Provisioning of game meat to rural communities as a benefit of sport hunting in Zambia.

Paula A White,Jerrold L Belant,Asim Zia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117237

Paula A White, Jerrold L Belant + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117237

Copy DOI

Abstract

Sport hunting has reportedly multiple benefits to economies and local communities; however, few of these benefits have been quantified. As part of their lease agreements with the Zambia Wildlife Authority, sport hunting operators in Zambia are required to provide annually to local communities free of charge i.e., provision a percentage of the meat obtained through sport hunting. We characterized provisioning of game meat to rural communities by the sport hunting industry in Zambia for three game management areas (GMAs) during 2004–2011. Rural communities located within GMAs where sport hunting occurred received on average > 6,000 kgs per GMA of fresh game meat annually from hunting operators. To assess hunting industry compliance, we also compared the amount of meat expected as per the lease agreements versus observed amounts of meat provisioned from three GMAs during 2007–2009. In seven of eight annual comparisons of these GMAs, provisioning of meat exceeded what was required in the lease agreements. Provisioning occurred throughout the hunting season and peaked during the end of the dry season (September–October) coincident with when rural Zambians are most likely to encounter food shortages. We extrapolated our results across all GMAs and estimated 129,771 kgs of fresh game meat provisioned annually by the sport hunting industry to rural communities in Zambia at an approximate value for the meat alone of >US$600,000 exclusive of distribution costs. During the hunting moratorium (2013–2014), this supply of meat has halted, likely adversely affecting rural communities previously reliant on this food source. Proposed alternatives to sport hunting should consider protein provisioning in addition to other benefits (e.g., employment, community pledges, anti-poaching funds) that rural Zambian communities receive from the sport hunting industry.

Highlights

Sport hunting in Africa represents an important form of revenue-generating tourism [1],[2]
We are unaware of more recent studies in Zambia, including studies that quantified provisioning at the game management areas (GMAs) scale
In Zambia, provisioning of fresh game meat by sport hunting operators constituted an important source of protein for rural communities, with actual meat provisioned exceeding 6,000 kgs annually in the sampled prime and secondary GMAs

Summary

Introduction

Sport hunting in Africa represents an important form of revenue-generating tourism [1],[2]. Employment, revenues from hunting fees and licenses, contributions to community capital projects, and funding of anti-poaching scouts are potential benefits that rural communities may receive from sport hunting [12],[13]. Access to game meat has been described as the most tangible benefit to rural communities [14]; comparatively little effort has been made to characterize meat provisioning. Notable exceptions are Namibian communal conservancies that report annually on game meat revenues attributable to sport hunting [15], and the comprehensive summary of game meat distributions in Africa compiled by TRAFFIC which considered sport hunting in addition to game ranching and culling [14]. In Zambia, a 1971 report based on household surveys estimated that sport hunting provided 112 tonnes of dressed game meat to rural Zambians countrywide [16] (cited in [12]). We found no record of previous attempts to examine the patterns or scope of meat distributions

Methods

Results

Conclusion