Adelhelm Meru, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism,
Adelhelm Meru, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism, said hunting tourism helped to enhance wildlife
conservation and balance the ecosystem.
Meru was reacting to proposals last week by the Lusaka Agreement
Task Force (LATF), an international law enforcement organ, that African
countries that allow hunting should consider suspending the sport,
pending the establishment of sustainable rules of the game.
The LATF Director, Bonaventure Ebayi, told a four-day Post
Operation Cobra III Review and Training Workshop in Arusha that hunting
tourism fuelled wildlife smuggling.
The workshop was organized by LATF in collaboration with Tanzania
Wildlife Division, the US Agency for International Development, the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime and Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring
network.
“History has shown us that there has never been poaching in hunting blocks managed by hunting operators in Tanzania," said Meru.
He added: "If hunting tourism is suspended instead of having legal hunting there will be illegal hunting."
Meru said hunting of wildlife, especially of endangered species
like elephants, was done on quota based on guidelines from the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), an
international treaty to protect wildlife against overexploitation, and
to prevent international trade from endangered species.
The Chairman of the Tanzania Hunting Operators Association (Tahoa),
Eric Pasanisi, said the proposed suspension on hunting tourism will
adversely affect wildlife conservation in Tanzania.
Pasanisi said the suspension will be harmful to wildlife
conservation in the country since 65 percent of conservation funds were
derived from tourist hunting.
"Abandoning tourist hunting blocks will amount to exposing our wildlife to poachers," said Pasanisi.
Pasanisi said the suspension which was aimed at protecting the
wildlife will on the contrary reduce the financial resources which will
also affect all wildlife and the environment as poaching will increase
if the safari outfitters will not have clients in the hunting blocks.
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