Probably like many of you I received this email from the Safari Press:

Guinea to Open Hunting

Even veterans of many African safaris are hard-pressed to tell you where the country of Guinea is since nobody from North America or Europe has hunted there in the last fifty years.

There are actually three Guineas in Africa:

Equatorial Guinea, which is located south of Cameroon and north of Gabon;

Guinea Bissau, which lies just south of Senegal and is close to the westernmost point of the African continent;

And Guinea, the largest of the three countries, south and east of Guinea Bissau.

The northern part of Guinea is savanna while the southern part of the country is gallery forest and pure rainforest. Guinea has about 7 million inhabitants and covers about 93,000 square miles, roughly the size of the state of Michigan. The primary language is French.

Guinea's department of agriculture has given permission to an Austrian company, Mistral Hunting (http://www.mistral-jagd.at; e-mail mistral@mistral-jagd.at) to market big-game hunting and build up a tourist-based hunting industry. The hunting season is set for October through May, and the first hunters are scheduled to arrive in November, with more in early January.

Initially, only hunts in the central part of Guinea will be conducted and only forest species will be available. Two hunt options are offered: a one-week buffalo and plains game hunt with a chance for a hippo; and an eleven-day bongo or elephant hunt with a chance for buffalo, hippo, and plains game.

The prices for 2005 are 3,850 Euros ($4,700 USD) for the buffalo hunt and 6,050 Euros ($7,400) for the bongo or elephant hunt plus trophy fees, and hunters can bring their own guns.

Trophy fees are in line with other West African countries, with the exception of bongo, which carries a basic fee of 8,000 Euros ($9,631) for any head up to 26 inches and 10,000 Euros ($12,039) for a trophy with a horn of 26 inches or greater. Buffalo are 700 Euros ($843), hippo are 1,200 Euros ($1,445), elephant are 3,500 Euros ($4,214), and waterbuck are 750 Euros ($903). All other animals are 300 to 600 Euros ($360-722).

In a conversation with the director of Mistral, Anton Ulmer, we learned that the government of Guinea gave the green light for the opening of hunting two years ago but the complexities of field work and scouting took time. Hunters will fly in via Brussels with Sabena Air to the capital, Conakry, and then drive to the hunting area. The concession has been scouted and decent populations of buffalo, bongo, and elephant are present, according to Ulmer. All hunts are timed to start and end with the twice-weekly Sabena Air schedule. Hunters will arrive in Conakry and will have to take a full day to drive to the hunting area over primitive roads. The hunting area is just north of the Sierra Leone border in an area called Sambuyah, which is close to the small town of Mamou.

Guinea boasts an impressive list of game animals: forest elephant, lion, leopard, crocodile, hippo and dwarf hippo, two varieties of buffalo, bongo, roan, waterbuck, western hartebeest, reedbuck, bushbuck, and oribi as well as a number of duikers. It is the duikers that have quite a few true Africa specialists excited about this region. Mamou is close to the border of Sierra Leone, which is right next to Liberia. During the 1980s, Liberia was known as a forest duiker paradise with as many as seven species of these smallest of all antelopes. Liberia is now closed to hunting, but the habitat of that country is similar to that of southern Guinea and the speculation is that some of the duikers found in Liberia also occur in Guinea. In fact, most African field guides indicate exactly that. Ulmer said that no surveys have been done on the duiker population, but he, too, suspects it to be similar to Liberia's.

Ulmer emphasizes that these hunts are not for beginning African hunters. All hunting will be done on foot, and the conditions will be humid. All forest hunting is difficult, and nobody can reasonably expect a start-up program like this to run smoothly immediately. As always when a country opens to hunting in Africa, the initial hunts will be trial and error, but Guinea's interest in developing tourist hunting is a positive development. When looked at alongside recent efforts to reopen the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it would appear that African hunting is in better shape than it has been in three decades.

This is great news. Every previously non-hunting country in africa that opens up hunting again will help conserve the game that is still there. Guinea is a country I long have regreted passing by when I was in the region, and of the handfull of people I know that have spent time there, everyone loved it. It'll be interesting to hear how much game is left.

quote:

The prices for 2005 are 3,850 Euros ($4,700 USD) for the buffalo hunt and 6,050 Euros ($7,400) for the bongo or elephant hunt plus trophy fees, and hunters can bring their own guns.

Trophy fees are in line with other West African countries, with the exception of bongo, which carries a basic fee of 8,000 Euros ($9,631) for any head up to 26 inches and 10,000 Euros ($12,039) for a trophy with a horn of 26 inches or greater. Buffalo are 700 Euros ($843), hippo are 1,200 Euros ($1,445), elephant are 3,500 Euros ($4,214), and waterbuck are 750 Euros ($903). All other animals are 300 to 600 Euros ($360-722).

Is that right?

$4700 + $843 = $5550 for buffalo OR

$7,400 + $4214 = $11,600 for elephant ?

If there are no "extra" charges that doesn't look bad at all.

Are elephant form Guinea importable to the US?

465H&H

What is the correct pronounciaton of "Guinea"?

Dave

Ann,
Which Guinea are you talking about??
I've lived in Equatorial Guinea, the capital is Malabo situated in Bioko's island. It's an ex spanish colony (ex Fernando Po). I don't think hunting will be possible there due to some political situations, maybe everything has changed since then but I doubt it.
I don't think the USA goverment will allow importing trophies from there, maybe I'm wrong but if nothing has changed it's a dictatorial regime and not a very inocent one...

The President was (and maybe still is) Obiang Ngema something...

There is a book about the country written by an american who worked for the World Bank, the name of the book is "Tropical Gangsters"

I remember there was an american company pumping oil named Walter or Walter's..

Also there is an american embassy in the island (the country is composed by an island and an inland territory in the middle of the equatorial jungles).

When I get into the country they took away from me my passport and only returned the day I leaved, also they do the same with a small fridge I took for keep the drinks cool in the truck...I can't imagine what can happen if I show there with a gun...

But as I said, this was when I was around 24 and now I'm 38 so things can be different..

L

quote:

Originally posted by Lorenzo:
Ann,
Which Guinea are you talking about??

I've lived in Equatorial Guinea.......L

Lorenzo,

The Guinea in question is the one in west africa just north of Sierra Leone. Not where you lived on the equator. And is a French speaking country.

Thanks Erik,
For a moment I thought that they were talking about the possibility of hunting in all of them. I have to practice my english comprehension....
L