On Friday, April 22, 2011, I posted an article on this blog, entitled: "AN SOS TO BIRDING AFRICA!" A few days after it was posted online, there was a flurry of activity: as I was inundated with phone calls; text messages and emails from concerned readers - who all wanted to know if Callan Cohen had been in touch with us (the P. E. Thompson Estate (PETE), ie) over the PETE's private Akim Abuakwa Juaso Nature-Resource Reserve (AAJNRR).
Well, I am glad to inform all those concerned nature-lovers round the globe (including the few who follow my @RainForestGhana on Twitter) who contacted me, that Callan Cohen of Birdingafrica, has indeed been in touch.
And what a fantastic human being he is too, it turns out - a kindly gentleman running a truly caring fair-trade eco-tour company, Birdingafrica. Its little wonder Birdingafrica is rated amongst the top five birding tour companies in the world.
(In 2010, Birdwatch magazine voted Birding Africa as one of the top 5 most recommended bird tour companies in the world. - see
www.birdingafrica.com for more survey details.)
His interaction with us could be a case-study of corporate social responsibility that contributes to sustainable rural development in emerging markets, for creative and dynamic business schools, around the world.
Although he hasn't dealt with us before, he has gone out of his way to do everything possible to help us - and as we speak, he is leveraging his personal and professional networks to assist us.
He and Birdingafrica are a real breath of fresh air - in the choking miasma of the invidious corporate green-washing, which goes on daily around the world.
Alas, for us simple and trusting rural folk (including those organic cocoa farmers in temporary exile in the city of Accra's McCarthy Hill - out of the reach of the wealthy criminal syndicates destroying Mother Ghana's natural heritage in Akim Abuakwa, in the Eastern Region, with such impunity!), there are far too many hard-as-nails entrepreneurs busy exploiting poor communities in Africa, and elsewhere in the developing world - communities that in reality, and contrary to the caring fair-trade image the blurb in their marketing literature (both online and hard-copy versions!) seek to convey, they actually don't care one jot about.
It is said that there is no such thing as a virtuous prostitute. In the same vein, a ruthless businessperson can never be a true fair-trade or green entrepreneur. Those clever ruthless-types have simply latched on to green and fair-trade labels, just to enable their businesses gain market share - an advantage they most certainly do not deserve: given their hard-as-nails business ethos.
They would all do well to take a lesson in the art and science of underpinning a business with a genuine fair-trade ethos, from Birdinafrica's Callan Cohen - who is now one if my heroes. And what a hero too.
Thank you so much for everything, Callan - and may Birdingafrica soon come to be rated as the world's leading birding tour company. Both you and your caring business, Birdingafrica, richly deserve it!
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!):+ 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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