{"id":1252,"date":"2015-10-03T11:14:46","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T11:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/?p=1252"},"modified":"2015-10-03T11:28:11","modified_gmt":"2015-10-03T11:28:11","slug":"zambezian-baikiaea-woodlands-trophy-hunting-for-the-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/2015\/10\/03\/zambezian-baikiaea-woodlands-trophy-hunting-for-the-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambezian Baikiaea Woodlands: trophy hunting for the birds?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Zambezian Baikiaea Woodlands Ecoregion<\/a>\u00a0(AT0726)\u00a0extends over a large\u00a0area of Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The ecoregion is dominated by Baikiaea plurijuga<\/em>, commonly known as Zambezian teak, although it is not related to the true teaks of southeast Asia.\u00a0See some photos of this impressive tree, which defines the ecoregion, at the link above.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing this blog on the ecoregion and its birds, sitting in Hwange Safari Lodge, on the edge of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Three different ecoregions cover this enormous park, the largest in the country,\u00a0but the most dominant is the Zambezian Baikiaea Woodlands. I\u2019m a few km from where Cecil the lion recently\u00a0expired, victim to the controversial shot that resounded\u00a0on social and traditional media around the world. Strange that none of the articles or Facebooks posts mentioned in which ecoregion\u00a0he met his end?! From a birder’s perspective,\u00a0I’m thinking about\u00a0whether or not trophy hunting is a crazy and unsupportable notion \u201cfor the birds\u201d, or whether really, it is for the birds, and favourable to conservation?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t answer the question of whether trophy hunting or hunting is intrinsically good or bad. The answer is rooted in your own moral, ethical, and philosophical world view, and is neither right not wrong. Nor do I want to dwell on the rights and wrongs in the case of Cecil, a case presently before the Zimbabwean courts, but I can say that most of the information that has widely appeared around the world was simply false. The question of whether or not trophy hunting is good for conservation should however be amenable to a logical facts-driven analysis \u2013\u00a0yes or no. The answer, as it so often is, seems to be\u2026 yes, no, or maybe, it depends.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are cases where trophy hunting is certainly positive for conservation \u2013 where it generates critical revenues for conservation causes or for communities which are stewards of important habitats. There will be also\u00a0some cases where it will be negative for conservation, if it is uncontrolled or targeting inappropriate species.<\/span><\/p>\n

I spent a few days around Hwange National Park talking to safari hunting guides, to communities, and to the staff of the Park. It seems pretty clear that in the large communally-managed hunting reserves that border Hwange National Park, trophy hunting has a real positive conservation value. These areas are supported by Zimbabwe\u2019s famous CAMPFIRE<\/a> programme, one of Africa\u2019s oldest efforts to support\u00a0communities to manage their own natural resources, including management of sport hunting. Under the CAMPFIRE program, 55% of trophy hunting fees are deposited directly in a community-controlled\u00a0bank account, 25% support local councils, and the remainder of the fees help pay for the technical support to the communities. In successful CAMPFIRE communities, and admittedly not all of them are successful, the trophy hunting revenues are very important. They can be the primary\u00a0source of revenues for local councils and provide important funds for schools, health posts, or for other community priorities. Small amounts of funds can go a long way in impoverished rural communities. It is clear that in these hunting reserves, the habitat is protected. They form important buffers to the Park and seem to\u00a0have fewer poaching problems. Communities will protect habitats which generate money for them \u2013\u00a0its really that simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hwange National Park also has hunting areas in its buffer zone which fall directly under the management of the parks agency. These generate significant funds\u00a0which are critical for ZimParks, which receives zero funding from the Government, apart from staff salaries. Approximately 60% of all the non-salary revenue of ZimParks country-wide is generated from trophy hunting revenues, almost all of it around Hwange NP. So, at least for the Land of Cecil, the answer is unequivocal \u2013 trophy hunting is positive for conservation. If it were ever actually stopped in Zimbabwe, it would be calamitous\u00a0for the entire park system of the country and most likely the communally managed hunting reserves, buffers to Hwange, would become degraded once communities lose interest in protecting them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only near endemic bird species to this ecoregion is Bradfield’s Hornbill, which I haven’t managed to see yet. Below are a couple of photos of other hornbills, photographed April 10, 2015 in Hwange.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0227\"<\/a>
Southern Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri). Photo D. Graham, April 10, 2015 in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_0171\"<\/a>
Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas). Photo D. Graham, April 10, 2015 in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Zambezian Baikiaea Woodlands Ecoregion\u00a0(AT0726)\u00a0extends over a large\u00a0area of Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The ecoregion is dominated by Baikiaea plurijuga, commonly known as Zambezian teak, although it is not related to the true teaks of southeast Asia.\u00a0See some photos of this impressive tree, which defines the ecoregion, at the link above. I\u2019m writing… Continue reading Zambezian Baikiaea Woodlands: trophy hunting for the birds?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/039adfd.netsolhost.com\/WordPress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}