OP
OP
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2003
- Messages
- 13,329
HGUNHNTR,
Interesting,
Hunting has been banned in Kenya since 1978 therefore there is no "trophy hunting" business there. And Uganda just reopened to hunting two years ago and has a very small nearly insignificant hunting industry. Considering the locations mentioned I'm thinking your sources are feeding you flawed and anecdotal information.
Pure and simple and the facts bear out that countries which allow safari hunting have large healthy populations of game. Those that banned it do not. Kenya being the prime example.
Are there going to be some dirty back alley deals cut in any business that involves cash and profit? Especially in a cash strapped third or fourth world African republic? Of course there will, that's how business works in those places. With that in mind all one has to do is take a quick look at Kenya and the wildlife population crash after the hunting ban to see what happens to wildlife in Africa if it isn't paying it's own way.
There is plenty of information out there on the subject written by biologist, conservationist the UN and NGO's (one who are not funded by animal rights organizations) if you are interested in how the Safari industry has kept game populations healthy and profitable. Please don't take my word for it. Start by looking up the White Rhino population recovery.
Just a quick example lets take Botswana. They have over 100,000 elephant and a carrying capacity of less than that. They allow approximately 300 trophy elephant licenses per year. Those licenses along with other species are the primary, almost in fact sole source of revenue for the entire game department and many villages depend entirely on the jobs and communal revenue that is derived from the hunting industry.
Take the hunting away and within a short period those elephant are now worthless, in fact a liability to the locals, and guess what happens next? If the elephant are eating your crops smashing your lapas and chasing your women out of the fields and you no longer have a job because you used to be a tracker or a skinner or a driver or a cook or a maintenance guy or a game scout or any other myriad of functions for a safari camp. All of a sudden the only way you can feed and cloth your family and go get drunk on Friday night is by poaching those elephant and selling their teeth to the Chinese gangs that buy ivory. Now the game department has no funds to fight the rampant poaching and has to beg for money that is quickly drained on an ineffectual anti poaching effort that will fail and the world elephant population will once again crash to almost unsustainable levels. And people like your friends can scream "LOOK I TOLD YOU SO it's those DAMN HUNTERS KILLING ALL THE ELEPHANTS." Just like they did during the 80's after the hunting ban went into effect and the elephant was almost wiped out by commercial scale poaching.
With all due respect to your friends in Kenya and Uganda I really don't understand why this is so hard to grasp. Especially if you live in Kenya and have a real life example of this exact scenario staring you right in the face. Unless of course you live in a mega city like Nairobi or some such and you have about as much understanding of wildlife conservation as your average New Yorker. Of course saying you are from "Africa" holds way to much water with most people who have never been there. Most people hear Africa and think National Geographic when in reality the majority of "Africans" now days are urbanized and clueless just like most Americans.
I also have a friend in Kenya named Dr. Dave Hopcraft (PHD in zoology) who owns and operates a 100,000 + acre ranch in the N'Gong district he is a fifth generation white Kenyan. He's got a bit different take on the hunting ban and the safari industry than your friends do. He and his fellow land owners/managers have been petitioning the government to lift the hunting ban at least on private lands for decades. The ministers in government have been given irrefutable proof and about the damage the hunting ban has caused. However every time the referendum comes up for vote the international animal rights organizations start handing out a new batch of fancy cars, houses and cash to the right members of government. Magically the hunting ban which is always soundly defeated by the popular vote is upheld by the higher members of parliament who have veto power and have received the biggest and juiciest bribes by the various well funded animal rights organizations.
It would be interesting to me to hear how your friends address this very well documented and repeated cycle that is the rampant governmental corruption that has kept hunting ban in Kenya alive. I would especially like to hear how they justify screaming corruption in the hunting industry when they live in a country that doesn't allow it.
