Page 91 - ODUMar-Apr2019
P. 91
a total of 2.43 million kg of meat for all tourists.
• With conservation hunting alone, if we only feed tourist’s venison – which a lot of lodges to –
there is not enough to go around.
• Yes, there is commercial meat hunting as well as domestic stock raised for meat
consumption – but I think you get the point we are making here.
o Water
▪ Water is an incredibly scarce resource in Namibia. Most water is pumped out of underground
reserves.
▪ At 100 liters (26 gallons) per person per day (a very low number) just tourism uses 150 million
liters (57 million gallons) of water per day = 60 Olympic size swimming pools of water per day
for guests only.
▪ Vegetables – a vegetarian in the middle of Namibia’s wilderness has a far greater negative
ecological effect eating fruit and vegetables transported 1000’s of kilometers to get there than
eating venison.
▪ Shower and toilet waste
o Fossil fuels
▪ Tourism uses an enormous amount of fossil fuels to get tourists to Namibia, and then onto
their destination. Camps and lodges then also need to be supplied as well as the tourists
driven around.
▪ Electricity needs to be generated. Solar has become a popular option.
o Trash
▪ This needs to be dealt with and is often too expensive to be taken to the nearest town for
recycling = it is buried close to the camp or lodge.
o Employment -
▪ The huge number of those employed in conservation hunting vs. tourism is significant.
Points to consider:
It takes 5.4 tourists per day to generate the same revenue as one conservation – at what cost to the
environment? All tourists are not vegetarian, and the meat must come from somewhere? Conservation
hunting harvests animals in a sustainable
manner, and plays a smaller part in the
economy, but produces a product of venison.
Conservation hunting has less impact on the
environment all aspects considered. The high
rate of employment in conservation hunting is
significant
In conclusion. There is place for all forms of
tourism – and yes, conservation hunting is also a
form of this. We need to respect each other and
understand the crucial role each plays in
conservation, ecological impact, contribution to
GDP, job creation and the production
and consumption of venison.