The Value of Tourism in Conservation

An avid photographer himself, Sam also started taking pictures, explaining to myself and the other guests on the vehicle about the behaviour of giraffe. Sam had just finished explaining that giraffe do not have horns but ‘ossicones’ when he abruptly paused in his speech; he requested his binoculars (which a guest had borrowed), focused them and declared that this giraffe was in fact the survivor of a botched poaching effort.

 The vehicle was silent as we wondered what he could have seen with his bare eyes that our binoculars or 200 mm camera zooms could not. Using a yellow-billed oxpecker hanging on the giraffe as a marker, Sam directed our gaze to a nasty scar on the giraffe’s neck. The scar was now easily observable after Sam pointed it out, due to its linearity against the giraffe’s mottled pattern. It had fully healed but would definitely have been a life-threatening injury some years back.

 Sam, in his patient and informative way, continued to explain how poaching used to be a problem in the area. He also mentioned that elevated telephone lines would sometimes ensnare giraffe in areas where the lines were not high enough or where they had perhaps dropped due to elephant toppling the poles – either through a show of force or using them as a scratching post with their rumps.

Giraffes would walk into the lines and panic, and turning around to try to move off would only result in their becoming further ensnared. Parks management then decided to bury or excessively elevate the lines on sturdier poles to ensure this would not and could not happen again.

 

This got me to thinking how an area like Hwange, with its amazingly diverse wildlife, is in such a constant and precarious balancing act with tourism. Without visitors travelling to the area, camps would close and release their staff. This in turn would likely lead to poaching as families struggle to feed themselves.

I was reminded of an anti-poaching slogan in Victoria Falls that reads:
No wildlife = No visitors = No jobs.

Yet those words could easily be moved around to read:
No visitors = No jobs = No wildlife.

Thus the importance of tourism, not only to areas such as Hwange but all over Africa – and not forgetting the passion of the people on the ground such as Sam who drive home the message of conservation – is paramount to the survival of the species we are currently privileged to witness gracing the areas we work in.

We watched the giraffe slowly lope away and I pondered the pain and suffering it had to endure before the snare was freed or fell off. Sam started the vehicle and we bumped along on our way, our guide with his constant smile scanning the surroundings, the guests in deep thought about the impact man has on the balance of nature.

I also pondered the fact that here was a sighting that most would consider ‘average’ or ‘guaranteed’, yet it propelled us into a deep and meaningful conversation about tourism and conservation…