These included Spain’s King Juan Carlos II who recently went on an elephant-hunting trip to Botswana and Donald Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr, who hunted in Zimbabwe in 2011. But an initiative by the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) aims to prove that sustainable hunting practices contribute to rural economies and conserve species and habitat.
The CIC gathered in Cape Town recently for its 59th general assembly where director-general Tamás Marghescu explained during a press conference that sustainable hunting was one of the few activities in the field of nature conservation which placed an actual monetary value on wildlife.
Marghescu said that revenue generated benefited local communities, rural development and species and habitat conservation.
He announced that the CIC intended to launch an assessment of the economic contribution of wildlife as part of the Green Economy Programme of the United Nations.
“We feel that quantifying the value and understanding the elements of hunting globally will highlight the importance of sustainable hunting in creating jobs and wealth worldwide and as a wildlife conservation tool,” he told journalists. Adri Kitshoff, CEO of the Professional Hunters’ Association (PHASA), told Farmers’ Weekly that the primary hunting industry in South Africa was worth close to R1 billion and generated about R8 billion for the economy annually, according to a study conducted in 2009.
She also pointed out that the local hunting industry had contributed to the preservation of wildlife in South Africa. “In 1960, around the time when professional hunting really took off in South Africa, the country had about 500 000 head of game. Now South Africa has over 18 million head of game,” said Kitshoff.
