Hunting in SA Makes a Killing

Sunday Times (Johannesburg)
June 27, 2004
Nicky Padayachee
Johannesburg

Industry good for conservation

Wealthy foreigners seeking a chance to hunt down the big five are pouring a fortune into South Africa's coffers.

The money flowing into the hunting game amounted to R900-million in the past financial year.

Gary Davies, chief executive director of the Professional Hunters' Association of SA, says the strong rand has not discouraged Americans and Europeans who flock into the country to take shots at our wildlife.

Far from criticising this politically incorrect sport, however, some environmentalists are praising the hunting and game-ranching industry for promoting conservation and increasing the populations of many wild animal species.

Davies says the industry had its best season about three years ago, earning R1-billion while the rand was at its lowest levels against the US dollar.

"This is a dollar-rated industry because 55% of our clients come from the US. The rest come from European countries like Spain, Austria, Germany and Italy.

"The industry has not done as well recently because of the exchange rate but it earned between R800-million and R900-million last year."

This money is earned directly from hunting and includes the cost of the animals shot, accommodation and food at hunting lodges, and professional hunters' and taxidermy fees.

The figure, says Davies, does not include "multiplier effects" such as money spent on airline tickets or hotel accommodation and tours foreign hunters add onto their shooting trips.

Professor Graham Kerley, director of the Terrestrial Ecology Research Unit at the University of Port Elizabeth, says the hunting industry has made a large contribution to conservation.

Professor Kobus Bothma of the Centre for Wildlife Management at the University of Pretoria agrees, saying there is more wildlife in South Africa today than at any time in the past 100 years.

In a research paper presented in March, he says: "Wildlife ranching has contributed significantly to this recovery. Some 19 576 wild animals were sold live at 58 auctions in 2003, and some 8 900 head of game were hunted in the Eastern Cape in 2001 alone."

Davies says hunters love South Africa because it is the only country on earth where all of the big five can be legally hunted. He says the hunting industry in this country generates more cash than in the rest of Africa combined.

Davies says Americans pay up to $30 000 for a white rhino, 20 000 for an elephant, $15 000 for a lion, between $8 000 and 10 000 for a leopard and $6 000 to $8 000 for a buffalo.

And these fees, he says, contribute to the wages of around 80 000 people employed by the industry. They include not only professional hunters - of which there are 1 500 registered - but trackers, skinners and other game ranch employees.

The Eastern Cape and Limpopo are where most hunting takes place and together are responsible for generating 55% of revenue, Davies says.

Pieter van Niekerk, head of the Agriculture and Game Management school at the Port Elizabeth Technikon, says that i n 2002, R168-million was spent just on animals in the Eastern Cape by 876 Americans and 115 Spaniards. "You can more than double that for the total volume of business."

Game ranches are springing up all over the Eastern Cape. Kerley says the numbers are "increasing exponentially".

Van Niekerk says his most recent figures, from a study conducted in 2002, show that 14.6% of the province is game-fenced and many believe that the land being used for wildlife could be increasing at a rate of 10% a year.

Bothma says that because only 23.3% of all agricultural land in South Africa has a high production potential, many stock farmers turned to game farming in the early 1980s.

But now many more are getting in on the act.

Bothma says there are more than 10 000 wildlife ranches covering more than 16 million ha of South African land.

Some estimates set the amount of land being con verted from cattle to wildlife at 500 000ha per year.

Hunting, ironically, is also good news for endangered species.

Bothma says rarer animals sell the best at auction. For example, in recent years, the roan antelope has fetched an average of R178 571 per animal, sable R91 175 and white rhino R148 404.

The experts agree that the higher the prices rare animals command, the more effort will be put into increasing their numbers.

But the rapidly growing industry will have to make a bigger marketing effort in future if it wants to continue raking in the cash.

Van Niekerk says that more has to be done to develop the game meat market if wildlife farmers want to reap richer rewards from culling programmes.

Kerley says the professional hunters must market their product more effectively to avoid being overrun by competition from other countries such as the US and Russia.

He points out that alien species such as Barbary sheep and fallow deer from Europe are being bred in South Africa for shooting by foreign hunters and that other countries can just as easily rear African animals.

"[The industry has] to pay more attention to what it is selling and market the opportunity to hunt African wildlife in their natural setting," he says.

"You can hunt a Gemsbok in New Mexico, US, for $68 and you can hunt Eland in Russia.

"If [ it becomes] OK to hunt species like fallow deer in South Africa, it becomes all about the killing experience and it means that someone in New Mexico can sell exactly the same thing. It's the biggest threat to the industry and it's not being recognised."