Target: The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill takes aim at hunters and hunting communities in Africa. Photo: Frank Trimbos/Gallo Images
Seven out of 10 smuggled pangolins that Ray Jansen, the former chairperson of the African Pangolin Working Group, and his team retrieve from the illegal wildlife trade are released on large game ranches with hunting concessions.
Thirty years ago, most of these game ranches were cattle farms with dysfunctional ecosystems and offered little local employment, Jansen said. “[Now] the few hunts allow for the conservation of entire ecosystems and employ many locals.”
Last week, MPs in the United Kingdom passed a bill in the House of Commons that is designed to prevent the country’s trophy hunters from bringing the body parts of 6 000 species, including elephants, lions, rhinos and leopards, into Britain. The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill will now move to the House of Lords for approval.
Reuters reported that Environment Minister Trudy Harrison told lawmakers that “Cecil the lion has not died in vain”, referring to the lion shot in Zimbabwe with a crossbow by an American dentist in 2015, sparking a global outcry.
“We are sending a very strong message to the rest of the world,” she said. “I do recognise that some of the income from trophy hunting has contributed towards the protection of habitat and the prevention of poaching, but to bring [back] the body parts of endangered species … is not the way forward,” she said.
But Jansen says the UK government has “made a massive mistake” based “mostly on emotion” by seeking to outlaw trophy hunting imports.
“This [trophy hunting] is not just a bloodlust industry. All these people are passionate about African savanna wildlife conservation and bringing back endangered species,” he said.
“We, as a range of scientists, both in Africa and abroad, are very adamant that this ban on trophy hunting imports should not take place. If we cut off the umbilical cord, that these hunters can’t take these trophies and show them off in their homes overseas, they will simply go elsewhere to where trophy hunting is allowed.”
He said the “few buffalo, the odd elephant and odd giraffe” of high value are hunted sustainably and bring in huge amounts of money that “creates an umbrella for the entire ecosystem to flourish”.
But Michele Pickover, the executive director of the EMS Foundation, which aims to protect the rights and welfare of wild animals and vulnerable people, said there is evidence that trophy hunting does not serve a conservation purpose, especially in conditions of poor governance.
“On the contrary, it has been shown to have negative effects on the genetic health of the species involved and is ultimately more likely to lead to extinction of targeted populations.
“Hunting does not provide a counter-poaching presence but instead appears to have additive negative effects on population survival probability. It also does not provide as many sustainable, good-quality employment opportunities for local communities as non-consumptive ecotourism ventures.”
The Humane Society International/Africa (HSI-Africa) South Africa found that South Africa exported 21 018 trophies from 2014 to 2018 covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The UK accounted for importing 305 trophies during this period.
In a recent report, it said that trophy hunting does not contribute to conservation in South Africa, finding that about 83% of trophies exported from South Africa are captive-bred animals and native species with no conservation management plan and where little is known of their wild populations or the effect of trophy hunting on them.
Matthew Schurch, its wildlife specialist, cited a recent survey by the nonprofit organisation World Animal Protection, which found that 84% of international tourists agree that the South African government should prioritise wildlife-friendly tourism over trophy hunting. He said this “sets an example for the rest of the world to follow … and I think there’s certainly potential for other European countries to start following suit on this”.
Schurch said revenue from trophy hunting “just doesn’t flow to local communities”, while ecotourism “really brings in so much more money and employs more people”.
He said the hunting ban will deter people from trophy hunting abroad, “because it’s all about ego for trophy hunters. They want to bring back that thing, they want to stick it on the wall and boast”.
It would “have a real impact on conservation in a positive sense on these animals, especially animals like elephants, leopards and black rhinos that are severely threatened and yet still hunted in large numbers in these countries”.
But Stephen Palos, the chief executive of the Confederation of Hunting Associations of South Africa, said trophy hunting was a low-hanging fruit used by animal rights campaigners to vilify it.
Most hunting in South Africa takes place on privately owned game ranches. “Thirty-five years ago there weren’t anywhere near as many of these game ranches. Most of them in those years were struggling cattle farms … the upswing in the game ranching industry was driven purely by hunting.
“Initially, it was the common and easy-to-acquire species — impala, blue wildebeest, springbuck — in areas they occurred, but as the ranching fraternity perfected farming and ranching techniques with those species, so they started to add more of the scarce species into the mix.”
Palos said this has resulted in the typical game ranch having a dozen or more species that didn’t occur in high numbers 30 years ago. “This is so much so that there’s a single farm in Limpopo that owns more sable antelope than the entire state national park system. Now, if that is not conservation in action on a sustainable use basis then I don’t know what the definition is.”
An open letter signed by wildlife scientists and conservationists said the UK government’s ban on hunting trophies is poorly conceived and unlikely to deliver its claimed conservation benefits. “Instead, it threatens to reverse many conservation gains while undermining the livelihoods, rights and autonomy of rural communities across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
“Contrary to the claims of some Western celebrities and animal rights campaigners, trophy hunting can and does deliver a variety of significant conservation and development benefits,” the letter said.
“Certainly, poorly managed trophy hunting can have harmful impacts, but it remains true that well-managed hunting has demonstrably improved the conservation status of multiple threatened species, including lion, white rhino, black rhino, argali, markhor, and others. Crucially, land managed for trophy hunting plays a vital role in protecting ecosystems against threats such as habitat loss and poaching, which pose far greater threats to the world’s endangered species.”
The letter notes that in South Africa wildlife-based land use has enabled the largest rewilding movement on the planet, because privately owned conservation areas, often used for game ranching and hunting, now cover more than twice the area of land in the country’s state-owned protected areas.
“Across sub-Saharan Africa, a 2007 study estimated that 1 394 000km2 of private and state-owned land was used for trophy hunting, exceeding the area protected by all the region’s national parks. Across these vast areas, which attract few other international visitors, trophy hunting generates revenues in areas where ecotourism cannot.”
Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are four of the five top-performing countries in the world for megafauna conservation and all use trophy hunting to support their success.
“We understand (and many of us share) the public’s instinctive dislike of trophy hunting. But the reality is that no alternative land use has yet been developed, which equally protects the wildlife and habitats found in these landscapes while also generating valuable revenues for local communities. Where trophy hunting has been subjected to bans, wildlife has often suffered, and conflict with communities has increased.”
Trophy hunting is beset with a variety of problems, including but not limited to the inequitable sharing of hunting revenues, inappropriate or poorly observed quotas, corruption and inadequate regulation. But tourism is not a perfect industry either.
The letter noted that the UK’s bill banning hunting trophy import ban in its current form would do little to address problems and would alienate hunting communities who generate revenues from well-managed sustainable hunting”.