CRBs plead with Sikumba, Muhanga on Safari hunting

…as game scouts, villagers clash leaving one seriously injured, hospitalised

THE Lower Lupande Community Hunting Block has appealed to the Ministry of Tourism to allow outfitters whose Hunting Concession Agreement (HCAs) were dully awarded but cancelled to conduct their hunting for the remaining part of the hunting season so that communities could raise some revenue.

And villagers in Lower Lupande have clashed with game scouts leaving one seriously injured and hospitalized after they were rounded up in the GMA from where they were conducting their poaching activities.

Petros Muyunda, a representative of the Kakumbi Commuity Resource Board in Lower Lupande Game Management Area says communities that depend on Safari hunting were suffering and that it was his hope that Rhodine Sikumba and his Permanent Secretary Evans Muhanga will allow hunting for the remainder of the season for concessionaires who had been awarded the contracts.

Mr Muyunda said the Community Resource Boards had hope that government would listen and hear their concerns and allow the current outfitters to conduct their Safari hunting business so that communities could earn some revenue.

He said in an interview that poaching activities have escalated in most GMAs and that recently, the game scouts who routine patrols clashed with some villagers suspected to be poachers and in the process, one was seriously injured and is currently admitted in a local clinic.

“We are still petitioning our leaders, the Minister of Tourism Mr Sikumba and his Permanent Secretary Mr Muhanga to at least allow the current outfitters to conduct their Safari hunting just for the remainder of the hunting season. People are suffering and we have had no form of earning as Safari hunting which has for years been our main source of revenue has been banned. We still have hope in our leaders and let them listen,” Mr Muyunda said.

And Mr Muyunda said the human-animal conflict cases were increasing and that elephants were causing havoc in villagers because the beasts had not been curled for some time.

He said Safari hunting, apart from earning communities revenue, it was also a means of curling and controlling the population of wildlife in order to reduce the cases of human-animal conflicts.