Afghan wildlife under threat

November 27 2004 at 02:34PM

By Nick Meo


Rare snow leopards and mountain sheep are at risk from American and European big game hunters willing to pay $40 000 (about R235 000) for the chance to shoot in one of the remotest corners of Afghanistan.

A strip of Afghan territory called the Wakhan, high in the Pamir mountains and bordered by Tajikistan, China and Pakistan, has survived years of war relatively unspoiled as a refuge for some of Asia's rarest high-altitude wildlife.

But hunting companies are turning their attention to the almost virgin wilderness in Afghanistan's north-east after populations of the Marco Polo sheep, a popular target for trophy-seekers, were depleted by over-hunting in Tajikistan, where corrupt officials issue shooting licences for bribes.


The huge curled horns on Marco Polo rams, named after the Venetian traveller who passed through on his way to China, can weigh up to 20kg. Rumours of an illegal shooting trip by a well-heeled American woman have surfaced, and companies based in Alaska and Montana are now thought to be lobbying the Afghan government to throw the Wakhan open to their clients.

Conservationists say a hunting ban must continue and the area given protected status as a national park to protect the fragile Alpine wilderness. It was "rediscovered" only in 2002, when British conservationist Anthony Fitzherbert led the first expedition to study the Wakhan's wildlife since the late 1970s.

The team, sponsored by the UN Environment Programme (Unep), discovered thriving populations of Marco Polo sheep, Siberian ibexes, snow leopards, lynxes and brown bears.

"Against all the odds the Wakhan and its wildlife have survived, if seriously threatened," Fitzherbert said.

"Now the threat is from badly managed tourism and trophy hunting, as roads and communications improve and more foreigners start coming to Afghanistan. American hunting companies are going to be prepared to spend a lot of money to start this business. There is going to be a lot of pressure on Kabul."

Until the late 1970s the Wakhan was a royal hunting preserve. A dozen licences to shoot Marco Polo rams were issued annually for wealthy clients, including oil sheikhs and the Shah of Iran's brother.

Unep and the Asian Development Bank are among those now drawing up plans to preserve the region's wildlife in the hope that the Kabul government will introduce legal protection.

Fitzherbert said: "If there is going to be hunting, the community there should derive the benefits and be helped to manage it sustainably. What we fear is that profits just go to corrupt government officials and hunting companies."

The Wakhan, a land of peaks over 6 500m, glaciers, perpetual snow and thin pastures, is a product of 19th-century big-power politics. In the 1890s Britain forced Afghanistan to accept the long finger of territory, pointing towards China, as a neutral buffer zone between the British and Russian empires.



This article was originally published on page 31 of Saturday Argus on November 27, 2004

Has anybody ever heard of a 20 Kg. Marco Polo ram (44 lbs.)? I never have. Even Dall Sheep will go around 70 or so Kg. (about 150 lbs or maybe more). Yup! Methinks the affore mentioned article doth smelleth verily strong of sheep dung. Bear in Fairbanks

I wonder if she was hunting with a handgun? That would narrow it down quite a bit.

Regards,

Terry

"If it pays,...It stays". Hopefully they can reach a maintainable balance between hunting and stable populations in the area. Afghanistan can probably use the influx of cash and still sustain the animals. Hopefully money will benefit the locals and not just line the pockets of the "officials".

Otherwise, the critters will get poached for stew meat or to have the horns ground up into a powder of some kind. Or else some "officials" will come through with helicopters and shoot a bunch.

The spin on this article sounds a little too much "bunny hugger" to me.

A little bird tells me it was Teresa Hienz Kerry that did that hunt. Who else has that kind of money and power. Of course she would deny it because of her support of the anti organizations. Some cover, eh! derf

When I start reading "rumor", "un-named", "birdie told me", I tune the whole damned thing out. Who cares?

I heard it was Madonna, or was it Mother Teresa?

Hey Kensco, Mother Teresa is dead but You could be right about Madumba! derf