The conundrum of trophy hunting

The debate about the hunting of wild animals has flared up again, as organisations in southern Africa express their concern about a proposed British law which will ban the import of hunting trophies.

The law, aimed to help protect endangered animals, has the backing of celebrities, including model Kate Moss and football presenter Gary Lineker.

But, many communities and government officials across southern Africa are against the ban and their reasoning is clear. Outside of the outrage on social media at trophy hunting, there is a broader, more important, picture to be looked at.

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For a start, it cannot be denied that trophy hunting creates and sustains thousands of jobs in southern Africa. The sort of hunting tourists the industry attracts from overseas are generally big spenders and pay in vitally needed foreign currency.

Trophy hunters only account for a tiny number of the animals which are killed every year by humans in southern Africa, either for food or to reduce natural populations through culling.

It is true, on the other hand, that sometimes endangered animals are hunted and, while hunters must get special government permission and pay huge fees to do so, the killings are distasteful.

Not only that, the anti-hunting lobby overseas is gaining power to the extent that it could severely damage the image of a country, or region of a country, which allows such hunting. Rightly or wrongly, being associated with what is seen by many as heartless killing can chase away tourists.

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Still, the reality in South Africa is that after the law was changed so that private land owners also own the animals on their land, wildlife numbers increased exponentially.

Wildlife has a real economic value for southern Africa and is it fair that the feelings of well-off foreigners should take precedence over the needs of our people?