Hunting for solutions: on trophy hunting 

Hunting for solutions: on trophy hunting 

Context

Local African voices need to be heard in the debate on trophy hunting

Cecil incident

In July 2015, when Cecil, a 13-year-old black-maned male lion, strolled out of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe (some say he was baited and lured out), and fell prey to an American trophy hunter, a furore ensued. The unfortunate lion happened to be a study animal collared and tracked by Oxford University, and beloved of tourists on account of his readiness to provide easy photo-ops. While the conservation community was divided in its support, local African voices were hardly heard

Impact of the incident

• Due to this incident Trophy Hunting has received much needed attention
• Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) received widespread financial support
• Subspecies of lions at risk from different population pressures were placed on the U.S. Endangered Species Act, making it difficult for American citizens to trophy hunt

What is Trophy hunting?

Trophy hunting is the selective hunting of wild animals for human recreation. The trophy is the animal or part of the animal kept, and usually displayed, to represent the success of the hunt

Pertinent questions

• Is trophy hunting good for conservation or does it contribute to population declines?
• Is hunting ethical, and by whose standards?
• Should hunting be banned, and who decides?

Trophy hunting: Not a major threat

• Trophy hunting has been favourably implicated in the recovery of individual species such as the black rhino and the straight-horned markhor, a species of wild goat found in Pakistan
• In the specific case of lions, WildCRU’s own report states the following,
  • Habitat loss and degradation as well as the loss of prey-base and conflict with local communities over livestock losses are primary threats
  • Trophy hunting may be beneficial: The most fundamental benefit of trophy hunting to lion conservation is that it provides a financial incentive to maintain lion habitat that might otherwise be converted to non-wildlife land uses

Trophy hunting vs ecotourism

Hunting is carried out in about 1.4 million sq km in Africa, more than 22% of area covered by national parks in Africa

• Ecotourism is unviable at this scale: To increase the scope of ecotourism (the most frequently proposed revenue generation alternative) to this level seems unviable given that many of these landscapes are not conducive to tourism. Moreover, some experts claim that compared to ecotourism, high-value trophy hunting has a lower ecological footprint
• Mix results with Trophy hunting: The caution, however, is that like other market-based mechanisms such as payments for ecosystem services or ecotourism, trophy hunting is also riddled by problems such as lack of local regulation, rent-seeking and corruption, which can derail such projects. Trophy hunting therefore has mixed results, with a variety of factors determining its success or failure

Ban on hunting: Not a solution

• Generic hunting bans do not automatically lead to increases in wildlife. For example, in countries such as Kenya and India, where hunting bans came into force in the 1970s, wildlife populations do not seem to fare better than in countries where hunting is ongoing
• No ban is working out well for wildlife: On the contrary, in both South Africa and Namibia where wildlife has been commoditized (trophy hunting, wildlife tourism, commercial meat production as well as local consumption) and managed for the benefit of local communities, populations seem to be doing better

Conclusion

An undue focus on issues such as trophy hunting can take away from real problems such as conflict as well as widespread habitat loss and degradation