I had just finished my recent article to hunt Africa when I came across an article suggesting a dilemma. In the wake of COVID; To Conserve or Hunt?
A little education is in order here. Conservation is inclusive of Hunting. The term Preservation done on a country scale is to disclude hunting and unfortunately insures the reverse of wildlife and habitat safety. Wildlife will self-destruct the biodiversity of the landscape by over population and destruction of plant, trees and other wildlife that make up the ecosystem.
In Africa as in the rest of the world; Conservation requires the use of Hunting as a management and essential funding tool to manage, species, diversity, land use, interaction with humans. Funding in the Billions of dollars.
The facts are that with COVID 19 raging world wide that ecotourism and trophy hunting in Africa has been hurt badly. But it is recognized by scientists and managers that eco-tourism and photo tourism does not generate the funds to create flourishing business and commerce, nor pay enough for proper wildlife management.
Quote from the website below:
“Wildlife conservation hasn’t escaped the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is largely due to the fact that tourism funding, which supports the conservation of wide swaths of Africa and some 23 million livelihoods, has all but dried up.
Wildlife-based tourism in Africa is worth approximately US$71 billion annually. Much of this funds the management of protected areas. For example, the protection of just one white rhinoceros at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy costs about US$10,000 each year.
Since the start of the pandemic there’s been a cut to funds for anti-poaching, surveillance and fence line management in most African reserves. Trophy hunting is a key source of this funding. It contributes an estimated $200 million to economies across the continent annually.
Trophy hunting takes place across much of sub-Saharan Africa with South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania holding the lion’s share of the market. The debate over its utility as a source of conservation revenue takes on a new urgency in the light of COVID-19.”
https://theconversation.com/covid-19-africas-conservation-and-trophy-hunting-dilemma-140029
Without hunting, Africa and ALL its wildlife will surely be on the endangered species list and that includes the rest of the wide world as well.
Hunting provides billions of pound of lean organic protein for human consumption and a connection with the land, earth, and our DNA as hunter gatherers.
And I am so glad to be a part of it.
Good Hunting!
