The responsible and sustainable utilisation of Africa’s wildlife is vital for its conservation. This statement is easy to defend. Take South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique, for example. In these three Southern African countries, “hunting” in its various forms is both legal and encouraged. Because of this, vast wilderness areas are protected, and wildlife numbers are booming.
In contrast to this, all forms of hunting were banned in Kenya in May 1977. Since that time, as much as 70% (some authorities say this figure could be as high as 80%) of this East African country’s once-abundant wildlife has disappeared. Why? Simply because Kenya’s wildlife has lost its value to the local population. Whenever wildlife, regardless of species, has no economic value, it is replaced with species that do have value. In Africa, this means cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, and in some instances, even camels.
Despite a massive amount of negative social media more recently, political pressure, hunting, or the politically correct term, “sustainable utilisation”, remains the financial engine that preserves wilderness areas and drives wildlife conservation – period! The “sustainable” concept must,be genetically sustainable with a change of mindset, but definitely not when the biggest, best and most impressive specimens are removed from the gene pool while still of breeding age or, worse still, before having had the opportunity to breed and pass on their “superior, trophy-quality” genes.
