The hunters become the hunted

A paradoxical alliance between hunting and conservation is successful, but under threat

By: Fernando Lima in Marromeu

350km north of the city of Beira, four hunting blocks lie in an area of 1.2 million hectares and whose natural border is the Zambezi River. The blocks are run by private companies which have concessions from the state to run sport hunting excursions.

Adjacent to the Zambezi delta is the spectacular Marromeu buffalo reserve. From a few hundred animals that survived the great slaughter of the civil war in the 1970s-80s, the area now has a herd of 25,000 animals.

In all there are tens of thousands of large antelopes, elephants, zebras, hippos, crocodiles. The swampy nature of the area, and the poor quality of the soil for agriculture, has traditionally kept the population away from hunting grounds. The number of controlled culls is small. A few hundred animals a year, mostly antelopes and buffaloes. 

The size of the business is still modest – two million dollars annually – but the potential is huge and, above all, it can provide an answer to some of the dilemmas around wildlife conservation in low-income countries, such as Mozambique. The state also receives its share: something like $600,000 in rights to kill particular animals, fees and taxes, a decent incentive to support and invest in conservation. Not to mention international recognition for a country committed to environmental conservation and biodiversity policies.

At the end of each year, when the hunting rifles fall silent, one of the blocks has introduced a new business: the observation of local and migratory birds that have unique habitats in the Zambezi delta, both In the savannah forest  and in the marshy swamps. Since 2017 there have been dozens of tourists from all over Southern Africa, particularly from South Africa.

The population of the area receives an established quota of game meat, support for agricultural activities and social incentives such as new schools, health posts, mills and wells for drinking water. The forest areas framed by the blocks keep thousands of centuries-old trees protected from illegal logging companies, often Chinese businesses operating with complicit local political barons.

To reduce the imbalance between herbivores and predatory species of carnivores, which had become practically extinct, the blocks have, with their revenues and international support, begun investing in restocking. First with the importation of lions, more recently with the reintroduction of cheetahs, a species considered extinct in the region at the beginning of the twentieth century. Leopards, hyenas and wild dogs, although rare, never completely disappeared.

The 24 lions that arrived in 2018 are now 80. Cheetah breeding has been more problematic: some of those introduced last year were almost immediately poached, and no new young have yet been born. Sport hunting also pays for the anti-poaching units that have been established in the blocks, responsible for destroying thousands of powerful loops and traps annually, made from truck springs by artisanal blacksmiths in the town of Marromeu.

This is one of the plagues. But in the short to medium term there are other terrible challenges. Even with the poor soils, the pressure of the population keeps increasing, burning huge areas for itinerant agriculture. Predatory elites also have no sympathy for the hunting blocks. There is a clear pressure for the reduction of hunting areas, from those who sit at the table of power and who dream of wealth from foreign investors who are ready to transform conservation areas into mineral exploration or cash crop agribusinesses — which in turn endangers the wildlife and the imposing flora of the region.

The days of conservation and hunting may therefore be numbered, if the state turns a blind eye to human predators in search of “new opportunities.”

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Today’s front pages in Maputo. Photo © Faizal Chauque / Zitamar News