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In an era when politically correct pundits challenge that hunting has anything to do with conservation, Kadzombe has his work cut out for him. But the cold facts on hunting in Africa tell the real story. You may have heard various eco-groups grabbing headlines with the claim that African elephants are endangered. Well, that depends on just where you are talking about. In l980, Zimbabwe had 40,000 elephants. Today, after 22 years of carefully regulated hunting, they have 88,000 pachyderms. How can this be so? I had met Kadzombe at the outstanding Hollywood Celebrity Shoot, which completed its sixth annual shoot in August at the Triple-B Shooting Sports Park in South El Monte, California. Actor Robert Stack said, "You meet the nicest people at shooting sports events." And a lot of them too. More than 600 people turned out for the two-day competition, including nearly 100 actors, writers, directors, producers, and musicians such as Louise and Irlene Mandrell, Frank Stallone, Marshall and Lindy Teague, Anne Lockhart, Michael Gregory, Charles Napier, and Olympic Gold Medalist Kim Rhode. The event, which benefited St. Jude's Children's Hospital, is produced by the tireless Sandford Abrams and John Laughlin. This year's program was an illustration of what's possible when people doing good work come together in support of each other. Sponsors and shooters came from 27 states and five foreign countries. And the man who came the farthest, Ed Kadzombe, donated the biggest prize — a 14-day African safari. Tourism is a $25 million a year business in Zimbabwe. The eco-tourists may outnumber the hunters, but the hunters outspend them — $15 million to $10 million. When eco-tourists come in, they whisk around in a jeep for a couple days, wine and dine, and leave. Hunters stay longer, pay trophy fees and guides, and the meat from the animals they kill goes to local villages, along with skins and bones that can be used for clothing and arts and crafts. "The communities involved see the value of the animals, and in turn they turn out in force to help curb poachers," Kadzombe explained. The primary reason why elephants and some other species of wild animals are declining in some countries is that poachers need the money and there is no way to police the bush. Yet in Zimbabwe, hunting fees are returned to the local communities and to wildlife management programs, thus perpetuating the resource. In addition, outfitters not only hire local people as guides and support crew for the safaris, they donate part of their profits to the local communities and for use in conservation enforcement. Zimbabwe's unique grassroots approach to wildlife management is called CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources). Typically, CAMPFIRE begins when a rural community's elected council asks the government's wildlife department to grant them the legal authority to manage the local wildlife resources — and demonstrates it has the capacity to do so. Since 1975, Zimbabwe has allowed private-property holders to claim ownership of wildlife on their land and to benefit from its use. Under CAMPFIRE, people living on impoverished communal lands, which represent 42 percent of the country, claim the same right of proprietorship. Conceptually, CAMPFIRE includes all natural resources, but its focus has been wildlife management in communal areas, particularly those adjacent to national parks where people and animals compete for scarce resources. CAMPFIRE offers an alternative to the destructive land use by making wildlife a valuable resource. Wildlife, in fact, is the most economically and ecologically sound use of the land in much of Zimbabwe. Since its official inception in 1989, more than a quarter of a million people have been involved in managing wildlife through CAMPFIRE. It has been so successful that South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, and Botswana are now developing programs similar to the one in Zimbabwe, sometimes using relocated Zimbabwe animals, including elephants. Kadzombe said that it costs $5,000 to $6,000 to relocate one elephant from its herds to nearby countries that tried to save elephants by stopping hunting (and have paid the price with escalated poaching). Kadzombe was especially proud of how hunters have supported the conservation of black rhinos, which are a national treasure in Zimbabwe. For the last 20 years Zimbabwe has been capturing and exporting black rhinos for captive breeding in zoos. This protects animals from poachers and preserves the gene pool. In exchange for the adult animals some of the offspring are returned to Zimbabwe to shore up the gene pool of the wild animals. You're most likely aware that Zimbabwe has been caught in a struggle over land ownership for the last two years. President Robert Mugabe has told white farmers to leave the land. About 40 percent have left voluntarily and others have been evicted. The seizure of white-owned farms affects about 350,000 workers, as well as the food supply of the region. According to attorney Leo Grizzaffi of Torrance, California, who works with the Zimbabwe Wildlife Advisory Council and EK Safaris, the land-redistribution controversy has not had any negative effect on tourists visiting Zimbabwe. (Tourism is extremely important to the Zimbabwe economy, and the police consider protecting tourism a very high priority.) But some hunting concessions have already been hurt by the land redistribution as outfitters route their safaris to other places. The Media Research Center recently reported that over a two-year period antigun stories outnumbered pro-gun stories by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1 — even though some 35 million people in the U.S. enjoy shooting firearms. So, it's unlikely you're gonna read many stories describing how tourism and hunting are stabilizing forces in the turbulent country of Zimbabwe. But it's a story that Ed Kadzombe has the facts to back up. —
Mr.
Swan is the “Media Watch” columnist for North
American Hunter
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recently sat under a colorful tent with Ed Kadzombe, the chairman of the
Zimbabwe Wildlife Advisory Council. We were surrounded by photos of lions,
leopards, and elephants, as well as hand-woven baskets and other artifacts
— such as statues of black rhinos, sacred animals to the people of
Zimbabwe. Kadzombe told me he wants to spread the word that his people
are managing the Zimbabwe resource "for the good of all." 
