Traditional African Wildlife Utilization: Subsistence Hunting, Poaching, and Sustainable Use

Summary

This paper examines traditional African wildlife utilization activities, with particular emphasis on subsistence hunting, or the procurement of wild animals for purposes of meeting household needs. It is noted that subsistence hunting in Africa is often defined by the state as poaching (hunting outside the bounds of the laws set by the state). State conservation efforts in Africa have seen limits placed on access to wildlife resources through national legislation. Hunter-gatherers and some pastoralists and farmers in Africa exploit a wide array of wild animals for economic, social, and spiritual purposes. Three countries in Africa allow subsistence hunting: Botswana, Namibia, and Tanzania. In all three cases, subsistence hunting is limited to peoples of hunting and gathering origin and/or practice. The subsistence hunting activities of the Ju/’hoansi (!Kung) San of northeastern Namibia and northwestern Botswana from the 1960s through the mid-1990s are examined, and it argued that the offtake rates of hunters appear to be sustainable. The acquisition of surplus meat is sometimes done for purposes of storage and to share meat with other people in order to reinforce social relationships and provide food to those who do not hunt. In the 1990s community-based natural resource management programs were initiated among the Ju/’hoansi in both Namibia and Botswana. It is too early to say whether these programs will enable the Ju/’hoansi to become economically selfsufficient.

Another strategy of promoting conservation in southern Africa which involves removing people from their ancestral lands and taking away their hunting rights is presented using the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana as an example. Changes have occurred over time in subsistence hunting strategies in the central Kalahari, with an expansion in the utilization of horses and donkeys as hunting aids. The greater efficiency of equestrian hunting has led to concerns that offtake rates are too high. The government of Botswana, therefore, decided to relocate the people of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, with the result that the social and economic well-being of the former residents of the reserve has declined. The conclusion drawn is that community-based approaches that allow local people access to and control over wildlife resources may have more positive impacts on conservation and sustainable use than those strategies that dispossess local people and reduce their access to wildlife resources.