Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 2 2020 i PRIVATE GAME | WILDLIFE RANCHING

Dr Jane Wiltshire (DBA) Founder & CEO: Project 1743 Research fellow: African Wildlife Economy Institute (AWEI) Jane Wiltshire is the founder and CEO of Project 1743, an innovative investment vehicle that is embracing the power of capital to combat a dwindling wildlife population: specifically, the southern white rhino. Project 1743 operates the largest and most successful rhino captive breeding operation in the world. Not only have they successfully prevented poaching for the last three years, but their rhino population increases by 6% every year. In 12 years, the current rhino population will double. Project 1743 offers investment in a significant stockpile of rhino horn and future horn from trimming that takes place regularly to make the rhinos a less attractive target for poachers. The investment mechanism is R+ units. R+…

Pelham Jones, chairman of the Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA), has over 30 years’ conservation experience and is a private reserve and rhino owner. He is a member of the IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG) and the SADC Rhino Management Group (RMG). In September 2009, PROA was established under his guidance and today it is recognised as a national body to lobby for and co-ordinate assistance to private reserves faced with ever-increasing poaching pressure. pelham@vibe.co.za Rubin Els has been instrumental in growing the private wildlife industry since 1991. Under his leadership, long-term conservation projects such as repopulating the rare East African black rhino (Diceros bicornis ssp. Michaeli) in meaningful numbers to other range countries like Rwanda and Tanzania, came to fruition. He is a member of the IUCN…

Conservation activist Don Pinnock argued in an opinion piece published in the Daily Maverick1 that the application of the precautionary principle required for the trade in lion bone to be outlawed. He based this on the claim that lion bones could be infected with tuberculosis and thus be harmful to human beings if eaten. He went on to claim that farmers who raise lions in order to trade in their bones created further health risks by supplying local communities with sedative-laced lion meat. I do not know if his claims are true but there can be no doubt that both practices are potentially dangerous and should be prohibited, not just in the case of lions but in respect of any animal sold for human consumption. But that isn't really the…

Extracts from an interview with Fulton Mangwanya, Director General of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority by Catherine E. Semcer Catherine Semcer recently sat down with Director General Mangwanya to discuss the successes and challenges during his tenure with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority as well as how his non-traditional education in international relations and politics prepared him to lead Zimbabwe's conservation efforts. Q How has the education and experience that you acquired prepared you in your capacity as DG to tackle the challenges that come with managing a parastatal as complex as ZimParks? A My career goal is to contribute to the national developmental agenda in the conservation industry through security enhancement for wildlife resource protection, human capital development, and catalysing improvements on cooperative governance issues…

Looking beyond immediate pandemic crisis management, forward-thinking participants in the wildlife economy should be future-proofing their ventures in certain ways. An important foundation is the unique and vital role the private sector and market-based approaches play in supporting both wildlife conservation and socioeconomic development in the southern and eastern African region. In this issue, our expert contributors contemplate recovery strategies for wildlife industry stakeholders. In the lead article, Michael 't Sas Rolfes states that the extent to which the wildlife economy successfully recover in a post-COVID-19 world will depend in part on sensible government policy and regulation, but also in no small measure on the efforts of entrepreneurs. Tomorrow's successful wildlife entrepreneurs should be diversifying into product streams that anticipate a changing, post-pandemic customer base. Read all about it on…

Fulton Mangwanya (PhD) Director General: Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority PhD in Land and Conservation Management. In 2020, SCI Foundation commissioned a series of interviews with government officials from the wildlife authorities of various African nations, providing a first-of-its-kind forum to speak out on a proposed trophy ban in the United Kingdom. Fulton Mangwanya is one of the most important voices in African conservation today. As Director General of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, he is responsible for overseeing the management of Africa's largest elephant population, the continent's fourth largest rhino population, as well as the world's largest peace park – The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. Fulton Mangwanya oversees the management of Africa's largest elephant population. The task is not always easy. Conservation in Zimbabwe must…

Wicus Diedericks is the owner of Rockwood Conservation and the custodian of one of the biggest herds of white rhino in SA. His implementation of an aggressive conservation approach has resulted in Rockwood achieving unrivalled population growth and no poaching incidents for more than five years. He strives to see man and nature co-exist in balance and believes this is only possible through sustainable utilisation and respect for nature. Since 2017, Wicus has represented the Northern Cape rhino owners on the PROA board. wicus@rockwoodrhino.com…

Earth's path of change since origin follows a sequence of natural climatic and atmospheric oscillations, as described in Part 1 (PRIVATE GAME Issue 1), and continuously effects global dynamics of vegetation, habitats and fodder production. Consequently, vegetation change affects natural geographic distribution, performance and genetic integrity, adaptation (genetic change), and survival of animal species, named as phyllo-biogeography. Vegetation (floristic veld types) and habitats change continuously in accordance with the average ambient climate (temperature and rainfall) and atmospheric CO2 concentration. Single cellular life evolved between 2,5 and 3 billion years before present (Ba BP) and multicellular life around 520 million years (Ma) BP, though the first trees developed between 160-240 Ma BP, whilst the first grasses emerged less than 40 Ma BP. The majority of animal life evolved since 50 Ma…

PURSUING GAME MEAT AS AN ALTERNATIVE INCOME STREAM Producing game meat from farm to fork Target group: SA Game Farmers The required legal processes and the 5 necessary steps to follow will be explained in an exclusive series of six articles. This series to practically demonstrate the legal steps to register your abattoir and processing plant will be published in Private Game magazine, as follows: I. Hitting the Nail – can trophy carcasses be commercially compliant? a. Part I: A pilot study to compare uncontrolled (trophy game carcasses) and controlled (harvested game carcasses intended for export purposes), with reference to meat safety and quality. b. Part II: Discussion, recommendations and concluding on the differences between trophy and export carcasses with reference to meat safety and quality in the commercial meat…

“Going eco is a sustainable solution to many of our challenges.” Eco-principles have traditionally been an emotional and moral responsibility for the environment. Although this is still applicable today, the latest economic developments have pushed us into the direction where going the ‘eco' route and applying ‘green principles' are crucial to survival and no longer just a passing trend. The economic realities of unreliable resources, increasing cost and unpredictable electricity supply combined with the need for adequate, clean water supply push us to look for viable alternatives. Starting with new construction for an eco-house, may it be a commercial establishment or a private home, is the logical solution, but converting an existing building to eco-standards is not as daunting as it may seem. “Functionality should not be negotiable.” In both…

One has to admit that no matter how organised a chef you might be, there will come a time that you’ll get unexpected visitors, and when you open your fridge door, a hot panic hits you – there’s only a little bit of this and that! I don’t consider myself a well-prepared gourmet chef as I don’t like to stock-up extras for ‘just in case’ events. One day, Johan announced that, by the way, we haven’t seen ‘so-and-so’ for such a long time, and he’s invited them over for dinner. I am sure I said: “That’s great!”, since we love having a good time with people coming round to the farm. I am also sure I said: “But you are doing the cooking,” knowing that we had pretty much nothing…

If the paella becomes too dry, add extra wine or half a cup of vegetable stock. When using Thai black rice, do not cook it the traditional ‘paella way'. Cook this kind of rice separately first and per the instructions on the packet. Add the rice to the paella just before its last stage of cooking to absorb the flavours. Cooking time for the prawns depends on the heat of your coals. When the prawns are ready, serve straight away. Paella is definitely a perfect dish for a social event. We serve this large dish straight off the coals in the pan on the table and let everyone dig into it to dish up. It serves about 6 – 8 people.…

Current global and domestic economic challenges facing the wildlife industry have stimulated ‘out of the box' thought processes and actions to address conservation as well as economic needs in private game management. This requirement in particular is facing rhino owners and rhino reserves due to high security costs and the conservation responsibility of over 50% of the national rhino herd. Sadly, due to international rhino horn trade restrictions the economic benefits of trade have not been allowed to materialise, resulting in a stimulated illegal trade environment where rhinos are being poached daily and all economic benefits are enjoyed by criminal syndicates, while owners suffer the costs and loss of their animals. The launch of Project 1743 is a highly innovative concept to raise investment capital to continue the excellent rhino…

Author: David Attenborough Publisher: Random House UK Limited Language: English Pages: 272 Format: Paperback Recommended Price: R340.00 Sir David Attenborough has written this book to accompany the TV series of the same title. The author, now 94 years old, recounts his travels to wild places over nearly 60 years, bearing witness to the wonder of our planet and then sadly, the devastation of these wild places over such a short time period. Attenborough is no hysterical ecowarrior; he is arguably the world's most well-travelled naturalist, has a scientific background and has interviewed experts in all the relevant subjects. He carefully recounts the destruction that he has witnessed over the last 60 odd years but his distress at this testimony is palpable – the dwindling of land mammal numbers, rainforests cleared…