14 February 2013, 16:22
GanyanaIt is an ideological battle, rather than one of greed. Edson Chiziya the acting DG would like to sell all hunts as individual pakages as per the zambezi valley actions (and Tuli and a few other areas now).
He belives that there should not be enough 'profit' left from running the hunt, what the PH makes and what parks makes for an 'operator' to have a cut and certainly not enough to entice politicians to try and get concessions for themselves. He also dislikes the 'concession' model where the value of the animals is effectively split between the trophy fee, the concession fee and the auction fee (when the concession is awarded) - especially as in too many cases where politicians have taken over a concession the money bid at the auction was never paid over and the annual concession fees have never been paid. If Edson gets his way, every PH will be able to buy from parks and the trophy fees will reflect the full valu8e of the animal, the land it is living on and the time to hunt it.
For some, this model of one man PH-cum-outfitter works quite well. For many of us, we would rather have a marketing person doing the selling and us just doing the hunting. As one of the architects of the 1990 plan to support operators to hold and maintain their concessions and reduce the number of hunts sold as pakages on Auction I supose I just don't see things Edsons way- but he always disagreed with both me and Brian Child (the ecologist responsible for quota setting and management in the CAMPFIRE areas).
I feel we are in for a few rocky years until economic reality rams the truth down parks throat. Not going to be fun to be a concession holder in those years
