i hear you guys, but maybe a little bit of insight first.
i am a south african, and i worked in the outdoor industry in south africa- as a hunting guide, a dangerous game walking guide, white water guide, equestrian guide- i have run horse trails in lion elephant and buffalo country, had a few run ins with rhino, a lioness, and touch and go with buffalo- ( actually quite funny in hindsight though!!!) my choice of career path is not that uncommon in s.a.
i have guided in s.a., zimbabwe, Zambia,namibia and worked in botswana- for now i am going to reserve my opinion on namibia and botswana, and just want to shed a little light on how things happen over there.
firstly this forum doenst have the space to discuss the complexities of the situation in southern africa, but the biggest thing to understand-( where i think the contention is here)- is that there is no "public land' like we have here in north america,be it crown land, public land or blm, or whatever the denotions are, and its very sad. if the land is not owned privately then it is owned by the government either as a park, military base tribal reserve or other. there is no public land that the average person can simply access- because you simply are entitled to. all hunting costs money.... unless you are a landowner of course- or at least know one!
this does not mean it is canned hunting- by no means.
there is no tag system, where you buy your tag, and go onto public land to hunt.
now some of the parks have sold off some hunts- usually high dollar hunts within the parks, usually when they have an overpopulation of a certain animal specie within the park- and they are not simply sold to joe public- they will be sold to a guiding outfit.
as a non resident alien you have to be guided by a professional hunter. its not like guiding here- where you just become a guide- but it is an apprenticeship, courses, tests and evaluations. and people fail them all the time- not sure what the pass rate is- but it is not 100%.
its dangerous country with animals that want to eat you or at least have the ability to kill you very easily, dangerous snakes, scorpions and spiders and many other critters some very toxic plants and trees( one example: the classic tambotie tree makes for great firewood- but can kill you, or at the very least make you incredibly ill!!)
semi arid over most of it- so water can be an issue.
anyway ...back to the point- not trying to rile people up - but just to point out a few unknown differences!!
you can still hunt as much as you want on private land, park hunting is a rarity anyway- so dont be concerned!!!
no tag system- so if you have the money and inclination you can take all the animals off a place if you want- there are no limits- just your wallet!!!
the game belongs to the land owner- so it has a value, and it is preserved and highly regarded- it is a source of income. unlike here where the only value for public land game is the price of the tag!!
there, a landowner can charge what he wants, if he wants, and can absolutely deny you access to his land irrespective!( poachers are usualy a shoot on sight trophy!!!) i have seen in canada where land owners are reluctant to prevent people from accessing their land to shoot 'public animals'
pros and cons to both systems- neither is perfect- i am lucky- i get to experience both at minimal cost- but that came at a big personal price too!!
not really fair to imply that hunters are the only conservationists- a lot of people are doing a lot of good over there- although hunters are probably the biggest financial contributors to conservation...on private land.
not in the government parks!
oh, and the game has huge value outside of hunting, the walking and photographic industries are huge.
the animals themselves have a value, surplus animals are captured in the parks and sold at quite high values( at least what you would pay to hunt it there as a local , if not quite a bit more!) and are relocated to private properties or other parks- to re populate areas where that specie has been lost, or to simply add genetic diversity to a population.
and even when animals are culled because of over populations, they are butchered and utilized/sold.
if you have the money you can shoot what you want in southern africa- you are not only restricted to plains game.
if anybody would like to discuss things in person feel free to pm me- and i will give you my tel. no and we can chat- i love talking about africa.
its just very different, and can not be approached or judged by north american standards or perspectives.
thanks
Topic: Botswana (Read 4731 times)
