Wildlife tourism is a major draw card for Africa, yet illegal wildlife trading threatens to undermine the sector, as highlighted by the Minister of Tourism, Tokozile Xasa at a meeting with the joint Southern African Development Communities (SADC) on November 23.
She said the Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA) programme was a successful example of how investments could be driven and resources mobilised for the conservation of wildlife, while harnessing the potential of tourism.
In response, Colin Bell, Co-Founder of Natural Selection, said: “If there is no wildlife, there is no tourism.”
Mark Gerrard, Manager: Community Conservation Programmes at Wildlife ACT, said South Africa relied significantly on tourism to drive the economy, with the country’s diverse wildlife being a major attraction. “The illegal trade of wildlife not only decimates the wildlife populations crucial for this economy, but also puts the economic value in the hands of criminal syndicates, removing local economic benefit from those communities adjacent to reserves.”
The cost of the illegal ivory trade
The World Wildlife Fund says around 20 000 elephants are killed every year in Africa, costing the tourism sector around $25 million annually. A study conducted by WWF in conjunction with the universities of Cambridge and Vermont looked at the benefits that elephants that had been poached would have brought to African countries if they were alive to attract tourism. The study reads: “Our results show these figures are substantial.”
The study reveals that $25 million is seemingly insignificant when compared with the turnover in the black market. However, money is not invested back into Africa and its communities, but rather offshore or straight into individuals’ pockets.
The researchers compared the amount lost to tourism through poaching with the money it would take to implement anti-poaching methods to protect elephants, and concluded that the cost of elephant protection would be far lower than the losses incurred caused by poaching.
The Department of Environmental Affairs released poaching statistics revealing that 1 054 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2016, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimated that the African elephant population showed the worst decline in 25 years in that year.
Unethical animal interactions
Other wildlife interactions have also recently come under fire, with animal interactions being shunned, as they are seen as unethical.
Nicola Gerrard, Digital Campaign Manager for Blood Lions said: “The booming tourism industry around cub petting and wildlife interactions is pulling tourists and volunteers away from authentic and ethical wildlife experiences. This continues to feed the commercial cycle of predator breeding with lions, tigers and cheetah. We have incredible wild areas and national parks that preserve wildlife in SA. These are the places we want to encourage people to visit”
