Zambian Communities Halt Trophy Hunting in Dispute Over Fees

[Fred Gunner]

https://allafrica.com/stories/201909180455.html

"It is our land. We are the custodians." - Felix Shanungu, President of the Zambia National Community Resources
Board (ZNCRB).

The Community Resources Boards (CRB) in Zambia on Thursday released a press
statement expressing their deep concern over the fact that the communities
have not been given their share of either concession fees or hunting
revenue.

They have withdrawn their signatures to all the hunting permits in their
areas and have refused to sign any others. This will stop any trophy hunting
in the future unless the government comes to the table with money in hand.

According to Felix Shanungo, the communities have received no concession
fees since 2016 and no hunting revenue since last year. By law, the
communities are owed 20% of the concession fees and 50% of the hunting
revenue. The chiefs who run the communities are owed a 5% share of both.

While the press release states that they will stop all hunting going
forward, Mr. Shanungo advised that hunts already underway will be allowed to
be completed but that all new hunts will be stopped.

The CRB has been in talks with the hunting companies to warn them about this and to get them to
put pressure on the Zambian government. He added that the communities do not
want to penalise the hunting companies who have paid but want the pressure
to galvanise government into action.

He said that it will be impossible for the communities to continue
patrolling and protecting against poaching as people have not been paid
their salaries in months.

The communities have two demands: To allow the hunting operators to pay the
CRBs their share directly and that the concession fees must be re-negotiated
for a higher share.

 

[spike.t]

The rest of the article needs printing as proves this person is totally anti hunting .......

 

[BRICKBURN]

Here's the Anti hunting opinion.


Various hunting outfits claim that trophy hunting brings USD200 million into
the sub-Saharan Africa economy. This figure was published in the academic
journal Biological Conservation and is often used to defend hunting,
a claim hotly contested by conservationists who contend that less than 3% of hunting revenues actually go to communities. The same paper claimed that this figure was accumulated by 18 500 hunters. In comparison, a World Bank report estimated that close
to 33.8 million people visit the region (mainly for wildlife tourism) and
contribute USD36 billion. Most tourists who come to visit for the wildlife
do not realise that hunting is allowed in these countries; it is believed
that Africa's reputation will suffer if this fact was more widely known.

The wildlife areas in Zambia are divided into the National Parks (where no
hunting is allowed) and game management areas (GMA) which act as a buffer
between the parks, farmlands and private hunting reserves. Legally, there
has to be revenue sharing from hunting and concession fees with the
communities in the GMAs - this is called Community Based Natural Resources
Management (CBNRM). In order to ensure the money is delivered and managed,
several CRBs were created.

With growing concerns over biological collapse in the time of the sixth mass
extinction, it is only a matter of time before global pressure phases out
hunting all together. It seems better for the countries in question to
determine their own phasing out process. This will allow them to focus on
community based eco-tourism where revenue can go directly to communities, and to expand the tourism sector versus allowing the killing of some of the most spectacular treasures we have on this planet.

 

[Fred Gunner]

The rest of the article needs printing as proves this person is totally anti hunting .......

The Reporter is definitely anti-hunting as the end of this article is proof…(I provided the link)

But the corruption of the Zambian Govt. not paying the concession communities what they are entitled to by law is all the ammunition the Anti-Hunting activists need to support their argument that hunting does not support the local people after all.

 

[MMAL]

What portion of photo tourism goes to the communities? I don’t know this answer but in either case it is Just funding the same corrupt gov’t.

 

[sestoppelman]

Aside from the anti slant, is there anything to this? Going to be closures over it?

 

[PeteG]

The whole deal here is that for several years now, the government has not paid the CRB’s and the chiefs their share.
Funds have been paid over by the operators and then government has not paid this on to the communities involved.
The whole deal is not anti hunting, it is a group of people country wide who are fed up of the government not keeping to their side of the deal.
This should resolve itself soon, I think they are angling to a more involved community aspect, much like Namibia.
We will have to see how that pans out.

 

[BRICKBURN]

With growing concerns over biological collapse in the time of the sixth mass
extinction, it is only a matter of time before global pressure phases out
hunting all together. It seems better for the countries in question to
determine their own phasing out process. This will allow them to focus on
community based eco-tourism where revenue can go directly to communities, and to expand the tourism sector versus allowing the killing of some of the most spectacular treasures we have on this planet.

This is the Anti blather using the situation to get on a soap box.

 

[TXhunter65]

Shouldn't the article's title revolve around corrupt governments not upholding their end of agreements...the fact the funds are generated from hunting is irrelevant. You could replace hunting with anything from which the government generates funds and the issue remains. But alas that doesn't help the anti's narrative.

 

[PeteG]

Shouldn't the article's title revolve around corrupt governments not upholding their end of agreements...the fact the funds are generated from hunting is irrelevant. You could replace hunting with anything from which the government generates funds and the issue remains. But alas that doesn't help the anti's narrative.

Correct.

 

[spike.t]

Can someone divide 36 billion USD By 33.8 million people ...as am interested to see what the spend per head is....too many zero for my calculator......

 

[slam8031]

approx 1065 dollars per person...if my math is correct.

 

[flatwater bill]

Once hunting is closed in any area of the world, it can be damned difficult to re-open it.
Fortunately, Zambia is flush with money, and revenue is not needed...............FWB