Ban on trophy hunting would 'hurt farms'

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NamibianSun, 11.11.2015
Ellanie Smith

Banning trophy hunting would not only affect communal conservancies in Namibia, but would have severe implications for commercial farmers, who stand to lose millions every year.
This is according to the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, who delivered a statement about trophy hunting and the sustainable use of wildlife in Parliament.

Shifeta said if trophy hunting is banned farmers would lose at least N$350 million per year in foreign currency earnings, while 50% of the jobs on mixed livestock and hunting farms would be lost and 100% of jobs on exclusive hunting farms. That translates to over 1 300 jobs on private farms only.
He explained that about 80% of the larger game species are found on private farmland.
“Trophy hunting on privately owned farmland has resulted in an increase in the value of game. With the increase in value which land owners realise from game, the conservation of game resulted in an increase in game numbers. A combination of cattle and trophy-hunting operations employ double the number of permanent employees than cattle farms,” said Shifeta.

According to him a ban on trophy hunting would reduce the value of game species to their meat value and private landowners would have to reduce their game numbers in order to increase cattle numbers in an attempt to substitute the loss of income.
Shifeta further said that trophy hunting plays an important role in the management and operation of communal conservancies by generating tangible returns.
He said if income from trophy hunting is taken away, the operations of most of the conservancies cannot be sustained.
Last year trophy hunting contributed 39.9% of the total direct income of communal conservancies.

The Community-Based Natural Resources management project (CBNRM) last year generated about N$530 million in national income, of which N$87 million was generated directly for the benefit of rural communities.
Annually, 6 500 to 7 000 jobs are created through this programme. Trophy hunting also contributes to the availability of protein supply in that the meat of the hunted animals is distributed to rural communities.
“Obviously, if we remove trophy hunting from our conservation equation, the CBNRM programme will collapse and Namibia will fail dismally in conservation,” Shifeta said.
 
Nice to see someone has it right. Thats a lot of jobs/income to Namibia. Bruce
 
Namibia gets it!
 
Good to see something based in reality for a change.
 
Good to see someone speak up.
 
A report the photo safari people would never understand. I rather see game raised any day over cattle.
 
I wish the liberal idiots would see the light but then again that would require abstract thought.
 
Common sense? Hard to find nowadays.
 
The Namibian authorities have been consistent in this approach. They consistently support sustainable trophy hunting to the benefit of the wildlife, the hunter, and their country. They never got on the Cecil bandwagon. I think all of these things matter when making a decision regarding where to hunt and whose economy to support.
 
It would be nice if this article was picked up by the New York Times or USA Today.

Fun to dream isn't it.:whistle:
 
A report the photo safari people would never understand. I rather see game raised any day over cattle.
Enysse , the majority of wild game in Namibia is not raised or breed in the sence of it .
The wild animals are left to themselves , but as hunting has overtaken the value of cattle to the farmer they are not shot out to give more feed to the cattle .
In an aerial count earlier this year there were 400 oryx counted on one area of the farm where I hunted in June .
Considering the farmer only runs a heard of 500 cattle you can see the problem if Johnny could not sell the wild game to people like you and me to hunt .
He told me he would have to lower the wild population by 90% to be a sustainable farm .
Man I love Namibia , how hard is it for people to see common sense on wild game management in Africa .
Cheers Dory .
 
I look at a little different Dory. Any game that is behind a fence in Namibia....is essentially raised, because realistically it could be shot for food. The ranch I hunted on let his worker raise goats and sheep. The owner didn't care for them but he also realized he had to keep his workers happy too. I love Namibia too, it a beautiful country with some of the best hunting in the world for the $$$$.
 
The Namibian authorities have been consistent in this approach. They consistently support sustainable trophy hunting to the benefit of the wildlife, the hunter, and their country. They never got on the Cecil bandwagon. I think all of these things matter when making a decision regarding where to hunt and whose economy to support.
Bert, I tend to agree with you, but in my recent trip to Namibia, it seemed like the authorities were beginning to be difficult about hunting of many different types of trophies, and the smaller ones in particular. For example, I'm reliably informed that in the past, there was very little difficulty in getting permits for a certain number of did-dik each year, and serval, genet, etc. Now, those permits are becoming much more arbitrary, and safari operator can't tell when they will run into trouble and when they won't. I had to provide all sorts of stuff to get a permit for some of these animals, including pictures of my "trophy room" to prove I was a hunter (who else would go after a dik-dik? Not like they'll feed you for long!). And even after that, I was unable to get a permit for genet.

So while Namibia is certainly one of the best places to hunt in Africa, it seems government can't help but get in the way without any real reason.

But Jerome or other Namibian safari operators will know the details of this far better than I will. If I've got it wrong gentlemen, feel free to tell me!
 
Yes you are right Hank .
I could not get a permit for a couple of animals .
Try again next year ..
 
I hope that they are restricting permits because of concern about population numbers- either they know numbers are below target or it is a species of concern and they are not sure where the numbers are and are taking the safe route until data is in. It would be sad if Namibia decided to start using the "because I'm the boss" technique of decision making.
 

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