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Wildlife farming beats livestock sevenfold-researcher
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Wildlife farming beats livestock sevenfold - researcher


Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
Staff writer



Batswana may have to re-think their investment in cattle and turn to the new cash cow, wildlife ranching.



A South African researcher has identified wildlife farming as seven times more profitable and sustainable than the traditional cattle farming. Dr Peter Lindsey of the Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria and IUCN Sustainable Group was presenting in Gaborone last week at the annual general meeting of the Kalahari Conservation Society (KCS) held at President Hotel.

"Wildlife is generally more profitable than livestock in semi- arid areas and can generate higher returns on investment," he said. He urged Batswana to follow the example of Namibia and South Africa where wildlife ranching is a multi-billion Pula industry. Wildlife land uses have also been found to diversify economies and to be less reliant on international trade agreements, beef prices, state subsidies and rainfall.

He said mean annual returns from wildlife ranching in semi arid parts of South Africa are three times higher than from livestock farming while in Zimbabwe, PriceWaterhouse predicted that wildlife based land use would generate higher gross income than livestock production at a ratio of 1.6:3.9 in the short term, 8:18 in the medium term, and 17:36 in the long term. In his presentation titled Wildlife Land Use Changes in Northern Botswana-Current and Potential Impacts, the researcher said in South Africa, wildlife ranching on private land generates a gross turnover of R6.2 billion, while in Namibia wildlife and tourism on freehold land contributed R1.4 billion in 2010.

He said that wildlife-based land uses generate more and better quality employment than livestock farming, with greater scope for skills development. Giving an example, the researcher said in the Eastern Cape, the switch from livestock farming to wildlife reserves increased employment levels 4.5 times and wage bills 32 times.

Comparatively, the researcher pointed out that in Botswana, livestock creates 5,000 jobs whereas 15,000 are created from tourism. Although he said data in Botswana was scanty, Lindsey said in 2002 the wildlife industry generated 4.5 percent of GDP from 40 percent of the country's land, compared to 3 percent generated by livestock from 60 percent of the land in Botswana.

He observed that today nature-based tourism contributes as much to the GDP of southern Africa as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries combined. Lindsey further said wildlife-based land use can contribute to food security through forex generation, employment creation, protein production, and attracting donor funding.

He further led that wildlife ranching contributes to major increases in the abundance and distribution of most wildlife species. He cited as an example Namibia where there are 1.8-2.8 million herd of game on ranches.

South Africa has 1.7-2.5 million herd of wildlife on game ranches. Lindsey also observed that ranches help in recoveries in populations of several threatened and endangered species, adding that in Namibia, Hartmann's zebra, black faced impala, elephants, black rhinoceros and lions have made recoveries. In South Africa black wildebeest, bontebok, Cape Mountain Zebra, white rhinos have also recovered significantly thanks to ranches.


Kathi

kathi@wildtravel.net
708-425-3552

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page."
 
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