Good Day to All:

I got into a conversation with a friend of mine the other day about sport hunting, (allowing foreigners to hunt game for a fee), and the rate of poaching and animal herd decimation in a country.

Does anyone know which countries in Africa allow sport hunting and how is the animal population in relation to the countries that are closed to sport hunting? And, do the countries that have closed sport hunting have a higher incidence of poaching and a consequent decimation of the game herds?

I suggested that a country that allows sport hunting will manage the game because the government realizes the tourist dollars connected to the sport.

Suggestions, comments and criticisms always welcome

Kindest regards,

Carpediem
Madly off in all directions

I don't have a list of both, but the countries that do allow sport hunting vastly outnumber the others.

You will find that your question will end up provoking apples and oranges arguments for which statistics will be unreliable, if any truly exist. For instance, if a country doesn't have any animals worth poaching, what difference does it make if sport hunting is allowed or not? The legal ability to sport hunt does not necessarily equate with good animal population management. Animals and their propensity to be poached will not be equal, the amount of money made off hunting (foreign exchange, share to local residents) will be highly variable from one country to the next, and to top it off there's this thing called politics, putting spin on whichever of the two options the country selected.

I don't think you'll get any useful information which would answer your question.

Kenya doesn't and the political links to poaching go way back. They do photo safari/ecotourism. Botswana goes back and forth.

carpediem,

I don't know if this helps but my company is activley offering hunts in Tanzania, Ethiopia, CAR, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, RSA, Botswana and Namibia. These countries generally have thriving game population. There also is an organized safari business in Burkino Faso, Uganda, Malawai and I believe Benin. Angola and Southern Sudan may come on line in the future. There maybe more that I'm not aware of or have a minimal program. The folks that I know of that have visited countries without an organized safari program have all reported almost no game except in the parks.

Mark

Hunters in the field, accompanied by government game scouts, can deter commercial poaching activities for black market animals such as elephant and rhino.

But I'm afraid that subsistence poaching is another matter.

Not much can be done about subsistence poachers, and in the long run that kind of poaching could be a worse problem than the commercial variety.

Based on what I have seen, poaching for bush meat - up to and including poaching for Cape buffalo and hippo - is unfortunately fairly commonplace, even by those in authority.

The root of the poaching problem (and many other problems) in much of Africa is government corruption.

Other countries with legal hunting but not mentioned by Mark are: Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Chad, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Tunisia. Most of these countries (exception is Chad) have little if any "big" game and are therefore hardly ever thought of as hunting destinations. Some only have bird hunting, or, like Ghana, have specialized hunting for pygmy antelope. See link:

http://www.huntingreport.com/h..._details.cfm?id=2249

quote:

Originally posted by BNagel:
Kenya doesn't and the political links to poaching go way back. They do photo safari/ecotourism. Botswana goes back and forth.

Politics and poaching absolutely are factors. However, some of us old geezers remember when the ban in Kenya went into force. I do believe it could have been avoided.

As a former Chicago area resident, I learned that it went into effect around the late 1970s or early 1980s when a rich hunter from one of the western Chicago suburbs, maybe River Forest or Oak Park, was caught shooting game from a helicopter. It rather displeased the authorities. Perhaps others remember more details.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
carpediem,

I don't know if this helps but my company is activley offering hunts in Tanzania, Ethiopia, CAR, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, RSA, Botswana and Namibia. These countries generally have thriving game population. There also is an organized safari business in Burkino Faso, Uganda, Malawai and I believe Benin. Angola and Southern Sudan may come on line in the future. There maybe more that I'm not aware of or have a minimal program. The folks that I know of that have visited countries without an organized safari program have all reported almost no game except in the parks.

Mark

Add Tunisia and maybe a few other West/North African destinations even if they're only offering birds and pigs.

Brett

quote:

Originally posted by Anjin:

quote:

Originally posted by BNagel:
Kenya doesn't and the political links to poaching go way back. They do photo safari/ecotourism. Botswana goes back and forth.

Politics and poaching absolutely are factors. However, some of us old geezers remember when the ban in Kenya went into force. I do believe it could have been avoided.

As a former Chicago area resident, I learned that it went into effect around the late 1970s or early 1980s when a rich hunter from one of the western Chicago suburbs, maybe River Forest or Oak Park, was caught shooting game from a helicopter. It rather displeased the authorities. Perhaps others remember more details.

It would be interesting to know if there is any truth to that story.

My guess is that, although the incident may have happened, I doubt it provided anything other than a convenient excuse to push for the closure of hunting.

That are the countries that allow hunting:
South africa
Namibia
Botsuana
Zimbabwe
Mozambique
Tanzania
Angola
Zambia
Guinea
Burkina faso
Benin
Senegal
Mauretania
mali
Ghana
Morocco
tunesia
Liberia (uncertain)
CAR
Sudan (north)
Egypt (uncertain)
Ethiopia
Uganda
Cameroon
Malawi
Chad (uncertain)