Linus said:
Does anybody know what percentage of profits from African game hunting goes back to conservation? It's a good story but I'll bet its not much.
When I was in Zimbabwe in '85 this is what I was told (and confirmed later by Kevin Langham, and one of my uni lecturers who had worked with elephants in Botswana):
Around the large National Parks are designated hunting areas. Hunting can only occur in those areas, so the main population survives and breeds in the parks, and when they reach carrying capacity and population spills into the hunting areas they can be culled.
The European/American tourist pays the Zimbabwe equivalent of NPWS a set fee for what he wants to shoot (I think back then it was about $15,000 if you want an elephant). Half the money goes to the NPWS, and the other half (i.e. 50%) goes to the local community around the hunting area.
The Safari sets up a camp within the hunting area. The tourist/hunter has to hike in with the group (some use motor vehicles to get to the camp, but the hunting is done on foot). For that you need porters, gunbearers, cooks, guides and other people to set up camp etc. Those people come from the local community and are paid to work.
When the hunter finds his elephant and shoots it, if it isn't a clean shot that kills it there are two or three other marksmen there to bring it down immediately.
The hunter has his photo taken with his foot on it's head, and that's all he gets for his $15K.
The locals then process the dead animal - they cut it up and take the meat for food for their families, and they take the various body parts to turn into handicrafts which are sold as souvenirs. If the hunter wants a souvenir of 'his' elephant he has to buy it.
On the way back to camp the hunting party might come across a herd of buffalo/zebra/antelope, and the hunter decides he wants to bag one of those aswell. The NPWS representative pulls out his notebook, advises the hunter what it will cost, and gets him to sign an official I.O.U. Then the whole process is repeated.
The local communities who were poor and relied on bushmeat for much of their food (and didn't care about poachers wantonly killing the wildlife) now actively protect the forests because it is providing them with food, individual incomes, and money into the local community. A win/win situation all round.
Anyway, that was the situation 20 years ago in Zimbabwe. God only knows what's happening there now. Mugabe has effectively killed tourism in the country and it's possible that the wildlife in the National Parks are now being ravaged. However, similar programs exist in Botswana, South Africa and Zambia (and I believe other countries are attempting to start up aswell).
Hix