Members,
I have a 2020 hunt booked for Cameroon. I have arranged to have my hunt filmed.
I have just today been informed that Cameroon says a license must be purchased for filming ( whether filming only hunts or other filming I don't know ).
Can anybody here confirm anything on this please ?
Thankyou.

Probably for commercial. It would be hard to believe they’d require a permit for personal use.

I am told a personal use exemption could be claimed. Also, I am told that filming of my hunt, for personal use, now requires a license.
To me, this has come out of the blue. Would really appreciate if anyone can comment on the facts.....

Surely your booking agent or safari company can get this taken care of for you.

To clarify, it is my booking agent telling me about this license / charge. The advice, verbatim:
We have to add a camera licence to the invoice ( this has been introduced by the government and we used to be able to get away with claiming the camera’s are for “personal” use as we did in the past) its $.....( my blanking ) and I have had to advise all our clients hunting there this year on this ( continues, but I blanked )

Well, yesterday I enquired more widely about this "filming license". An African based videographer I know sent the info below so it seems the "license" regulation is for real:

Unfortunately this law has been in place as long as I’ve been filming in Cameroon (+/- 7 years) the thing is that it was never really enforced until the last few years. Over the last 2 years my clients have been made to purchase a filming licence by the operator because they are worried about something happening to me. I know of a case of a cameraman by the name of Tito West that didn’t have a filming permit and got into the country with no issues and filmed a great safari with 2 clients, but as he was about to board his flight back home they did a bag search and discovered all of his cameras and his drone. Anyway long story short they locked the guy up for a 3 days in a cameroon jail because they thought that he was using his drone to spy on the cameroonian government or something like that. They also took all of his camera equipment. It was a such an overreaction on the Cameroonian government side but ever since then all the operators that I know usually ask for a filming licence to be bought.

( My comment ) The license cost is no cheepie. Anyone thinking of filming a Cameroon hunt should enquire first about the "license" cost.

I am curious about why you are not wanting to give the cost of the license. I'm unlikely to make it there for a hunt, but others here will. Just as well post the dollar amount so they can figure out if they want to spend that much extra.
Bruce

Yes, I would assume the hunting client would be the one paying for the license one way or another.

Yes, in some form the hunting client/s will pay the filming license cost.
I did not post a cost figure as info I have to date, from three individuals, is possibly not definite and hunters would probably have to discsuss with their booking agent or outfitter for a firm cost.
However, the potential costs mentioned to me were:
UDS $ 1800.00
Euro $ 1500.00 - personal use, possibly higher for "commercial" filming
USD $ 2000.00
And, bear in mind, these costs DO NOT include the separate videographers fees.
Hope that helps anyone interested.

Some African states have cottoned on that there are quite a number of persons who under the guise of tourists, photograph and film for commercial gain and the government authorities have decided that a royalty for that privilege is due to the state - why not?

I guess it can be associated with copyright laws - most people will object and sometimes sue others for infringement of copyright when they see their photos being used as advertising material and in this case, the animals or the adventure is or can be sold for profit; Mark Sullivan comes to mind among others but I would likely bet they very likely had filming rights (license).

Grant- we had a camera guy in Uganda detained on the way out of the country a couple years ago. It was all over the drone. They freaked out, thought he was a spy, etc. He eventually showed them wildlife footage, and they let him go, but he almost missed his plane.

Had another cameraman go into Zim with a bunch of gear, and a drone in May 2017. They detained him at the airport, impounded all of his equipment for the entire trip unless he paid $10,000 for a drone license. They wouldn't let him have his regular cameras either until he left the country.

Getting caught with a drone in a lot of African countries has now led to a lot of problems. Also, some of the camera guys who show up with 3 pelican cases full of cameras like they are the BBC because they think it looks cool are definitely doing themselves a disservice.

After watching the videos of Saeed, I was think about make the plunge and purchase a drone for my next adventure. Saeed sure puts out some great footage and uses some great equipment. I was looking up the drone that he was using and getting a price on it.

And I was thinking of going to Zimbabwe. May have to reconsider the drone purchase.

Are you importing your camera operator or are you using one from Africa?

Bwana 338- If you come to Zim rather then the expense of buying a drone do yourself a favour and just book a good cameraman from Zim who will have it all and provide you a great video and still photo package.

Do your research on cameramen as there are lots of " cameramen" out there but to be honest having filmed safaris for now the better part of 20 years I now only use or recommend 4. Apart from been a good cameraman a quality that I expect is that the cameramen is an asset to the general team and someone that you actually would enjoy sharing your safari with! Good luck! Cheers Buzz

quote:

Do your research on cameramen as there are lots of " cameramen" out there but to be honest having filmed safaris for now the better part of 20 years I now only use or recommend 4. Apart from been a good cameraman a quality that I expect is that the cameramen is an asset to the general team and someone that you actually would enjoy sharing your safari with! Good luck! Cheers Buz

Exactly!

No one could provide information on how to get a permit to take a drone to TZ recently including the embassy in NY and DC. Although the website says a permit is required.

Drone import and use are hardly ever a mirror image of still photo or camera rules and regulations. In many European countries drone use is highly regulated, sometimes requiring training and permitting of the user, with certificates delivered by the Civil Aviation authority.

The upside is this can be found on the internet (usually only in the local language) on both amateur and government web sites. For Africa and especially 3rd World countries around the world information access is almost nonexistant. In addition, laws or regulations are being passed, so it's an evolving situation.

This might help somewhat:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/...9.08946399999991&z=2

I do know that you cannot import a drone to Morocco, whether for tourism, personal non-commercial or any other use. It will be impounded upon arrival. In Tanzania I believe drones are not allowed in the National Parks, unless some sort of permit is negociated with TANAPA.

When my employer uses drones in African countries, so far Guinea, Benin and Cameroon, we either obtain prior to arrival a permit from our client (meaning the ministry for whom the work is being done) or, as in the case with Cameroon, we subcontract locally to avoid the bureaucratic void which invites "negociating" everything, for a price. In Benin and Guinea we were frequently questioned by police, in the field, about our use of drones and we provided the authorizations we had from the Ministry of Public Works, which sufficed.

Cameroon does not have a thriving tourist industry but it does have both insurrectional rebels and Boko Haram, meaning that probably the ministry of tourism (or whichever ministry manages hunting) and the ministry of defence and the civil aviation authorities have to sign off on a permit.