Hunting animals for their own good

That status quo stems from a policy adopted in 2001, when the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the institution charged with ensuring the safety and preservation of the country’s wildlife, devised an ingenious technique to halt the decline in numbers. of the animal population, by reducing illegal and indiscriminate hunting.

In the absence of restrictive measures, locals had previously dealt with wildlife as they wished, killing it both for food and for the purpose of safeguarding their garden, something to which wildlife itself posed a constant threat. In the case of the latter, ranch owners, such as those in the neighborhood of Lake Mburo National Game Park in western Uganda, openly encouraged illegal hunting on their properties as the only way to deal especially with competing habivoures. livestock for pasture, or hampered crop production.

The lack of any form of control over the hunting of these creatures resulted in a tremendous decline in the animal population and, in fact, the total extinction of some species such as black and white rhinos in the late 1970s.

To address this problem, the UWA remedy was both drastic and innovative. Hunting, which had been practiced in 1979, was re-legalized, formally recognizing the practice as a sport. This measure, introduced as a pilot project in western Uganda, also had an unprecedented incentive in the works: ranch owners would be paid for animals slaughtered on their farms.

UWA then went on to license a company, Game Trails Uganda Limited, which it developed the authority to bring hunters into the country, handle the import and export of hunters’ ammunition, rifles and trophies, as well as collect hunting fees. .

With the animal hunter in the picture, it was suddenly not a great idea to summon a platoon of hunters to kill a baboon, whose meat is not among the delicacies of the country, when the ranch owners could protect an animal that he strays to his land, in the hope that if these hunters came and killed him, they could earn up to 10% of the value that the UWA has placed on the animal

The value assigned to animals, which sport hunters pay for the game they pursue, ranges from $ 90 to more than $ 500. The value assigned to a baboon, for example, is $ 90, while rare species such as the eland cost the hunter $ 650.

The change in terms of reinforcing the animal population has been tremendous. The UWA report shows only about 5 (on average) animals killed each year compared to 50 animals that were euthanized per year before the pilot project was launched and reports of illegal hunting have dropped to more than half.

The conservation effort is making an average of $ 2,400 a year, raised from sport hunters, and even if it’s a gigantic comeback in some ways, it shows that with a little innovation, ranch owners and wildlife can become enemies into friends. , exactly where the UWA wants them to be.

That ultimately ensures that tourists and sport hunting enthusiasts have more to aim for, be it with the camera lens or a hunting rifle. And, of course, the county’s wildlife may live a little longer.