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Plans are underway to move a 48km section of Kruger National Park specifically to allow for trophy hunting.

The new section will be opened as an exclusive private nature reserve where hunters would target animals like elephant and buffalo for contracted killing. “This cannot be disguised as anything but a green light for hunting in Kruger National Park, which makes no ecological, biological, ethical or economic sense,” said Jason Bell-Leask of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

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Legalized trophy hunting in private reserves which share unfenced borders with Kruger has intensified in the past year. In fact, Kruger’s border is already lined with a slough of these private nature “reserves”, most of which had their trophy quotas increased significantly over the last year alone. At this point, the plan to install yet another new hunting park can only be interpreted as a slippery slope towards unrestricted access for hunters into one of the world’s most treasured sanctuaries.

Furthermore, in order to create the new hunting area, the existing boundary fence– which was just recently upgraded at a substantial cost– will have to be moved. And that’s likely to cost more than it took to put up the existing fence. Moving the fence would also have serious implications for farmers in the region. Not only would it increase the risk of veterinary disease, but it would also mean that 15,000 community-owned cattle in the area would have to be moved.

A spokesperson for the new plan, Dr Hector Magome of SANParks, responded to critics by saying that the prospective area has low tourism or agricultural potential, so “sustainable use of resources is currently the best option.”

Dr. Magone obviously has a very wide notion of what “sustainable use of resources” should include. The veil here is rather thin. Apparently since the prospected area does not generate much revenue from tourism or agriculture, then its resources must be tapped somehow– in this case, via hunting. This notion of sustainability seems to refer to the sustainability of a private profit margin, not to the sustainability of wildlife and natural terrain.

“It seems to me that SANParks has decided that sustainable use means consumptive use, a very short-sighted view of the world indeed. SANParks can try and twist things this way and that to mislead the public but at the end of the day, the intent is clear - Kruger animals will be hunted if this deal, in its current form, proceeds,” warned Jason Bell-Leask.

Source: The Sunday Independent

Image Credit: Rob Inh00d on Flickr under a CC License

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