Tourism at risk from poaching
● Conference unpacks conservation in Africa
Animal conservation in Africa has suffered several setbacks in recent months, prompting experts at an African tourism conference in Cape Town to warn about the cost to the travel industry.
“Obviously it’s negative,” African Tourism Association (ATA) managing director Naledi Khabo said at the inaugural event organised by Airbnb.
“Whether it’s people or animals being killed or slaughtered in such a terrible manner, it has a negative impact.”
Kenya was thrust into the conservation spotlight when an effort to move black rhinos between national parks, launched with great fanfare in June, left 11 of them dead.
“It’s very clear it was not managed well by my officers – and we took action on that,” Kenya tourism minister Najib Balala said.
Balala insisted that tourists considering visiting would not be deterred by the incident, but experts have warned that such setbacks could hurt the continent’s appeal.
“It does affect the overall pan-African perception as well, which has a negative impact on tourism,” Khabo said.
The cost of environmental crime to developing countries is estimated to be more than $70bn (R1-trillion) a year –
Africa is at the epicentre of global poaching and species trafficking
with Africa at the epicentre of global poaching and trafficking of species.
Botswana, with Africa’s largest elephant population, is on the frontline of the battle against the illicit ivory trade.
But it was recently rocked by a report from Elephants Without Borders that a poaching spree had wiped out as many as 90 of the animals.
Travel author Anita Mendiratta said: “What is sad, particularly about the Botswana incident, is that the headlines came out about what happened – but what we don’t understand is why and what next.”
Khabo, who speaks for the African tourism industry, praised South Africa’s anti- poaching successes, which have included three high-profile arrests of kingpins.
“It’s critical that, on a policy level, the government and the tourism boards take a very aggressive approach and [ensure] truly severe consequences to individuals who are found guilty,” she said.
Balala said Kenya’s antipoaching efforts were also proving effective. “We have 35,000 elephants – 30 years ago we had only 16,000,” he said.
Mendiratta said effective anti-poaching was increasingly being demanded by tourists.
Loserian Laizer, of the Safarisource service which connects travellers directly to safari organisers, said poaching can make wildlife tourism difficult.
In the Kruger National Park for example, visitors have complained about the noise made by the increasing number of airborne anti-poaching patrols.
“But there’s a big upturn in people understanding we need to protect the wildlife.”
Another threat to wildlife and the tourism industry is “people trying to build many facilities [for] tourists – the impact is we are destroying the environment”.