Hunting in Botswana
Mar 6th, 2007, 12:53 PM
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Hunting in Botswana
I was looking at the Eyes on Africa Delta map and they have now added some additional detail on areas (NG#) that allow hunting. It sort of makes sense why Mombo is such a good location, it is furthest in all directions from hunting and human pressures.
There is alos some interesting information on fees paid by operators which would have helped the discussion on a recent thread.
http://www.eyesonafrica.net/african-...ngo-safari.htm
Surprising to me was the hunting on the Kwando concession.
There is alos some interesting information on fees paid by operators which would have helped the discussion on a recent thread.
http://www.eyesonafrica.net/african-...ngo-safari.htm
Surprising to me was the hunting on the Kwando concession.
Mar 6th, 2007, 02:00 PM
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Matt,
I noticed that map a couple weeks ago and am trying to educate myself on this hunting stuff. I certainly do not want to hear or encounter any hunters on my next safari. I can't even imagine how I would react.
I noticed that map a couple weeks ago and am trying to educate myself on this hunting stuff. I certainly do not want to hear or encounter any hunters on my next safari. I can't even imagine how I would react.
Mar 6th, 2007, 02:40 PM
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Carla
I have heard some people report that shots have been heard from time to time in certain parts of Bots, and I think Dennis maybe, had an encounter in Zambia, apologies if my memory fails me.
I have heard some people report that shots have been heard from time to time in certain parts of Bots, and I think Dennis maybe, had an encounter in Zambia, apologies if my memory fails me.
Mar 6th, 2007, 03:01 PM
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In the late 90's, I was told that in order to maximize revenue out of the concessions, the Bot gov't was requiring concession holders to do both hunting and photographic safaris. I don't know if that was for all or just some of the concessions. But a couple of the companies that went this way were also in the Delta.
Mar 6th, 2007, 03:12 PM
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Hadn't heard that, but Wilderness always seems to make a big deal out of foregoing hunting revenue, the Selinda concession also, now that the Joubert's own it, and I thought Sanctuary did, but can't find a mention on their web site.
Mar 6th, 2007, 03:52 PM
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I've not had the misfortune to encounter any on-the-ground sights or sounds of hunting in Botswana, except on a Wilderness mobile safari in '96 when our guide accidentally took a short cut across a hunting concession.
So I've long been aware of the existence of hunting areas (the map is not new), but for the most part (Lynn's Chitabe experience surprises me) it seems the hunting activities are kept well away from photographic safari areas. They certainly were back when the Selinda concession had a hunting operation down at Motwiri.
A very good thing I am grateful for is that Botswana maintains its ban on trophy-killing of lions, despite the lobbying of the hunting fraternity. The other references I've seen in relation to shots being heard in photographic safari areas all concerned SLNP in Zambia (as well as baiting of lions to entice them out of the park), but thankfully these seem to be very rare occurrences. So SLNP is for my next safari.
John
So I've long been aware of the existence of hunting areas (the map is not new), but for the most part (Lynn's Chitabe experience surprises me) it seems the hunting activities are kept well away from photographic safari areas. They certainly were back when the Selinda concession had a hunting operation down at Motwiri.
A very good thing I am grateful for is that Botswana maintains its ban on trophy-killing of lions, despite the lobbying of the hunting fraternity. The other references I've seen in relation to shots being heard in photographic safari areas all concerned SLNP in Zambia (as well as baiting of lions to entice them out of the park), but thankfully these seem to be very rare occurrences. So SLNP is for my next safari.
John
Mar 6th, 2007, 07:11 PM
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I guess I should probably respond here...
In 2005 Botswana's moratorium on lion hunting was lifted after being in place for four years. The number of lions "allocated" is one per concession, which means something like 33 lions possible; however, with many concessions obviously not hunting, I believe the actual number has been more like 19 actually hunted. Still 19 too many IMO.
Trophy hunting and lethal control methods for ‘problem animals’ are the two most important factors causing unnatural mortality within the wild lion population in Botswana.
Herewith a bit of information I can provide with regards to Wilderness Safaris in particular...
Wilderness Safaris leases almost 350,000 hectares of prime wildlife country in the Okavango and Linyanti regions of northern Botswana.
Wilderness has lease agreements with both the Government and local communities. With such large concession areas comes an increased responsibility to ensure that tourism activities have as little impact as possible on the environment.
The single most important conservation objective of the company is to utilize the land in a sustainable manner by conducting only photographic safari operations.
With lions being a flagship species, it is important to have some idea of population dynamics within the different concession areas and to this end a lion monitoring project is run by the company.
Lion counts and monitoring projects in their various concessions are combined to gain some idea of population trends and status.
The big, mature males are often indicators of how healthy a lion population may be due to their selective removal by hunting operations. The ratio of adult males to adult females is also a useful statistic when gauging the health of a lion population.
Interesting trends have already surfaced, and just as was the case in studies in and around Hwange NP in Zimbabwe, so too are the highest lion densities to be found in those concessions (like Mombo) which are surrounded on all sides by other photographic concessions and which are furthest from hunting operations and stock farming areas.
Perhaps the most promising news for lions and all other wildlife as well, is the development of transfrontier parks. One of the primary objectives of such parks is to increase the sheer amount of land available for wildlife, and that may well be the best way forward for all concerned.
In Botswana, with its low volume approach to tourism, photographic safaris (non-consumptive) are in direct competition with hunting operators (consumptive) for the rights to land use.
In the last twenty years the trend has been strongly in favor of photographic safaris and it is probable that in time, this preferred form of land use may economically out-compete hunting.
Finally, in response to Hari's comment, the rationale for adding the hunting info to my map is twofold:
1. Provide information
2. Encourage photographic tourism to continue the trend towards photo and away from hunting. The higher the demand for photo safaris, the more the gov't and local communities will be forced (via simple economics) to lease the land to companies like WS.
James
In 2005 Botswana's moratorium on lion hunting was lifted after being in place for four years. The number of lions "allocated" is one per concession, which means something like 33 lions possible; however, with many concessions obviously not hunting, I believe the actual number has been more like 19 actually hunted. Still 19 too many IMO.
Trophy hunting and lethal control methods for ‘problem animals’ are the two most important factors causing unnatural mortality within the wild lion population in Botswana.
Herewith a bit of information I can provide with regards to Wilderness Safaris in particular...
Wilderness Safaris leases almost 350,000 hectares of prime wildlife country in the Okavango and Linyanti regions of northern Botswana.
Wilderness has lease agreements with both the Government and local communities. With such large concession areas comes an increased responsibility to ensure that tourism activities have as little impact as possible on the environment.
The single most important conservation objective of the company is to utilize the land in a sustainable manner by conducting only photographic safari operations.
With lions being a flagship species, it is important to have some idea of population dynamics within the different concession areas and to this end a lion monitoring project is run by the company.
Lion counts and monitoring projects in their various concessions are combined to gain some idea of population trends and status.
The big, mature males are often indicators of how healthy a lion population may be due to their selective removal by hunting operations. The ratio of adult males to adult females is also a useful statistic when gauging the health of a lion population.
Interesting trends have already surfaced, and just as was the case in studies in and around Hwange NP in Zimbabwe, so too are the highest lion densities to be found in those concessions (like Mombo) which are surrounded on all sides by other photographic concessions and which are furthest from hunting operations and stock farming areas.
Perhaps the most promising news for lions and all other wildlife as well, is the development of transfrontier parks. One of the primary objectives of such parks is to increase the sheer amount of land available for wildlife, and that may well be the best way forward for all concerned.
In Botswana, with its low volume approach to tourism, photographic safaris (non-consumptive) are in direct competition with hunting operators (consumptive) for the rights to land use.
In the last twenty years the trend has been strongly in favor of photographic safaris and it is probable that in time, this preferred form of land use may economically out-compete hunting.
Finally, in response to Hari's comment, the rationale for adding the hunting info to my map is twofold:
1. Provide information
2. Encourage photographic tourism to continue the trend towards photo and away from hunting. The higher the demand for photo safaris, the more the gov't and local communities will be forced (via simple economics) to lease the land to companies like WS.
James
Mar 6th, 2007, 07:38 PM
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I'm most grateful for that information, James. Shows you how long ago I checked on the Botswana lion-hunting ban...must have been when I was planning my last trip in 2005. Around that time, I read of intense pressure from the hunting industry, but thought it would be resisted.
Yes, 19 too many!
John
Yes, 19 too many!
John
Mar 6th, 2007, 09:01 PM
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James: Very interesting map and good to see the lay of land use.
Can't belive Bush Sr. and Stormin Norman and their hunter pals were able to get Botswana to reopen lion hunting, I hope that doesn't last for long!
You have laid out the Wilderness Safari position well. I do not know much about the other operators except for Kwando and I think it is important that people do not get overly confused by the colors and incorrectly associate ownership with hunting, or even proximity to hunting.
As I understand it Kwando's two concessions actually total to 30% more land area than all of the WS operating areas combined but they have really minimized impacts by only operating 4 camps that are all small, by comparison WS has around 20 camps so Kwando is definitely doing their part for low impact tourism. I think its important to point out that Kwando Safaris does not own, operate or associate in any way with the hunting that occurs in their concession so there is not a moral ground reason to avoid Kwando due to hunting. The other easy misconception that could come from misinterpretation of the map is to avoid Kwando camps because they are near hunting but in actuality Lebala and Lagoon are the 3rd and 4th fartherst camps from hunting camps in the entire region. I am afraid without additional info people will look at it that way by associating the color of the concession with the camp and not realize these factors. By contrast Chitabe is in a no hunting concession but I believe there is a hunting camp just 1.5 km away across the concession border. So while the map and coloring would indicate no reason to associate hunting as a factor with Chitabe it may well be much more impacted than a Kwando camp that has orange in the concession.
I realize the info may be very hard to come by but I would love to see this map completed with the locations of hunting camps plotted as well and the distance between each photo camp and its closest hunting camp. I think that would give the complete picture. It would also give all of us a camp name and location and rationale to complain to the government and flood the operator companies with mail that they could produce to the government too. I would love to have those kind of facts and write a letter that I will not stay at Camp X because I worry the lion I habituate only needs to wonder 1.5 km to the south and it can be shot. Indisputable facts that they must acknowledge and respect.
Hopefully somebody knows the details of some of the other operators and can fill in their status.
Can't belive Bush Sr. and Stormin Norman and their hunter pals were able to get Botswana to reopen lion hunting, I hope that doesn't last for long!
You have laid out the Wilderness Safari position well. I do not know much about the other operators except for Kwando and I think it is important that people do not get overly confused by the colors and incorrectly associate ownership with hunting, or even proximity to hunting.
As I understand it Kwando's two concessions actually total to 30% more land area than all of the WS operating areas combined but they have really minimized impacts by only operating 4 camps that are all small, by comparison WS has around 20 camps so Kwando is definitely doing their part for low impact tourism. I think its important to point out that Kwando Safaris does not own, operate or associate in any way with the hunting that occurs in their concession so there is not a moral ground reason to avoid Kwando due to hunting. The other easy misconception that could come from misinterpretation of the map is to avoid Kwando camps because they are near hunting but in actuality Lebala and Lagoon are the 3rd and 4th fartherst camps from hunting camps in the entire region. I am afraid without additional info people will look at it that way by associating the color of the concession with the camp and not realize these factors. By contrast Chitabe is in a no hunting concession but I believe there is a hunting camp just 1.5 km away across the concession border. So while the map and coloring would indicate no reason to associate hunting as a factor with Chitabe it may well be much more impacted than a Kwando camp that has orange in the concession.
I realize the info may be very hard to come by but I would love to see this map completed with the locations of hunting camps plotted as well and the distance between each photo camp and its closest hunting camp. I think that would give the complete picture. It would also give all of us a camp name and location and rationale to complain to the government and flood the operator companies with mail that they could produce to the government too. I would love to have those kind of facts and write a letter that I will not stay at Camp X because I worry the lion I habituate only needs to wonder 1.5 km to the south and it can be shot. Indisputable facts that they must acknowledge and respect.
Hopefully somebody knows the details of some of the other operators and can fill in their status.
Mar 6th, 2007, 10:25 PM
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Bill,
That's extremely valuable input too...puts things in perspective. I agree that to be truly informative and not potentially misleading, a map should show locations of both kinds of camps. Maybe a lot of people don't care, but a few of us do.
Personally, I've never been misled in relation to the Kwando concession and the Selinda concession, but I can see how people could be misled. In the latter case, I knew the former hunting camp Motswiri was far distant from the photographic action, but I often wondered why it was not shown and wonder even more now that it is no longer a hunting camp. And in the case of Chitabe...that's some revelation if you're correct.
John
That's extremely valuable input too...puts things in perspective. I agree that to be truly informative and not potentially misleading, a map should show locations of both kinds of camps. Maybe a lot of people don't care, but a few of us do.
Personally, I've never been misled in relation to the Kwando concession and the Selinda concession, but I can see how people could be misled. In the latter case, I knew the former hunting camp Motswiri was far distant from the photographic action, but I often wondered why it was not shown and wonder even more now that it is no longer a hunting camp. And in the case of Chitabe...that's some revelation if you're correct.
John
Mar 6th, 2007, 10:34 PM
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Off topic...or is it?
I am always suspicious when I come across the holier than thou's with the halos on their heads and fingers pointing at the other party.
Bill, you bring up some great points. My own hunting research is very rusty and I am not qualified to engage in this discussion.
I am always suspicious when I come across the holier than thou's with the halos on their heads and fingers pointing at the other party.
Bill, you bring up some great points. My own hunting research is very rusty and I am not qualified to engage in this discussion.
Mar 6th, 2007, 10:38 PM
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Rocco: I really have to credit you with that info. I actually dug up your old posting with the info coming straight from the former Kwando director to make sure that I remembered it all correctly.
Mar 6th, 2007, 10:42 PM
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Thanks Bill...I have definitely been very concerned about this issue in the past and remain so...I just don't like to see certain operators unfairly singled out without due process.
I think it is every photosafari operators desire to eliminate hunting but I know there are times that they just may not have such luxury when the Bots government or the communities dictate that photosafari operators and hunting operators share the same concession. As a result, I am not nearly as quick to judge on the issue as in the past.
I think it is every photosafari operators desire to eliminate hunting but I know there are times that they just may not have such luxury when the Bots government or the communities dictate that photosafari operators and hunting operators share the same concession. As a result, I am not nearly as quick to judge on the issue as in the past.
Mar 6th, 2007, 10:42 PM
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John: I think there is a big reason that we don't ever see the hunting camps mapped. The hunting operators, and probably the government don't want trouble with that cash cow so they keep the profile as low as possible in regards to putting info where the standard photo crowd might come across it and have negative feelings. Think about how much knowledge we all have on this board, between us we know about virtually every photo camp in Botswana but I be we would be hard pressed to name 2 or 3 hunting camps, I don't know the name of a single one.
Mar 6th, 2007, 10:50 PM
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Rocco: you did a great job of bringing fair balance to this previously and I thought those findings belonged here too to avoid confusion that has already been clarified in the past. I also agree with you that all of the photo operators want to continue the conversion from hunting to no-hunting and hopefully the trend will continue in that direction thus I find the map info very important data but hope no one will misunderstand the situation and judge the safari operators incorrectly.
Mar 6th, 2007, 11:26 PM
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I mentioned this in the thread canned hunts
"One of the most confronting things that happened on our trip to Botswana was arriving through customs at Maun at the same time as a German hunter checking though his ARSENAL of weaponry. Here we were to be with and see wildlife and he was there to kill it.It was enough to make us cry (actually)."
Wilderness Safaris do make it clear that they PAY the Botswanan Government the equivelant fees for the land they have which is gazzetted as hunting concessions - this is to be commended.
In planning our next trip we put every lodge we didn't already know the operator of though a google search thus "name of lodge trophy" we were very suprised that some of the Namibian lodges whose websites appear to be innoucous tourist detination also host hunting.
Needless to say they are no longer on the itinerary. I concur with PredatorBioligist that these maps should also show the hunting lodges, however a word of caution here - if, as was our experience that areas such as Kwhai which had in recent history been a hunting concession and is now a Wilderness Concession has shy animals - maybe hunters would be attracted to areas close to photographic camps/concessions because animals do cross these borders. Maybe then a hunter could chose HIS destinations by plotting his killing-spree by this criteria.
Rather than waiting for the "map" a google search using the following search term just turned up 65,300 hits."Trophy Hunt Botswana".
Lobbying the Botswana Governemnt is probably the way to go - although there are large hunting groups already sucessfully doing that. Such orgs as Safari International lobby various African Governemnts hard. http://www.safariclub.org/
Also - there are other Travel Forums that sell advertising space to hunting operators.
It is good to see these harder issues being discussed here - if those of us that are return travellers make our decisions, based on legwork and checking each area and operator in an educated and informed way and can share that info with new travellers then we are also active in bringing about change.
"One of the most confronting things that happened on our trip to Botswana was arriving through customs at Maun at the same time as a German hunter checking though his ARSENAL of weaponry. Here we were to be with and see wildlife and he was there to kill it.It was enough to make us cry (actually)."
Wilderness Safaris do make it clear that they PAY the Botswanan Government the equivelant fees for the land they have which is gazzetted as hunting concessions - this is to be commended.
In planning our next trip we put every lodge we didn't already know the operator of though a google search thus "name of lodge trophy" we were very suprised that some of the Namibian lodges whose websites appear to be innoucous tourist detination also host hunting.
Needless to say they are no longer on the itinerary. I concur with PredatorBioligist that these maps should also show the hunting lodges, however a word of caution here - if, as was our experience that areas such as Kwhai which had in recent history been a hunting concession and is now a Wilderness Concession has shy animals - maybe hunters would be attracted to areas close to photographic camps/concessions because animals do cross these borders. Maybe then a hunter could chose HIS destinations by plotting his killing-spree by this criteria.
Rather than waiting for the "map" a google search using the following search term just turned up 65,300 hits."Trophy Hunt Botswana".
Lobbying the Botswana Governemnt is probably the way to go - although there are large hunting groups already sucessfully doing that. Such orgs as Safari International lobby various African Governemnts hard. http://www.safariclub.org/
Also - there are other Travel Forums that sell advertising space to hunting operators.
It is good to see these harder issues being discussed here - if those of us that are return travellers make our decisions, based on legwork and checking each area and operator in an educated and informed way and can share that info with new travellers then we are also active in bringing about change.
Mar 7th, 2007, 12:18 AM
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Hi Thembi: whilst i agree with you, that everyone needs to make their own decisions.....
Unfortunately, the fodors forum has a LOT of travel agents and probably even, industry insiders?....that i think discussions/arguements here is getting more and more tiresome and less meaningful!!!
In brief, i feel the fodors boards is neither user-friendly, nor does it maintain a clear set of rules and regulations.......
Unfortunately, the fodors forum has a LOT of travel agents and probably even, industry insiders?....that i think discussions/arguements here is getting more and more tiresome and less meaningful!!!
In brief, i feel the fodors boards is neither user-friendly, nor does it maintain a clear set of rules and regulations.......
