Radio Australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Cambodian government is considering a Spanish company's plan to create a hunting park in the country. The Madrid-based safari company wants to use 100,000 hectares of jungle in northeast Cambodia for hunting wildlife.
HOLLAND: For 38,000 US dollars big spenders can join Nsok Safaris in Africa for two weeks and hunt elephants, buffaloes and a range of other species. The company has been operating hunts in Cameroon for 30 years, now they're hoping to do the same in Cambodia.
Mark Gately is based in Cambodia and works for the Wildlife Conservation Society. He says safari parks can be environmentally sustainable if they're operated under the right conditions.
GATELY: The key thing is you need to have very detailed information on variables such as the population size, the population structure, growth rates and so on, so that you can monitor the impact of the hunting on the wildlife that's involved.
HOLLAND: Tourism is now a major earner for Cambodia, and high price hunts for foreign tourists will mean more cash for the country. Mr Gately believes the extra money could help to protect the country's wildlife.
GATELY: It is possible for example for these operations to provide a significant amount of funding for conservation activities in the area. So for example I mean these companies are often, it's obviously in their interests to protect the wildlife in the area that they're operating in so that there's actually something there for their clients to shoot.
HOLLAND: Deputy Director of the Wildlife Protection Office of Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry; Dany Chheang, says 30 types of animals including deer, wild boar, reptiles and birds could be shot for sport if the plan goes ahead. But he says tigers would be protected. In Africa, where hunting safaris continue to attract wealthy adventurers, environmentalists remain opposed to killling animals for entertainment.
CHHEANG: The negative press we've received in recent years has been quite disgusting.
HOLLAND: Nick deSouza is the World Society for the Protection of Animals regional director for Africa.
DESOUZA: There are pictures of young cubs being maimed by the actual hunters by their dogs, by the negative impact of them having had their mother killed. There are pictures of them having their cubs, particularly in one case where a litter of cheetah cubs were exported on a private jet to Saudi Arabia and all ended up dying.
HOLLAND: Mr deSouza says there are no positive benefits that can justify safari hunting.
DESOUZA: It's inherently cruel in that there is no way to humanely kill an animal from a distance. Error will always creep in and the animal is very likely to suffer extensive injuries that will not kill it off immediately.
HOLLAND: It's hoped that if the park opens in Cambodia's Rattanakiri province money brought in by the hunters will benefit poor people in the area. But deSouza says his experience tells him wealthy companies offering safaris rarely fulfill such noble promises. And while Mr Chheang from Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry says setting up hunting safaris in Cambodia fits with the government's plans to diversify options for eco-tourism in the country, the government must also consider the negative consequences.
Presenter - Steve Holland; Speaker - Mark Gately, Wildlife Conservation Society in Cambodia; Dany Chheang, Deputy director of the Wildlife Protection Office of Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry; Nick deSouza, World Society for the Protection of Animals regional director for Africa
HOLLAND: For 38,000 US dollars big spenders can join Nsok Safaris in Africa for two weeks and hunt elephants, buffaloes and a range of other species. The company has been operating hunts in Cameroon for 30 years, now they're hoping to do the same in Cambodia.
Mark Gately is based in Cambodia and works for the Wildlife Conservation Society. He says safari parks can be environmentally sustainable if they're operated under the right conditions.
GATELY: The key thing is you need to have very detailed information on variables such as the population size, the population structure, growth rates and so on, so that you can monitor the impact of the hunting on the wildlife that's involved.
HOLLAND: Tourism is now a major earner for Cambodia, and high price hunts for foreign tourists will mean more cash for the country. Mr Gately believes the extra money could help to protect the country's wildlife.
GATELY: It is possible for example for these operations to provide a significant amount of funding for conservation activities in the area. So for example I mean these companies are often, it's obviously in their interests to protect the wildlife in the area that they're operating in so that there's actually something there for their clients to shoot.
HOLLAND: Deputy Director of the Wildlife Protection Office of Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry; Dany Chheang, says 30 types of animals including deer, wild boar, reptiles and birds could be shot for sport if the plan goes ahead. But he says tigers would be protected. In Africa, where hunting safaris continue to attract wealthy adventurers, environmentalists remain opposed to killling animals for entertainment.
CHHEANG: The negative press we've received in recent years has been quite disgusting.
HOLLAND: Nick deSouza is the World Society for the Protection of Animals regional director for Africa.
DESOUZA: There are pictures of young cubs being maimed by the actual hunters by their dogs, by the negative impact of them having had their mother killed. There are pictures of them having their cubs, particularly in one case where a litter of cheetah cubs were exported on a private jet to Saudi Arabia and all ended up dying.
HOLLAND: Mr deSouza says there are no positive benefits that can justify safari hunting.
DESOUZA: It's inherently cruel in that there is no way to humanely kill an animal from a distance. Error will always creep in and the animal is very likely to suffer extensive injuries that will not kill it off immediately.
HOLLAND: It's hoped that if the park opens in Cambodia's Rattanakiri province money brought in by the hunters will benefit poor people in the area. But deSouza says his experience tells him wealthy companies offering safaris rarely fulfill such noble promises. And while Mr Chheang from Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry says setting up hunting safaris in Cambodia fits with the government's plans to diversify options for eco-tourism in the country, the government must also consider the negative consequences.
Presenter - Steve Holland; Speaker - Mark Gately, Wildlife Conservation Society in Cambodia; Dany Chheang, Deputy director of the Wildlife Protection Office of Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry; Nick deSouza, World Society for the Protection of Animals regional director for Africa
3 comments:
KILLING ANIMAL WILD LIFE IS SINFUL!
The company will only protect the animals for their business incentive. We will not see the number of animals goes up. If the number of animals goes up, the company will increase their hunting activities; but if the number of animals drecrease, they will not spend more money to revive the number of animals. They simply move or sell it to another careless investors. I think it will be better if we keep the animals in the woods and have their number go up without hunting and get the tourists see them in their natural habitate - our animals needs to have some peace too.
No killers in Cambodia !!
Go out killers !
Animals need to live in peace like human, they have a family to feed like human, they can suffer like human.
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