québec, Canada -2°C] Before the last civil war started in Sudan in 1983, the country’s protected areas, according to the Wildlife Conservaton Society, “supported some of the most spectacular and important wildlife populations in Africa, and hosted the second largest wildlife migration in the world.” According to their website, “During an aerial survey, more than 1.3 million white-eared kob, tiang (African antelope), and mongalla gazelle are thriving in Southern Sudan.” And apparently, an estimated 8,000 elephants are located within the Jonglei region and particularly in Boma National Park.

To the surprise of researchers, wildlife remains plentiful in southern Sudan's Boma National Park, despite a long civil war, which ended in 2005. Here, a herd of elephants move through a grassland in the park. (Miguel Juarez for NPR)

This seems like such good news considering that all other information coming from Sudan is about war crimes in Darfur, tribal conflict, a fragile peace agreement and upcoming elections which may or may not be fair and free.

Sudan’s central and southern governments are over-dependent on oil for their respective revenues. Considering most of the developed oil fields straddle the as-yet-undemarkated border that situates the south, oil will play an important role in the country’s ability to hold on to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and avoid a third civil war.

Within the volatile political context that is Sudan, there has been little to no reporting on the country’s natural environment and the potential for wildlife reserves and national parks to become an important source of revenue for the South. Tanzania’s revenues from safari tourism is their second largest source of foreign currency after agricultural exports. And it is steadily growing.

The south is now seriously underdeveloped and lacking in general infrastructure and its primary foreing trade is done in oil, which is managed by the Central govenrment in Khartoum who shares the revenues with the government of Southern Sudan. The South has other exports like gum Africa to gain some foreign currency for its own development but it needs more revenue streams and with greater dieversity.

Of course it will take a while to develop the infrastructure for safari tourism but the southeastern region of Southern Sudan seems apt to offer an important future source of revenue that can rival oil exports.

Considering that wildlife tourism could be added to the important oil export to earn foreign capital, the region’s national parks and wildlife reserves could provide a genuine revenue stream for Southern Sudan’s economy that would diminish oil dependence.

Sudan Oil / Wildlife Overlay (source: Wildlife Conservation Society and European Coalition on Oil in Sudan, 2007)

Sudan Oil / Wildlife Overlay (source: Wildlife Conservation Society and European Coalition on Oil in Sudan, 2007)

How will an oil economy adapt to an emerging wildlife conservation economy? Just how do the two share the land? I thought it would be interesting to visualize how the two might complement or conflict with one another. Wildlife conservation and resource exploitation do not make good bedfellows and are unable to share the territory.

The map to the left is an overlay of two maps: one of national parks and wildlife reserves taken from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the other is of oil concessions and exploited oil fields taken from the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan.

It would seem that the Zeraf Reserve and the proposed extension are located in Blocks A, 5A and 5B, three very active regions of oil exploration and exploitation, particularly Block 5A.

The Southern National Park seems to be outside any region of exploration. The Boma National Park as well as the proposed Bandingallo National Park are within Block B at the fringes of oil exploration but not at risk of exploitation and future exploitation.

How these two ‘resources’ will coexist has yet to be seen. Hopefully, the Southern Sudanese will recognize the long-term benefits of protecting the land and its wildlife for their own benefit and the benefit of wildlife enthusiasts rather than succumb to foreign lust for oil. If the so-called ‘international community’ is genuinely interested in helping Sudan hold on to its fragile peace and preventing a third civil war in the Sudan, it needs to begin washing the bloody oil of its hands and help build a local industry that brings money into the country rather than take resources out.

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Further reading:

- After Sudan’s Civil War: Where the Wild Things Are. NPR’s WBUR Radio.

- Fragile peace may unravel in Southern Sudan. CNN

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Below is a video from CNN that give us a first-time glimpse of oil well pollution in Southern Sudan.