Mozambique - Use Caution for Unlicensed and Unregistered Hunts
I thought this article was particularly interesting. It is from the most recent "Hunt Report" publication. All credit must go to them. I would strongly consider caution when looking at a Mozambique outfitter.
While attending the Dallas Safari Club Convention last month, I obtained a list of hunting operators from Mozambique who are members of the Association of Mozambique Operators (AMOS). I’ve previously reported on how this association is working to make itself a self-regulating body with the strength to toss out bad apples by policing operators, being involved in the setting of quotas and providing reliable information on operators in general, including who has which concessions in Mozambique. All of the members of the association must be legal, chartered and registered operators.
So far, there are 20 members. For the sake of space, I have posted the list on the homepage of our website under the Reference Desk section at the bottom of the page. Subscribers without online access may call our office to receive a copy.
I provided this list to E-mail Extra subscribers right after the DSC show for their use in researching operators at upcoming shows. (See this bulletin on our homepage under Email Extra Bulletins in the lefthand column.)
I reminded readers that Mozambique has been plagued by unscrupulous hunting operators selling and conducting hunts illegally. Some have even marketed hunts and taken clients to concessions that belong to other operators.
In Mozambique, only legally-registered operators can obtain hunting licenses, gun import permits and trophy export permits for their clients, so it is important that hunters do their homework before booking a hunt there. I recommend reading my article from May 2010 about this for more specific tips. (See Article ID 2443 in our database.)
After I circulated the AMOS list, I received several anxious e-mails from booking agents and operators who were not listed in my bulletin, which they apparently interpreted as a list of legal safari operators in Mozambique. They feared that hunters would use only the list of AMOS members in their research. Just to be clear, the list of AMOS members is only one more tool to use when checking out a Mozambique operator, though it is an absolute guarantee of the legal status of member operators.
But there are many legal operators who are NOT members of AMOS, and I have begun adding a list of these non-members who are legal operators at the bottom of that bulletin.
Many of these are excellent hunting companies of long standing;you will find a number of them in our database in the 91 subscriber Hunt Reports and 35 past articles on hunting in Mozambique we have on file. Some operators, such as Safaris de Mocambique, Luwire, Kambako, Zambezi Delta Safaris and Saimaan Hunting Safaris, to name only a few, have reports in our system going back to 1998. There are others, and I’m sure some of them will take me to task for not mentioning them here. Make sure you check our database of past reports and articles as part of your research when booking a hunt in Mozambique! E-mail Extra subscribers have unlimited access to the database for only $3 a month, while the cost for our entire Mozambique file equals the cost of a whole year’s standard subscription.
Another step you can take is ask the operator you are dealing with for a copy of his Mozambican company registration. Also request proof that he is the owner of the hunting area he is promoting or that he has an agreement with the owner to hunt there, as there is some subleasing by some operators. Don’t be afraid to book a hunt in Mozambique, just make doubly sure your hunt is conducted by a legal operator.…
