Closing the Sengwa valley??

[pilar]

I got a email today that they are closing it up, due to severe drought and terrible poaching problems
And are going to just concentrate on getting the poachers under control
I guess other areas and outfitters will be having shutdowns or on hold safaris to? Waiting to hear what y’all think

 

[375Fox]

It’s about sengwa research area. I was disappointed to see CMS stopped their hunting there because it’s known as a really beautiful area with a lot of plains game. However, it’s a relatively small area in a bad location being surrounded by large numbers of people and villages. I guess even while hunts were occurring there were signs of poaching each night. CMS unfortunately isn’t the owner and was only buying the quota from the owner so their ability to directly control the anti-poaching is limited. They made the decision to do their hunts elsewhere because of the poaching levels seen. Not every outfitter has that option available to them to hunt other concessions. Sounds like the concession owner did the right thing as well.

To your general question I would expect tougher hunts in future in concession areas if Southern Africa doesn’t get good rains this year. Poaching is up everywhere from my understanding. Some areas have better anti poaching measures in place than others.