I know very little about Kenya and its decision to ban hunting in 1977. I do however find the reference in the article to Kenya's 58% drop in wildlife populations since the ban very interesting. I assume this is what happens when value of a sport animal is lost. Am I correct or are there other factors that resulted in this 58% decline?

George

This is my post from the Whats happening in Kenya nowadays thread.
-Bob F.

WILDLIFE APARTHEID

by
Mark Warwick

"Western attitudes towards wildlife are fixed by David Attenborough-style television documentaries that depict little understanding of Africans. Safari tourists stay in western hotels and have little contact with Africans, other than those that wait on them or chauffeur them around in vans, or pose for their cameras. Many of my native Kenya's parks have become overcrowded with people, vehicles and lodges. Twenty years ago, the Maasai Mara had a wonderful feeling of wilderness. Now it is overcrowded with buildings, cars and tourists. Seeing an African tourist on a game drive is rarer than spotting a leopard."

"As Desmond Morris, the animal behaviourist once commented, "Wild animals are more likely to suffer from exhaust fumes than gunshot wounds." At the dawn of each day, herds of mini-buses spread out from the safari lodges and camps in search of predators. Within minutes of being spotted, a sleeping lion finds itself surrounded by a dozen vehicles. Bristling with telescopic lenses, the caged tourists jostle each other for the best photographs. If the cat decides to set off on a hunt, he or she is eagerly followed by an armada of milling, bumping and lurching vans, that advertise the presence of the lion to its prey. The lion abandons the hunt and sits down again, hungry. Leopards are harassed in the same way. Cheetahs suffer the most from tourist pollution which is the major cause of their dramatic population decline. A female with cubs is never left alone and has great difficulty in providing for them. In desperation, some predators have abandoned their normal behaviour and switched to hunting at night, to avoid the 'vanderbeast' rush hours."

"Although the poacher, smuggler and illicit trader in wildlife products get the publicity, and indeed are the targets of the government anti-poaching units, there are also "white-collar crimes" that range from foundations and funding irregularities, to licensing frauds. The principle ivory trader in Kenya was Mama Ngina , President Kenyatta's fourth wife. Over one third of the rhino poached in Kenya during the 1970s, were killed by members of the Game Department. By April 1989, in either an act of faith or desperation, President Moi appointed Dr Richard Leakey to the directorship of the newly created Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Leakey focused world attention on the plight of conservation with a pyre of elephant tusks."

from: http://www.multiline.com.au/~markw/african.html


Paper for Presentation at A Symposium
UN and Regional Small Arms Regulation:
Issues Concerning Civilian Firearms Ownership
in Search of Common Ground
Sponsored by the World Forum On The Future of Sports Shooting Activities
May 2, 2003 The Tower of London

�Peaceful Arms: Hunting and Sport Shooting as Culture and Heritage�
by James A. Swan, Ph.D.

Execrpt:

"Hunting, especially big game hunting, is also a major force in encouraging conservation and promoting economic self-sufficiency in native cultures. In Africa, in l979 the wild elephant herd was 1.3 million. By 1989, it was sliced in half to 600,000, largely due to uncontrolled poaching. To curb the decline, importation of ivory was banned, and some countries forbade sport hunting for elephants. In places where hunting has been banned, elephant populations have plummeted even more. Kenya banned elephant hunting in 1977. Poachers subsequently butchered the herds, as supervision of the animals also declined with the loss of revenue from hunting. In less than two decades, Kenya's elephant herd went from 150,000 to less than 6,000."

"Botswana, in contrast, permitted big game hunting, and in the same period of time, their elephant herd has quadrupled. The key here is that hunters pump considerable money into the local economy, which increases the value of the animals to local natives, provides jobs and fresh meat for many, and supports wildlife research and law enforcement. It is estimated that hunters spend $35 million to $65 million dollars a year on African elephant hunting safaris. The white rhino in South Africa has similarly increased in numbers, thanks to hunters' dollars."

"In 1980, Zimbabwe had 40,000 elephants. Today, after 22 years of carefully regulated hunting, they have 88,000 pachyderms. According to Ed Adobe, Chairman of the Zimbabwe Wildlife Advisory Council, eco-tourists may outnumber the hunters, but the hunters outspend them, $15 million to $10 million. When eco-tourists come in, they whisk around in a jeep for a couple days, wine and dine, and leave. Hunters stay longer, pay trophy fees and guides, and the meat from animals killed goes to local villages, along with skins and bones that can be used for clothing and arts and crafts."

"The program that oversees hunting in Zimbabwe is called CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programmed for Indigenous Resources). (37) Under CAMPFIRE, people living on impoverished communal lands, which represent 42% of the country, claim the right of proprietorship, including wildlife. CAMPFIRE offers people an alternative to destructive uses of the land by making wildlife a valuable resource. Wildlife, in fact, is the most economically and ecologically-sound land use in much of Zimbabwe."

"Since its official inception in 1989, more than a quarter of a million people have been involved in managing wildlife through CAMPFIRE. It has been so successful that South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana are now developing programs similar to Zimbabwe, sometimes using relocated Zimbabwe animals."

from:
http://www.jamesswan.com/Paper%20for%20Presentation%20at%20A%20Symposium.htm



Taming Animal Rights Activists

U.S. animal rights activists are on a crusade, not only to hinder medical research by denying scientists the right to use animals in research, but also to eliminate the killing of wildlife in Africa.

Having endangered scientific research programs here, they are out to deny a source of livelihood to many poor African villagers.

* Twenty-nine of the world's 36 poorest countries are African -- with an estimated 150 million to 325 million Africans earning less than $1 a day.

* Yet in Zimbabwe, revenues from a sport hunting program has built several health clinics in rural villages and generated millions of dollars split among communities.

* In one village, each of the approximately 120 households earned $450 by selling their legal hunting rights to a safari operator, whose clients paid him for the privilege of hunting elephants nearby.

Statistics from Kenya point out just how deadly elephants can be.

* At least 358 Kenyans have died as a result of elephant-human clashes since 1990.

* In some districts elephants reportedly kill more people who are protecting their own crops than poachers kill elephants.

* Experts say that if landowners can't make money from wildlife, they will wipe it out.

Kenya did what animal rights activists proposed: they banned all hunting in 1977. But Zimbabwe granted proprietorship over wildlife to landowners in 1982 and allows hunting.

The result?

* Between 1970 and 1989, Kenya's elephant population plunged from 167,000 to 16,000.

* But in Zimbabwe, the population increased from less than 40,000 to more than 50,000 since 1982.

Source: Ike C. Sugg (Competitive Enterprise Institute), "Selling Hunting Rights Saves Animals," Wall Street Journal, July 24, 1996.

from: http://www.ncpa.org/pd/pdenv41.html

Thanks Bob. Very informative.

George

Jorge, when wildlife loses value the natives have no reason to help maintain it. It just gets in the way of livestock that still has value and might as well be poached and eaten.

Thanks Leo. I fully understand the consequences of the loss of value in game animals. My question was what other factors may have contributed to the decline in wildlife numbers in Kenya since the sport hunting ban in 1977. Bob's link to a previous thread answered my question.

George