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2000 | Buch

Introduction: The Value of Priceless Wildlife Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use

herausgegeben von: Herbert H. T. Prins, Jan Geu Grootenhuis, Thomas T. Dolan

Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buchreihe : Conservation Biology

Enthalten in: Professional Book Archive

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Über dieses Buch

One of the major challenges of sustainable development is the interdisciplinary nature of the issues involved. To this end, a team of conservation biologists, hunters, tourist operators, ranchers, wildlife and land managers, ecologists, veterinarians and economists was convened to discuss whether wildlife outside protected areas in Africa can be conserved in the face of agricultural expansion and human population growth. They reached the unequivocal - if controversial - conclusion that wildlife can be an economic asset, especially in the African savannas, if this wildlife can be sustainably utilized through safari hunting and tourism.
Using the African savannas as an example, Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use shows that in many instances sustainable wildlife utilization comprises an even better form of land use than livestock keeping. Even when population pressure is high, as in agricultural areas or in humid zones, and wild animal species can pose a serious cost to agriculture, these costs are mainly caused by small species with a low potential for safari hunting.
Although ranching has a very low rate of return and is hardly ever profitable, the biggest obstacle to the model of sustainable wildlife use outlined in Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use is from unfair competition from the agricultural sector, such as subsidies and lack of taxation, resulting in market distortion for wildlife utilization. This book thus gives valuable evidence for a different way of working, providing arguments for removing such distortions and thereby facilitating financially sound land use and making it a rationally sound choice to conserve wildlife outside protected areas.
The expert team of authors, most of whom came together at a workshop to thrash out the ideas that were then developed into the various chapters, has written a superb account of recent research on this complex subject, resulting in a book that is a major contribution to our understanding of sustainable use of land. The important conclusion is that wildlife conservation can be possible for landholders and local communities if they have a financial interest in protecting wildlife on their lands.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
1. Introduction: The Value of Priceless Wildlife
Abstract
Across the savannas of Africa dramatic changes are occurring. Grasslands are being put under the plough, trees felled, the human population is increasing, and wildlife decreasing. Pockets of wilderness survive or appear to survive as protected areas but even there species richness of large mammals is decreasing. The fate of Africa’s unparalleled and spectacularly rich communities of large herbivores and their associated predators rests in the hands of man.
Herbert H. T. Prins, Jan Geu Grootenhuis
2. The Machakos Wildlife Forum: The Story from a Woman on the Land
Summary
In 1991 a group of ranchers in the Machakos District of Kenya launched an initiative to make“the management of wildlife a happier alternative to its extermination” with a special objective of how“plains game can be accommodated and gainfully managed on ranch lands”. This Chapter tells the story of that initiative, the Machakos Wildlife Forum, beginning with the early descriptions of the area as an idyllic natural environment, teeming with wildlife, through the early colonial days, the expansion of settlement and smallholder farming to the new threat of industrial development and the strangling of the migration routes from the Nairobi National Park into Machakos, its remaining natural dispersal area. The introduction of game cropping and the management and utilization of the wildlife population based on a quota system has halted the decline in numbers and provided some income for the ranches. The recovery of some species populations has been extraordinary, warthog increasing five times, buffalo almost doubling while all the other antelope species have increased. Only ostrich have declined. The re-introduction of hunting and the utilization of hides and trophies would greatly expand the income while continuing to conserve the wildlife. Despite these successes the Machakos District is under increasing threat from the growing human population, sub- division of land, industrial development and the slow development of clear policies that could ensure the full utilisation and conservation of wildlife.
Jane Stanley
3. Ranching: An Economic Yardstick
Summary
Cattle ranching in Kenya is predominantly in rangeland areas between 100 and 1,800 meters above sea level and the holdings range in size from 6,000 to over 100,000 hectares. Many of these ranches are in Laikipia in ecological Zones V and VI, and these are used as examples to explore the economic viability of ranching. The Laikipia Plateau also hosts one of the largest wildlife populations outside protected areas and these compete directly with cattle. Water is the limiting resource that attracts wildlife onto the ranches and keeps them there. The cost of purchasing an established 20,000 ha ranch, including stock and infrastructure, would be about US $3.5 million. The annual income from cattle would be approximately US $168,000 and the expenditure US $164,400. Projected income from increasing stocking rates from 2,000 to 3,000 head show an increase in profit from approximately US $3,600 to $43,000. Game cropping has been introduced on some ranches on a quota system. A 20,000 ha ranch is estimated to have a mixed wildlife population of approximately 1,500 animals. Cropping could bring in an additional annual income of US $8,350 but if hunting was re-introduced, that income could rise to US $35,000. Many ranchers survive only by diversification, usually into tourism and cultivation of small pockets of suitable land, others have had to sell. Some smaller ranches have survived by excluding large wildlife species and increasing their stocking rates. Speculators buy ranches for sub-division but most of the land is marginal or too dry for small scale farming. Ranching is not a viable land use option. It is an attractive lifestyle for some and possible for those who either inherit the land or have surplus money. However, food security, potential export earnings and employment can all be served, if the wildlife resource on ranching land is properly utilised in a mixed wildlife cattle operation.
Brian Heath
4. The Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya: A Case Study
Summary
This case study is an analysis of the financial viability of wildlife conservation at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy (LWC) in Kenya. In the last decade the form of land use was changed from cattle ranching to wildlife conservation. In 1994 the entire conservation area was fenced. Currently the LWC is strongly dependent on donor contributions to sustain the on-going programmes, in particular the protection of both species of rhinoceros and Grevy’s zebra. In 1996, 29% of the yearly running expenses were financed by the profit centres developed on the Conservancy and 71% were covered by donations. The main source of income was tourism, followed by wildlife sales (cropping) and farming.
Due to the high cost of the endangered species programme, the current concept of wildlife conservation is not financially viable, nor is cattle ranching. The Conservancy’s tourism policy does not enable the costs of protection of endangered species to be covered. Potential trophy hunting would reduce the deficit but cannot compensate for the high costs of the sustained programmes.
This case study demonstrates that financial independence will be very difficult to achieve. A drastic cost reduction or termination of the endangered species programme, together with a change in the current tourism policy, needs to be considered.
On the other hand the contribution of the LWC to national and international conservation, protection of endangered species and the world’s biodiversity needs to be recognised. The LWC with its professional security organisation also plays an important role in the security of the area where it is located and for which it has not been financially supported.
Peter Szapary
5. Competition Between Wildlife and Livestock in Africa
Summary
Competition between wildlife and livestock is reviewed using published material on competition between wildlife and livestock and between different ungulate species in Africa and elsewhere. Different types of competition are discerned, and the effect of predators on livestock is reviewed too. Information on competition is scarce. Even though diet overlap between livestock and some African ungulates is considerable, there is too little evidence on food limitation of livestock populations; this makes the conclusion that livestock numbers are (potentially) reduced by the presence of wildlife untenable. Wildlife numbers, however, are negatively affected by livestock numbers. This is mainly due to human activities, including habitat modification, direct and indirect extermination, and denial of access to resources. Diffuse competition, that is, competition between livestock and guilds of wild herbivores within which specific species that are negatively affected cannot be indicated, appears important too.
The economic costs of livestock to the wildlife industry can be high, especially due to disease transfer; the economic costs of wildlife to the livestock industry appears to be negligible except when predation is considered.
Livestock and wildlife have about the same potential to produce products for human consumption from savanna vegetations; assemblages of wild ungulates are
about equivalent to assemblages of different domestic species (cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys and camels). Livestock appears to be superior for the exploitation by local people if animal production is aimed at self-sufficiency. This is mainly caused by the decreased risk of insufficient production due to the livestock’s capacity to produce reasonably high quantities of milk and, in some cultures, blood. The wildlife’s potential to produce added value in the form of trophies or for the support of tourism and recreation makes wildlife exploitation economically more attractive than livestock exploitation in a market economy.
Herbert H. T. Prins
6. Wildlife, Livestock and Animal Disease Reservoirs
Abstract
The perceived risk of disease transmission from wildlife to livestock has led to massive eradication of wildlife in Africa, especially during the first half of this century. There is no evidence in East Africa that this reduction in wildlife has decreased the incidence of livestock disease or the costs of livestock disease control. The few exceptions in which wild animals are a true disease reservoir are discussed in relation to their economic importance. Several examples are given in which domestic animals carry disease and constitute a risk for disease outbreaks in wildlife populations. Data on the economic consequences of disease transmission between livestock and wildlife are almost non-existant. In general, disease risks emanating ]from wildlife have been overestimated. This is an area for research which would be of practical value for land use assessment of mixed wild and domestic animal production. Control of some of the most important cattle diseases is shown not to be cost-effective in semi arid rangelands. Based on economic and conservation goals, it appears to be valuable to re-examine current pressures on land use and to develop sustainable options for change. Such analysis has already favoured the use of wildlife in many southern African countries.
Jan Geu Grootenhuis
7. Wildlife Damage in Rural Areas with Emphasis on Malawi
Summary
Wildlife pests cause losses in production in the agricultural, forestry and livestock keeping sectors and often result in damage to property and human injury and death. It is almost impossible to estimate the cost to human life but the effect on crops is economically significant. Most losses occur in subsistence cropping systems and they are caused mainly by smaller pest species, such as monkeys and rodents. Crop losses due to large animals, such as elephant, often causing conflicts between conservation interests and local populations, is economically less important. A case study in 1992 in Malawi indicated that approximately 8% of the potential agricultural production is lost due to vertebrate pests. However, the contribution of large mammals from protected areas was estimated to be less than 1% of the potential production. Land use changes and the fragmentation of wildlife habitat usually cause an increase in wildlife-human conflict and smaller protected areas contribute more to the problem than the larger protected areas. Producers are not the only component of the economy that are affected by wildlife pests; production losses cause decreased revenues in all dependent sectors and may lead to a reduction in exports and increased imports. Crop losses in Malawi in 1991 were valued at US$29 million at producer level; US$54 million at consumer level and US$58 million in loss of exports and increased imports. The impact of wildlife in rural areas near to protected land is important with regard to wildlife conservation when production loss is not compensated for by legal revenues from wildlife. Compensation for losses due to wildlife from other sources is generally not considered adequate to solve the wildlife-human conflict. Therefore, the long-term benefits from wildlife for populations in wildlife areas should be maximised. This can be realised by, among others, the integration of crop protection and wildlife exploitation, tourism development, and the facilitation of controlled access to wildlife resources.
Floris Deodatus
8. Functional Relationships Between Parks and Agricultural Areas in East Africa: the Case of Nairobi National Park
Summary
Parks in much of Africa and Asia were designed to protect large mammals and they captured the imagination of Europeans and North Americans, often as destinations for hunting or to be enjoyed for recreation. Functional relationships between parks and areas beyond or within the ecosystem, whether protected or otherwise, were therefore not taken into account. As a consequence, many parks in East Africa form concentration areas for migrating wildlife populations and constitute small parts of much larger ecosystems. Many of the animals therefore use areas under human occupation for a part of their seasonal cycles. Threats to dispersal areas beyond park boundaries therefore have implications for the survival and well being of many parks in East Africa.
The Athi-Kapiti ecosystem is one such system and is dominated by livestock. It also has a large number of wild herbivores of which wildebeest and zebra are the most numerous, and constitute over half the total wildlife population. Nairobi National Park, the only protected part of this ecosystem forms the northern limit of the wildlife migrations in the dry season and constitutes less than 10% of the ecosystem. Migratory zebra and wildebeest move out of the park in the wet season and return in the dry to join other resident wildlife. The ecology of the park and plains are inextricably linked by the movement patterns of the migratory species.
Despite being wildlife-rich, these plains have not escaped human development and they are being converted to uses that are incompatible with wildlife conservation. Like many other ecosystems that straddle park and privately owned wildlife areas, it faces the challenges of conserving wildlife on these human occupied areas with rapidly growing population and poverty. How can landowners maximise returns from their land, where does wildlife fit and to what extent can it become a profitable part of land use? These are some of the questions landowners must ask themselves continuously as they make decisions on how best to use their land and provide livelihoods for their families.
Current threats to the parks migratory populations and the ecosystem as a whole arise from a growing human population, changing settlements patterns, fencing and proximity to the city of Nairobi and nearby industrial towns. These activities are fragmenting the ecosystems and taking up important wildlife habitat. Conservation measures and ways of providing economic incentives have been proposed. These include:
  • The establishment of wildlife corridors from the Mbagathi river crossings through the upper part of Kitengela where the most intense pressure is currently found;
  • The creation of a buffer zone along the Mbagathi river across from Nairobi National Park within which tourism facilities and high-value home sites can continue to be developed.
  • The compensation of Kitengela landowners in critical parts of the ecosystem. Fencing is one of the principal threats to wildlife migration in the larger Kitengela area. Ways can be found to persuade landowners not to fence.
Unless the profitability of wildlife can be demonstrated at the local level or other innovative ways of conserving it are found, wildlife in this ecosystem is unlikely to survive into the 21st century and beyond.
Helen Gichohi
9. Functional Relationships Between Protected and Agricultural Areas in South Africa and Namibia
Summary
The history of the establishment of protected areas in South Africa and Namibia is outlined. Interactions between selected examples of protected areas and their neighbours are described. While there are cases of conflict because of wildlife damage to crops or predation on livestock, the majority of protected areas have been wholly or partially isolated by fencing. They have little influence on the substantial wildlife resources on private land. For the most part these supplement conventional livestock production and provide opportunities to develop high value multiple-use systems. Significant economic benefits are dependent on the development of high quality facilities in relatively large areas which offer scenic attractions and a variety of wildlife which includes at least some of the“big five”. To derive these benefits, individual landowners need to collaborate with neighbours to form conservancies. Examples of formal systems of collaboration between statutory conservation bodies and private landowners are given. Most communally held land in South Africa is densely populated and has little or no wildlife. Examples are given of reserves which have been established and stocked to assist in the economic development of poor rural communities. Only in Namibia are major opportunities for rural communities to develop industries based on existing wildlife resources.
Proposals are made for the application of Southern African experience to East Africa to ensure the survival of wildlife beyond the boundaries of protected areas.
R. C. Bigalke
10. Wildlife and Livestock Population Trends in the Kenya Rangeland
Summary
The rangelands of Kenya are home to over 25% of the human population and are critically important for livestock production and wildlife conservation. Aerial surveys of wildlife and livestock populations in the rangelands have been conducted since 1977 and these data were analysed to determine population trends for the 1970s (1977-81), the 1980s (1985-88) and the 1990s (1992-94). Cattle populations remained static throughout, although the numbers fluctuated at district level. Sheep, goat and donkey numbers declined (10-14%) and camels increased (12%). All wildlife species except wildebeest and ostrich declined significantly. The highest wildlife densities were in protected areas but over 70% of wildlife was found outside these areas. The main contributors to the decline in wildlife were poaching and land use change. In the 1970s and 1980s, poaching was driven by the high international prices for trophies, particularly rhinoceros horn and elephant tusks, and the failure of the Wildlife Department to control it. This led to the total ban on trade in all forms of trophies and uses by the Government in 1977. New land tenure legislation creating group ranches and assigning land rights and ownership to pastoral communities was introduced in the early 1970s in response to growing human and livestock populations. This resulted in the exclusion of wildlife from large areas of land to minimize wildlife livestock competition and to protect and promote the expansion of arable agriculture. The severe droughts in 1984 and 1990 exacerbated the decline. New policies on wildlife management, strengthening of the Kenya Wildlife Service, expansion of community based wildlife programmes, re-introduction of use rights and the development of a comprehensive national land use policy are seen as the ways forward in halting the decline in wildlife in the rangelends and in fostering its conservation through utilization.
Wilber K. Ottichilo, Jesse Grunblatt, Mohammed Y. Said, Patrick W. Wargute
11. The Effects of a Century of Policy and Legal Change on Wildlife Conservation and Utilisation in Tanzania
Summary
This chapter examines the history of the past century and current practice of conservation in Tanzania. In pre-colonial times, conservation was achieved through culture and traditions, and without any written decrees or formal institutional framework. German and British colonialists successively began the process of reserving protected areas and of promulgating legislation that instituted central control over wildlife resources. The process of reserving protected areas continued after Independence, and these efforts were helped considerably by other national policies such as villagisation that drew people into more centralised settlements. Tanzania now has one of the most extensive protected area networks in Africa, and some unrivalled wildlife resources. However, it also has a very complex sector with several wildlife authorities managing different categories of protected area and different types of wildlife utilisation.
Game viewing is an important economic use of protected areas, primarily national parks, in the north. Hunting by tourists is an important economic use of game reserves and other areas across the country. These forms of wildlife use bring fees to wildlife authorities and central government and greatly benefit the private sector. They also provide direct benefit to local communities from land on which they coexist with the wildlife that is being utilised. Hunting by residents is an important activity for urban Tanzanians but provides little revenue to central government and no benefit to local communities. Trade in live animals and use of products from animals killed on control provide some legal benefits to local communities. However, most local communities now use wildlife illegally or convert land to other uses. Therefore, the Tanzanian government requested advice on policy formulation in the early 1990s. The policies recommended include retaining the unsettled, protected areas as the core of conservation activity, instituting a programme of community- based conservation where humans and wildlife co-exist, and rationalising the institutions involved in the wildlife sector.
Nigel Leader-Williams
12. “Ownership” of Wildlife
Summary
“Ownership of Wildlife” explores the importance of resource proprietorship to the conservation of the African macrofauna and its habitats, outside national Protected Areas. This is done against a brief review of the possible effects of land ownership as opposed to communally held resource rights because landholders determine the fate of wildlife outside State managed parks and reserves. This leads to the conclusion that wildlife, and the biological diversity that it spearheads, depends on the resource being able to generate human benefits that are competitive with the returns from alternative land use options. Realising these returns depends on institutional arrangements that enable wildlife to achieve its inherent economic advantage where land is in any way marginal for conventional agriculture. The usual type of game laws found in most of Africa south of the Sahara, which are a legacy of the colonial era, do not meet this need and the centrally managed protectionism that they embody has probably been counter-productive to their aims. It has undervalued the resource and marginalised the landholders who decide the future of wildlife on their land. The Chapter concludes by suggesting that legislation is needed that maintains wildlife as a wild resource without prejudicing its ability to compete financially with other land uses. This requires freedom to trade in it, that landholders and managers have security of tenure over the rights to use the resource, and that costly regulation is reduced to an absolute minimum.
Graham Child, Langford Chitsike
13. Wildlife Land Use and The Great Experiment
Summary
The rangelands of Africa are being degraded rapidly by increasing human and domestic animal populations and man’s land use practices. Wildlife numbers and diversity are decreasing everywhere except in parks. In Kenya, wildlife has been reduced by more than 50% in 20 years. The inherent strengths of natural ecosystems are outlined and the damage done by man’s farming systems described. Two examples are given of pastoralist peoples whose land has been degraded, almost without them realising it. The value of wildlife and its proper utilization in the rehabilitation of the rangelands, and the economic wellbeing of the pastoralist are discussed, based on the experiences of the author. The restoration of hunting rights would greatly increase the return on wildlife utilization and ensure its preservation.
David Hopcraft
14. Financial Feasibility of Game Cropping in Machakos District, Kenya
Summary
This chapter reports on the financial returns of game cropping, which is one of several options for utilization of wildlife. The case study presents data on Game Ranching Ltd. (GRL), a game ranch in Machakos district, Kenya. Investments and operational costs of game cropping are presented for the financial year 1994. In addition, the contribution of the different species to the company result is indicated. Utilization of wildlife is put into perspective relative to livestock ranching, the current type of land use in semi-arid areas of Kenya. The compatibility of game cropping with livestock ranching is discussed.
Besides wildlife cropping, GRL is involved in livestock ranching, the production of hay, tourism and education. Two-third of the gross income is wildlife related. The cropping operation is not limited to the ranch itself. In 1994, the major part of the venison production was derived from neighbouring livestock ranches in the district. Game cropping is an additional source of income to these ranches and an opportunity to exert control over wildlife numbers. GRL is able to obtain a net benefit from game cropping which appears to be related to the following factors; the scale of the operation, the relatively high prices for the venison produced, the proximity to a well-established market in Nairobi and the accessibility of the terrain. Most of the income from game cropping is derived from a few species, namely Coke’s hartebeest, zebra and wildebeest, which are abundant in the district. Giraffe and eland yield the highest income on a per-animal basis, but because of their low numbers their contribution to the overall ranch income is small.
Consumptive wildlife utilization offers a financially realistic opportunity for diversifying land use, in the current situation, mainly as an additional activity to livestock ranching. The present policy on wildlife in Kenya does not allow utilization to its full extent. Legalization of safari hunting and live animal sales, and improvement of the possibilities for marketing and export of products will increase the financial incentive to manage wildlife in a sustainable manner. For this to be achieved, it is extremely important that landholders have a guarantee of their wildlife use rights in the long-term.
Daan Bos, Jan G. Grootenhuis, Herbert H. T. Prins
15. Hunting and Its Benefits: an Overview of Hunting in Africa with Special Reference to Tanzania
Summary
This chapter presents an overview of hunting in Africa today. A comparison is given of the various hunting destinations and their comparative costs. Tanzania is the most satisfactory destination by most criteria but it is comparatively expensive, while South Africa is the cheapest, busiest (4,500 clients annually) and most accessible. Wildlife is plentiful in some country locations but is being poached mercilessly in others. Only through effective regulation will it be preserved and turned to the benefit of the countries and their communities. If local communities and landowners on whose land wildlife feeds do not benefit from wildlife, they will not conserve it. Tanzania is used as an example of the potential benefits to be gained from safari hunting because of the authors particular experience of that country. The Cullman Wildlife Project, a community based wildlife utilization scheme in Tanzania which is sponsored by donations from hunters, is described and the benefits to the communities outlined. This model can be applied elsewhere and has many of the features of the CAMPFIRE Project in Zimbabwe and the Madikwa Game Reserve in South Africa. Quotas and quota setting are critical to the maintenance of wildlife populations on government and communal lands. A case is made for lifting the hunting ban in Kenya and re-introducing safari hunting, and possible charges and potential earnings are presented.
Robin Hurt, Pauline Ravn
16. The Economics of Wildlife Tourism: Theory and Reality For Landholders in Africa
Summary
This paper examines the economics of wildlife tourism in Africa. It demonstrates that as well as generating large revenues for governments, wildlife tourism makes significant contributions to other national economic goals such as foreign exchange earnings and employment creation. It supports a range of private entrepreneurs, both in the tourism sector and in secondary and support industries. For private and communal landholders, substantial profits can potentially be gained from wildlife tourism. In recent years, the participation of the private sector in wildlife tourism and its use on private and communal lands in Africa has increased rapidly. This chapter assesses the conditions necessary for this participation to increase still further.
The profitability of wildlife for landholders is of particular concern for wildlife conservation. Because much of the wildlife in East and southern Africa lies on private and communal lands, its conservation depends on the activities of these landholders and to what extent they are compatible with wildlife. It is widely assumed that because wildlife tourism generates high profits, it will be an attractive land use option for landholders and wildlife will be conserved. It is argued that looking just at overall profitability presents an overly simplistic view of the economics of wildlife tourism for landholders. The deciding factors in whether landholders take up wildlife tourism and conserve the wildlife on their lands are the extent to which they themselves reap the benefits of tourism, and how far these profits are competitive with alternative land use options, most importantly crops and livestock. By looking at a range of examples in East and southern Africa, the chapter demonstrates that wider economic and policy factors have, by limiting the wildlife tourism income available to landholders and inadequately compensating them for other productive land uses foregone, discriminated against wildlife-based land uses. It concludes that unless more effort is made to increase the share of wildlife tourism profits accruing to landholders through better revenue-sharing arrangements, business partnerships, increased training and credit, and the discontinuing of policy distortions in the agricultural and wildlife sectors, in particular subsidies to agricultural inputs and research, and restrictions on private wildlife use and management, the returns to tourism for landholders will never be enough to convince them to maintain wildlife on their lands.
Allan Earnshaw, Lucy Emerton
17. Making Wildlife Pay: Converting Wildlife’s Comparative Advantage Into Real Incentives for Having Wildlife in African Savannas, Case Studies from Zimbabwe and Zambia
Summary
This chapter is about establishing mechanisms that price wildlife, how these mechanisms work and how they can be valuable for promoting economic development and conservation simultaneously. It uses several examples, mainly from Zimbabwe, to describe how wildlife was converted from a public good with little or even a negative value to landholders, into a private good which landholders or communities have a positive incentive to produce. It explains why wildlife has a comparative economic advantage and is often a better use of agriculturally marginal savannahs than more conventional livestock monocultures, and provides data from the private ranching sector in Zimbabwe to support this argument. The central assertion in the chapter is that both wildlife conservation and economic development are best served in much of savanna Africa by converting wildlife into a commercial asset. This is achieved by modifying macro-economic institutions and legislation so that mechanisms develop to ensure prices more closely reflect scarcity or value, and resources are allocated more efficiently. This would ensure that where wildlife has a comparative advantage, it would be reflected in incentive structures and landholders would produce wildlife rather than livestock which owes much of its past prominence to fiscal and environmental subsidisation.
This chapter describes a set of such changes that have converted wildlife’s inherent advantage into a real financial advantage on private land in Zimbabwe and how these mechanisms were extended to communal land (through the CAMPFIRE programme) where institutional complexities and poverty were significant hurdles. The final section uses a simple model to describe how each step in the evolution of wildlife pricing, changed its value relative to other land uses and therefore, the probability of wildlife remaining on land outside parks. It also identifies some of the distortions and subsidies that remain a serious threat to wildlife conservation and economic efficiency in non-agricultural areas.
Brian Child
18. Traditional African Wildlife Utilization: Subsistence Hunting, Poaching, and Sustainable Use
Summary
This paper examines traditional African wildlife utilization activities, with particular emphasis on subsistence hunting, or the procurement of wild animals for purposes of meeting household needs. It is noted that subsistence hunting in Africa is often defined by the state as poaching (hunting outside the bounds of the laws set by the state). State conservation efforts in Africa have seen limits placed on access to wildlife resources through national legislation. Hunter-gatherers and some pastoralists and farmers in Africa exploit a wide array of wild animals for economic, social, and spiritual purposes. Three countries in Africa allow subsistence hunting: Botswana, Namibia, and Tanzania. In all three cases, subsistence hunting is limited to peoples of hunting and gathering origin and/or practice. The subsistence hunting activities of the Ju/’hoansi (!Kung) San of northeastern Namibia and northwestern Botswana from the 1960s through the mid-1990s are examined, and it argued that the offtake rates of hunters appear to be sustainable. The acquisition of surplus meat is sometimes done for purposes of storage and to share meat with other people in order to reinforce social relationships and provide food to those who do not hunt. In the 1990s community-based natural resource management programs were initiated among the Ju/’hoansi in both Namibia and Botswana. It is too early to say whether these programs will enable the Ju/’hoansi to become economically selfsufficient.
Another strategy of promoting conservation in southern Africa which involves removing people from their ancestral lands and taking away their hunting rights is presented using the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana as an example. Changes have occurred over time in subsistence hunting strategies in the central Kalahari, with an expansion in the utilization of horses and donkeys as hunting aids. The greater efficiency of equestrian hunting has led to concerns that offtake rates are too high. The government of Botswana, therefore, decided to relocate the people of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, with the result that the social and economic well-being of the former residents of the reserve has declined. The conclusion drawn is that community-based approaches that allow local people access to and control over wildlife resources may have more positive impacts on conservation and sustainable use than those strategies that dispossess local people and reduce their access to wildlife resources.
Robert K. Hitchcock
19. Compelling Reasons for Game Ranching in Maputaland
Summary
The last decade has seen a considerable increase in the area of land devoted to wildlife in South Africa. In this chapter we argue that this has been driven by economic rather than conservation reasons. A strong local and overseas market within the right political and legal framework have made game ranching an economically attractive proposition for many landowners in certain areas of South Africa such as Maputaland.
An obstacle to the creation of game ranches is the large sum of initial capital required for the acquisition of game and the erection of fences and other infrastructure. This chapter provides four case studies on how this problem was overcome. Shareblock schemes provide one method for raising the required capital. This method has had a significant impact on the growth of game ranching in South Africa and so the schemes are discussed in some detail.
The use of mathematical models have contributed to the optimal utilisation of capital in the set-up phase of a game ranch and in determining management strategies to maximise sustainable income. A case study is provided where this approach was used to calculate an optimal mix of species. Another mathematical model then generated the sequence of purchases and acquisitions of game that minimise total net capital outflow during the set-up period. This minimisation enabled the optimal sustainable populations to be attained within three years taking into account ecological constraints and the limited availability of some species. The model output also includes a detailed cash flow statement for the set-up period.
John Hearne, Margaret Mckenzie
20. Madikwe Game Reserve: A Partnership in Conservation
Summary
Madikwe Game Reserve was established primarily for socio-economic reasons while still achieving a number of conservation objectives. Wildlife ecotourism was found to be the most financially and economically efficient form of land use considering other options that were available. The policies developed for the management of the park have ensured that the three main parties in protected areas are all catered for meaningfully.
The Government has a major role to play in establishing and managing the conservation activities and facilitating the role of other sectors of society within the protected area. The private sector is responsible for financing, developing and managing the tourism operations while providing the funds necessary to support the reserve management activities and community development programmes through concession fees levied by the Government for use of the Reserve. The communities are responsible for identifying their own development priorities, ensuring these are carried out in a responsible, transparent and democratic manner and participating in developing policies for the Game Reserve. These three partners have been accommodated by establishing, in a participative manner, appropriate institutions and a regulatory framework through which their different interests can be met, while still achieving a conservation goal.
These policies have allowed the reserve to develop rapidly and ensured that the potential economic opportunities that protected areas of this nature can supply are, in fact, to be turned into reality, and that conservation can be seen as a competitive form of land use when considered against other alternatives.
Richard Davies
21. Application of the Southern African Experience to Wildlife Utilization and Conservation in Kenya and Tanzania
Abstract
This book and the workshop that preceded it show a remarkable convergence of ideas and consensus as to the inherent and actualised potential of wildlife, the reasons why this potential remains unfulfilled in some situations and the importance of economic institutions in resolving the problem in realising wildlife’s potential. This convergence was surprising given the highly publicised “rift” between the utilisationist approach prevalent in southern Africa and the preservationist tendencies in East Africa, a rift which it appears, hardly exists at the technical level. While the chapter explaining the background and principles of CAMPFIRE (Child, Chapter 17) described the southern African responses to the disappearance of wildlife, the conclusions it comes to apply equally well to the Kenyan and other situations. Indeed, these lessons respond directly to an appeal by David Western, then Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, for evidence and information to support a shift towards more pragmatic and economically sound conservation policies in Kenya.
Brian Child
22. Wildlife Utilisation: A Justified Option for Sustainable Land Use in African Savannas
Abstract
“If you want to make money out of wildlife go to South Africa, if you want to enjoy seeing wildlife, go to Kenya”. This statement was made by one of the authors in this book who comes from a country somewhere in between South Africa and Kenya. Why are the financial and economic prospects for wildlife utilization best in a place that appears to many less attractive for the experience of the wild animal splendour of Africa and why are the best areas the least conducive to financial and economic success at the time of writing? In this concluding chapter an attempt is made to explain this paradoxical situation. Land use options in the African savannas are reviewed and the prerequisites for sustainable use of wildlife, which were treated in detail in the various chapters, are examined to assess the consensus among the contributors of this book. Our intention is to assist those people who are dealing with the use of wildlife, those living with wildlife on their land, those who are making a living out of wildlife and those who are, at a distance, determining the fate of people and wildlife by their involvement in policy making at State level or giving financial support, the complex of donor agencies and NGOs.
Jan Geu Grootenhuis, Herbert H. T. Prins
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use
herausgegeben von
Herbert H. T. Prins
Jan Geu Grootenhuis
Thomas T. Dolan
Copyright-Jahr
2000
Verlag
Springer Netherlands
Electronic ISBN
978-94-011-4012-6
Print ISBN
978-94-010-5773-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4012-6