Game reserve

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Botlierskop Private Game Reserve in South Africa (2015)
Mountain zebra in the Botlierskop Game Reserve in South Africa

A game reserve (English Wildlife refuge , Spanish Refugio de fauna ) is a state or private protected area in which wild species are to be protected. This term is primarily used to describe the private game reserves in Africa. However, there are also state game reserves in North and South America or some Asian countries. The game reserves in Central Europe, which are also motivated to hunt, are usually not meant by the term. Although game reserves can be fenced, and in South Africa mostly fenced off for legal reasons , what sets them apart from game enclosures , and even more so from game parks , is their primary wilderness character .

Game reserve is not a protected area category recognized by the international nature conservation organization IUCN , so the assignment can be different.

Game reserves in South Africa

In South Africa , which has the highest density of game reserves, the term is used to denote the privately run and managed areas, in contrast to the state national parks. There are three categories:

  • Private Game Reserves (PGR) in general are companies that primarily offer and organize observation opportunities and photo safaris for, mostly foreign, tourists.
  • Game ranches are businesses that earn their income primarily from trophy hunting by foreign hunting tour operators. The wild animal populations are reserved exclusively for them and are protected from other users, their habitat is also preserved. Breeding or stock management takes place only subordinately.
  • Game farms are businesses that raise wild animals that can be hunted, either for hunting purposes or in order to subsequently release them into larger protected areas. Another line of business is the production of game meat.

Game reserves are part of the nature and hunting tourism sector, which is economically very important in South Africa and for which a total turnover of one billion US dollars was estimated in 2012. The game reserves turnover was $ 300 million with local hunters and $ 120 million with foreign trophy hunters. In 2012, there were 11600 such game reserves in South Africa (all three categories combined), which covered around 18 percent of the country's area with 22 million hectares . The number of employees was more than 100,000. Since only about 14 percent of the country is suitable for agricultural production at all, its economic importance is high. The farms have been organized in the Wildlife Ranching South Africa Association since 2005. Today, wild animals are transported between different reserves by specialized subcontractors, the stocks are looked after by veterinarians and their development is genetically checked.

The importance of the private game reserves for the conservation of wild animal populations is considered to be high, as they enormously enlarge the very limited area of ​​the state protected areas and enable much higher population densities. Their establishment in the 1960s, often on the unprofitable farms of former cattle breeders, is an important reason why the national wild animal populations were able to recover from their then minimum. Game reserves played a decisive role in saving the southern subspecies of the white rhinoceros, thanks in particular to the conservationist Ian Player . There are more than 100 lion sanctuaries alone (organized by the South African Predators Association), which together house around 5000 lions. Their hunt, by trophy hunters in the game reserves, is an important contribution to relieving the strain on the game populations of other African countries, in which the populations are falling massively; South Africa exports around 1,500 lion trophies a year, more than double that of the rest of Africa combined. Since the wild animals have economic value for the reserve owners, they work effectively for their conservation, often more effectively than the state authorities.

There are fewer game reserves in other countries in southern Africa. The establishment of private reserves was stopped here by the fact that the ownership of the wild animals, and thus also the hunting rights, remained with the state, so that there were fewer economic incentives. With the economic success of South African private game reserves, some countries have started to adopt the model. In 2013 there were 150 private game reserves in Zambia (compared to 52 in 2008) and 60 in Botswana .

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  • Wouter van Hoven: Private Game Reserves in Southern Africa. In René van der Duim, Machiel Lamers, Jakomijn van Wijk (Editors): Institutional Arrangements for Conservation, Development and Tourism in Eastern and Southern Africa. A dynamic perspective. Springer Verlag, Dordrecht etc. 2015. ISBN 978-94-017-9528-9 .