That is a real shame. A country's own citizens should always get preference.

Good day all,
Just venting some anger here.
Our super efficient and considerate wildlife authority"SIC"
Have just announced that there will be no Bufallo hunting this year for us Zambians, Oh and as an after thought they have also removed any wildeebeest.
All this after actually passing a law that no Lion, Leopard, Sable and roan can be legally hunted by a Zambian.
This is African Democracy for you, God forbid any citizen, that asks for an explanation.
My wife, who hails from the land of anti hunting "England" finds it funny that all this BS from our authorities is actually depressing me.

I am going to be compelled to look for a job in the real world to afford a safari now
Meanwhile I will keep reading the hunting reports and pacify myself.
To all those going hunting, Good Luck and to those that have not booked do it now, You never know when our govrnments decide that we dont need hunting for conservation and ban hunting in Africa.
Regards

This is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard of.

We all suffer at the whim of the money-mongers who sell our joy to the highest bidder.
We have been suffering the same fate with the Salmon fishery along the Ca. Coast. No salmon to the sportsmen while foreign fishing vessels net tons just off the coast.
Frank

I'm sorry about the buffalo and wildebeest. I can see the logic behind the cats, sable and roan being "reserved" to higher paying clients but assuming that buffalo and wildebeest are plentiful then I don't see the reason behind such a decision.....

That really blows Hopefully it'll be reversed one day soon! Lots of countries have similar restrictions...if I'm not mistaken, Ethiopia doesn't allow locals to shoot a mountain nyala- even if they felt like dishing out 5k!

This is not the first time they have done this, and last time very few folks got their money back because the Zambian Govt. would not allow currency to leave the country. Lots of folks were really ticked as you can imagine..

This took place several years ago and I had 5 or 6 hunters booked with Balla-Balla, and with respect to their good name the refunds were on my desk in a matter of days, Peter, Dine and Alan Bird are just plain reliable and if any of them told me the sun wasn't coming up tomorrow I would damn sure bring a lantern to work with me....

If I book in Zambia it will be with Balla-Balla after surviving that experience, Lots of booking agents around me were crying in their beer over that little fiasco, and hiding in the closets because they could not get the clients money back and wanted my advise which was dig deep boys.

Ray, I may be mistaken, but I think this ban only applies to local hunters, not client hunters from other countries! The idea being, the visiting hunter pays ten times what a local pays, and the officials want that MONEY !





PS: Zambien, there is no way I would have even dated an anti hunting female, much less marry one!

Ashish,

If I was a resident hunter in Zambia I would also be upset but let me ask you a coouple of questions. If residents could hunt a full bag of animals in Zambia on resident licenses how long do you think the lion, buff, sable and roan etc. would last? If the quotas stayed the same as they are now would there be enough animals for a safari industry?

I feel for you but I guess the government feels the revenue from safari hunting is more important than resident hunting. I personally feel the cold hard reality is that without safari hunting in Zambia there probably would be NO hunting.

Regards,

Mark

Regards

Mark!

So should the state government in Alaska no longer allow residents to hunt brown bears because they can make more money off of us non-residents?????

NItroX,
No it was just a couple of year back..I'm thinking 99 or 2000...They closed all hunting.

Anne,

The situation here in Alaska bears no resemblance to the African bush where each day is a scramble for enough to eat. Here even the most remote village has cable and internet access.

I'd ask you to quiz a few PH's that hunt big game in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania and see what there response is when asked if all residents should have a full license. We know the answer and it is not all self serving. The African bush can't support full blown legal hunting by all residents and a safari industry too.

The safari industry just does not line the pockets of greedy politicians it supports the community in or around the safari area. Safari companies provide schools, wells, Game Dept. buidings, food and often year around employment for quite a number of people that have no other opportunity to make money.

Regards,

Mark

Ray,

Zambia closed hunting for 2001-2002. Opened again last year and is going great guns there this year.

Regards,

Mark

Hi Ray ....

Thanks for the kind words ...

Yes I remember all the heartache you and I went through with you getting that group of four together and then with one thing and another the ZAWA people were forced to apply the decree from the then president Chiluba ( who was or is now under fraud accusations ) whom banned hunting for the season, even though we were officially allowed to hunt being a private ranch no rifle permits or export permits would be issued so in effect we were unilaterally banned from meeting our clients wishes.

Yes Ray, you in particular had worked extremely hard and got all the deposits in good faith from your clients we had 2 do a reverse transaction and return the money to your clients .... them is the hardships of Africa ...

The good news is our season starts this weekend our first group of clients will arrive on Sunday, all is in order for 2004 for international hunting clients

PS: Zambian, I am very sorry for you local guys whom have been stictched up yet again by the SYSTEM .... I have to be circumspect in critisism for obvious reasons ...

Is Zambia a country that doesn't allow citizens to buy land, only lease? Or are the ranches RSA style private land?

Jeez Thanks all,
I was not expecting such a huge response I was just whining.
To answer a few questions.
I agree that the Foreign hunters do bring in a lot of money, and yes as far as I know the community does benefit. The source of all this is our government the EU had pledged to fund ZAWA's budget and held their part of the deal, A total of ZK 68 billion was remited for this purpose. the sum of only ZK5 billion was actually given to ZAWA the rest of the money was diverted by our finance minister to buy "relief maize" where and how the maize was purchased is anyones guess.
Understandably the EU told Zambia to go get stuffed for any other money and pulled out of the whole deal, leaving ZAWA in the lurch.
A group of us have been arguing about the fees charged to residents and have asked ZAWA to look into an increase to make game meat less commercially attractive.
I have a lot of personal friends that are actual safari operators and PH's they have also indicated that they do not have a problem with resident hunting as our season does not clash with theirs, our season runs from sep to dec smack in the middle of our rains.
It all boils down to money, the gap between the haves and the have nots is vast in Zambia,Hunting has always been a very sensitive issue and the local hunter is always the scrape goat.
A friend of mine very rightly said that he pays 40% of his income to the tax man, In addition to that he pays 17.5% vat on all his purchases,He also employs about 100 people surely he can expect some sort of benefits of being Zambian.
We have no medical facilities,schooling is a joke, roads? what roads? security is your own responsibility forget the cops,waste removal is your problem the list is endless.
No civic facility can be counted on.
I have talked to a number of local hunters and everyone is ticked off hopefully we will make a differance.
Peter, I do understand your position and hope that you understand our sitiuation

Actually Mark, with quotas basically world wide, if there are so many animals on quota then who ever can pay for them gets to hunt them. I don't expect to be hunting brown bear (as an expample) anytime soon, personally, because I can't afford them. Tags for brown bears are not available on an unlimited basis to residents are they? No, only so many are issued a year, like any game animal. So many are issued to non residents and so many to residents.

I do not think it is fair a resident is not allowed to hunt something if there are certain quotas issued which resonably support hunting of a certain species, what ever it may be. That was my point.

Fortunatly for Tanzania, there is another side of the story and that is the citizen hunting is basically geographical and has little effect on the Selous, Mayowasi, Masai Steepe, NW etc...but it has effected the areas near the towns and outside of the concession areas I suppose, but to what extent I don't know, it is not a problem with any of the Safari Companies that I know of who operate in the assigned concession areas, if so I would like to hear about it..

Today I believe Tanzania to be the most progressive and productive of Wildlife Countries in Africa and they know where their bread is buttered, it is 50 times better than it was 10 to 15 years ago....there will always be a little graft in any African country, but the sky is not falling in Tanzania, it is actually the best out there today by a long shot IMO....It is a country that has some concerned individuals involved in the Government, who want to advance the tourist trade in a country that suffered a terrible civil war and is now on the road back to success....

I see our cup in Tanzania as half full, hope I am right...

I was told recently some interesting comments about Tanzania. I have not been there for 15 years. I was told internet cafes now exist in quite a few of the larger towns. That the main highways are now actually quite well sealed and not one mass of potholes. Much different from 15 years ago where even in Dar es Salaam getting onto a telephone let alone the internet was difficult (or impossible outside tourist resorts).

***

Mark

My previous comments were a little over the top.

But put yourself in a Zambian citizens shoes. What if the government of Alaska tommorrow said all Alaskan citizens had to use outfitters for anything worth hunting.

May the money grubbers burn in eternal hellfire!!! The day they tell me I can't hunt the local game is the day that I go absolutely mad! (Or has that already happened?) Zambian if you'll make your way to Oklahoma we'll hunt any dad-burned thing we want to! It is absolutley deplorable that hunting has come to a point to where a man cannot hunt the wildlife that he was raised on, that his ancestors depended on! That is without exception the most absurd thing that I have ever heard!! GAAAH~!!! I've always dreamed of hunting Africa, but not if it means that I can't hunt right beside a fellow that lives there!!! Woe! Woe, is the man that stands between me and the game that I pursue!
Ok, got to take a breath now...

Ladies and Gentleman,

Glad to see everyone seems to have calmed down a notch or two. I really didn't mean to offend anyone or be insensitive to Ashish's situation. In fact if you read my post you will see that I agreed I would be upset also if in his place.

I still stand by what I said. If for some reason the safari companies can't make a profit all hunting will disappear because without the safari operators in residence in the bush the commercial meat hunter will have free rein. The governmet just can't monitor this. It doesn't take long for a few truck loads of guys at night shooting at every set of eyes they see to decimate an area.

Regards,

Mark