From the CIC Homepage

Sustainable Hunting Tourism Accepted as Conservation Tool
Barcelona, 9 October 2008

The CIC held a well-attended workshop on 9th October introducing participants of the World Conservation Congress to the concept of sustainable hunting tourism, identifying hunting as one component of the larger tourism economy and emphasizing the need to develop standards and criteria in support of this sustainable use activity.

The workshop addressed the question: In what way do we need to manage hunting tourism to fulfil the criteria for sustainable development? By way of example three invited speakers showed best sustainable use practices from Europe, Africa and Asia that incorporate conservation, social, economic and cultural values of sustainable hunting tourism.

Sardar Naseer Tareen (Director, Society of Thorgar Environmental Protection, STEP, Pakistan), Carolina Lasén-Diaz (Secretary of the Bern Convention, Council of Europe) and Dr. Nigel Crawhall (Director of Secretariat, Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee, IPACC, Namibia) were interviewed by CIC’s CEO Kai Wollscheid and asked about their approach. These three programs included the rescue of the threatened Markhor in Pakistan, the development of the European Charter for Hunting and Biodiversity and the engagement of local communities through the Namibian Conservancy. These efforts were reviewed by Prof. Shane P. Mahoney (Sustainable Development & Strategic Science Division, Department of Environment and Conservation, Newfoundland), who also highlighted the importance of hunting in the development of human culture and in the conservation of wildlife generally. Prof. Mahoney emphasized that people are and have always been part of the natural world and depended upon wildlife for their existence. The society of today, however, is increasingly disconnected from the natural world, which has resulted in a loss of understanding of its rules and processes.

The workshop was closed by a lively debate, where non-hunters also had the opportunity to share their concerns about the role of hunting in today’s ecosystems. Reference was made from the representative of WWF regarding the role of political stability in the successful conservation activities. Hunting tourism revenues can be re-invested in conservation whereas protected area entry fees often are not re-invested.

Participants agreed that the hunting industry needs appropriate standards and scientific protocols for monitoring hunting’s conservation benefits and impacts. Hunters have to be more open in collecting and sharing transparent data on their hunting trips to support such surveys.

Dr. Crawhall highlighted during the discussions that “many indigenous people don’t look for thousands of tourists to visit their region to get sufficient income – hunting tourism can generate much more money than photographic tourism, with much less visiting tourists”. More benefits with less impact!

Sustainable hunting tourism is not the only solution for the conservation of species, it was stressed, but it has to be considered as one of the most successful and economically viable approaches to the long-term preservation of animal populations, including in some cases, threatened species.

Bwanamich:

My main concern with this article is how will anyone define "sustainable". Is it defined in terms of in that hunting block, in that country or for the species world-wide?

For instance, it is known that there used to be a hunting camp in Tanz right across the border from Amboseli National Park. Some of the biggest Amboseli breeding bulls who the females preferred, and had sired many of the Amboseli elephants, were shot crossing into that hunting camp. This left only 6 of the older breeding bulls left in Amboseli. Thus though bulls numbers were sustainable in Tanz, they were dropping to unsustainable levels in Amboseli.

Thus how will "sustainable" be defined and by whom?

Original von Jan
Bwanamich:

My main concern with this article is how will anyone define "sustainable". Is it defined in terms of in that hunting block, in that country or for the species world-wide?

For instance, it is known that there used to be a hunting camp in Tanz right across the border from Amboseli National Park. Some of the biggest Amboseli breeding bulls who the females preferred, and had sired many of the Amboseli elephants, were shot crossing into that hunting camp. This left only 6 of the older breeding bulls left in Amboseli. Thus though bulls numbers were sustainable in Tanz, they were dropping to unsustainable levels in Amboseli.

Thus how will "sustainable" be defined and by whom?

Hey guys,

it's been very interesting reading all your comments on eco-tourism. I am only begining to investigate the subject, and I am very keen to learn more!

I am currently a third year zoology student at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and I am attempting to design an ecological model which predicts the effects of trophy hunting on populations of big game in Africa, and how useful it can be as a sustainable tool for conservation.

I am searching for some rough data in order to begin my model, such as the numbers of lion/leopard that can be removed from a population without it having a detremental effect. I appreciate that factors such as the age and gender of hunted lions and prey availability are crucial.

Any help or contacts would be much appreciated!

Thanks guys,

John Roberts
j.w.roberts@ncl.ac.uk

John:

Welcoms to bushdrums.

Unfortunately I am not aware of any accurate statistics on lion/leopard deaths that you might use. However, I would suggest you log onto www.wildlifedirect.org. Shivani Bhalla (Ewaso Lions) is a lion researcher in Samburu and she might be able to give you some figures. Also Lion Guardians have their blog on that website and perhaps could also help you in that regard.

You might also contact Kenya Wildlife Service and see if they have any figures they might share with you.

My gut reaction is that any figures you might get are underestimated. Only those cats in areas where there are conservationists or where KWS has been called in would be counted. For instance, in Amboseli the Maasai moran have killed many lions and cubs over the years and I doubt there is a count of those.

Good luck with your research.
- Edited by Jan on 07.11.2008, 15:10 -

HI Jan,

Not sure how I missed your post (2nd post above) for all this time.........Anyway, you bring a valid point and as often happens in such cases, we have to put some trust in our scientists decision to come up with the correct scientific solution. IMO, the definition should be for an ecosystem (or as much of an ecosystem as possible under circumstances)other than for highly migratory species. The latter should be at a national level but with regional limits based again on ecosystems and migratory patterns.

It is interesting to note that following the specific incident you mentioned about the Amboseli bulls that were shot down, all elephant hunting within 150 kms of the Kenya/Tanzania border was banned. This ban was supported by the hunting fraternity in Tanzania who condemmed the actions of 1 unethical professional hunter responsible for that incident.

FYI, with elephants, like other CITES species on appendix II list, hunting quotas are regulated by CITES and issued for a country instead of for an area/block/ecosystem. Tanzania has an allocation of 50 male elephants a year from CITES (out of an estimated population of over 140,000). The average taken by hunters per year has never exceeded 35 animals.

John,
Thanks for your PM which I will reply to in short order.

John - re your project, from expirience you are best to try more "private" and direct approach to get information as NGO's or companies like KWS are very slow to reply if they do at all.
Perhaps Jan's 1st contact could be a good start.
Around the Mara and Ambo in Kenya there are a few projects you can search and look into.

Good luck - and welcome to Bushdrums.

Nico