Hi all, this guide blog is great, and already we are learning more. Markus (Walking Guide Olivers Camp) shared some really interesting info with me the other day and I had no idea this was happening. The info that he send me was horrific and rather upsetting. Markus has a friend who is a guide and also a vet and she also does allot of work for Piece Parks and Elephants and she send him a article concerning possible hunting in Kenya.
As you will read in the article (which I will include at the bottom of the post) Kenya's wildlife is under tremendous pressure from Human encroachment and the result of this is alarming and increased poaching. While the wildlife is already under pressure, some American companies want to introduce sport hunting back into Kenya. Now...we al know that hunting does have its benefits and brings in a massive amount of income for countries and job opportunities, but this needs to be done ethically and based on scientific research whether or not these animals are in good number. There are some really good hunting companies out there and they hunt professionally and ethically and they are great conservationists and guides, but there are also some that are not.
As Safari Guides there are normally topics that we try and avoid with guests, topics like religion, politics, sex and hunting as these topics can lead on to heated debates and arguments. This post will be good for you to read and keep for yourself so that you are aware what goes on in other countries and generally what our wildlife has to deal with, if only they could speak for themselves !!!
By Chris Mercer
Hunting, along with dealing in wildlife trophies, has been banned in
Kenya since 1977. Trophy hunting was accurately described by the new
Kenyan democratic government as ‘a barbaric relic of colonialism.’
Unfortunately, other assaults on wildlife have been at work.
A wave of migration from strife-torn Somalia and Sudan has aggravated
the human over-population. The Kenyan birth rate is among the highest
in the world. The population has risen from five million in 1946 to
thirty million in 2006. This has resulted in massive human
encroachment into range land areas which surround the game parks and
that in turn causes human - animal conflict,and the snaring of
wildlife on an unimaginable scale. Kenya’s wildlife has declined over
40 percent in general terms in the last few years with some species
such as buffalo declining over 90 percent in numbers. Roan Antelope
are down to 900 (from an estimated 20,000.)
Photographer, Rob Carr Hartley believes that within a few years Tsavo
West National Park may be denuded of it's wildlife. Poaching is
completely out of control. Deforestation in all six watershed areas of
Kenya is causing the rivers to dry up and even some lakes and rivers
such as the Mara, are expected to run dry soon. Kenyan wildlife
wildlife woes of such magnitude, adding hunting pressures will simply
aggravate the problems, and could properly be described as
environmental terrorism.
In 2004 a lavishly financed campaign by Safari Club International
involved flying Kenyan conservationists and officials to exclusive,
elite hunting farms in South Africa and Zimbabwe in order to persuade
the Kenyan government to resume trophy hunting. The President decided
to refer the hunting issue to a national public participation process,
starting with a Wildlife Symposium, which took place in September
2006. The government appointed a Steering Committee, who asked me to
attend, as I have campaigned against canned hunting for years.
The reason for holding the Symposium was to test Kenyan public opinion
on the issue. However the hunting industry never sleeps and the
conference was sponsored by USAID, an American Foreign Aid agency with
close links to Safari Club International, and greatly involved in
using U.S taxpayer's funds to benefit the hunting fraternity through
schemes such as the notorious Campfire programme in Zimbabwe. The
incontestable fact is that American tax funds were used to finance an
expensive international conference in Nairobi whose sole relevance to
Americans was to enable the trophy hunters to devastate wild lion
prides and other animals in East Africa – for fun.
The Symposium itself was a great success. It was attended by about 160
people and included the director of Kenya Wildlife Services, members
of parliament, and other dignitaries. It was jam packed for both days
by everyone who was anyone in wildlife conservation. It was mid-
afternoon before I got up to speak and show my presentation. There
were gasps of shock from the audience as the first videos showed a
poor lioness being shot out of a tree with an arrow and a wounded lion
charging a hail of bullets from a mob of hunters. When I followed this
by explaining the colonial aspects of hunting there were spontaneous
cheers from many delegates. The sponsors looked shocked.
The conference was not playing out as planned. The meeting became
intense. As I explained how hunting propaganda deceives the unwary,
with video footage for visuals, the symposium became noisy, with loud
cheering for each point made. Then I got onto the Snap or Snipe
statistics, published in Africa Geographic
Michler’s research, which show how poorly revenue from hunting
benefits the country, when compared with that from eco- tourism. After
my presentation, the expression on the faces of the USAID organisers
said it all – they were visibly glum and looking shell-shocked.
Eventually, the Kenyan government decided against the hunters. But I
am sure that Safari Club International, and it's ally in the American
government (USAID), will do all in their power to expand and maintain
their killing fields in Africa.
(*) Chris Mercer is an Advocate, who practised law in Zimbabwe and
Botswana and lives now in South Africa.
