Hunting Tourism Development In Central Asia


16.07.2019 12:09

Hunting tourism is becoming popular in Central Asia. The argali trophy hunting in the region attracts foreign hunters. Local officials in Kazakhstan are planning to issue mountain sheep hunting licenses to develop the hunting industry in the country. Hunter will be allowed to target only mature males that exceed reproductive age. Experts believe that this approach will help significantly increase the number of mountain deer. The wildlife conservation mechanism is being successfully applied in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Africa. Meanwhile, scientific rationale and legal framework are being developed in the country. The trophy tourism helped to double the number of Marco Polo sheep in Tajikistan within 10 years. There are about 17,000 mountain sheep of various species in Kazakhstan. The project initiators are planning to spend the revenue on conservation of rare sheep species. “We will buy collars to monitor the sheep. Later, we will perform genetic studies. After capturing the sheep, foreigners just need to keep the horns, while we will collect all other organs for research. This approach is being practiced in developed countries, and we want to apply it in Kazakhstan,” said Councilor to Chair of National Tourism Company, Batyr Seikenov. According to Conservation Director of Wild Sheep Foundation in USA, Kurt Alt, the result of conservation permits are to enhance, expand, restore wild sheep and wild goat populations. That’s good for snow leopards that depend on those species as a prey base.

https://kazakh-tv.kz/en/view/c...ment-in-central-asia

Good for them. In the end it will indeed help the snow leopard.