Category: Community Voices

Zambia NCRBA calls for suspension of trophy hunting until communities receive funds owed

Resource Africa May 29, 2020 0 Comments
Published in Africa Geographic September 26, 2019. Read the article here Summary: Africa Geographic reports that The Zambia National Community Resources Board Association (ZNCRBA) has called for the immediate suspension of trophy hunting in all hunting blocks until the government releases all funds owed to communities through the individual Community Resource Boards (CRBs). The CRBs have now...

Botswana – Integrating wildlife into rural economy is key to its survival

Resource Africa May 20, 2020 0 Comments
This article appeared in the Mail and Guardian (South Africa) 13 Mar 2019. By Maxwell Gomera, Liz Rihoy In 2014, the president of Botswana, Ian Khama, introduced a ban on hunting, saying it had contributed to poaching and “catastrophic” declines in wildlife, negatively affecting tourism. At the same time, the government sanctioned the unofficial use of a shoot-to-kill policy to deter...

Submission to UN Human Rights Commission Consultation on Biodiversity and Human Rights

Resource Africa May 19, 2020 0 Comments
Rural Community Leaders in Dialogue with Dr David Boyd The following comments are respectfully submitted to Dr David Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment in response to the questionnaire ‘Healthy Ecosystems and Human Rights: Sustaining the Foundations of Life’.  These comments are submitted on behalf of a network of rural community leaders engaged in Community...
trophy hunting

The Elephant Debate: upholding democracy, human rights and conservation

Resource Africa May 17, 2020 0 Comments
This article by Masego Madzwamuse and Liz Rihoy, was published 01 March 2019 in Mmegi - an online and weekly print English language newspaper in Botswana. It is part of a number of opinion pieces on the Elephant Debate. For decades Botswana has maintained an enviable international reputation as an ‘African miracle’ due in large part to its robust democracy, sound governance systems and...
contested conservation

Contested Conservation: Implications for Rights, Democratisation, and Citizenship in Southern Africa

Resource Africa May 17, 2020 0 Comments
This paper, by Masego Madzwamuse, Elizabeth Rihoy, Maxi Louis was published in the journal Development in 2020 © Society for International Development 2020 Two competing ideological approaches have emerged in African wildlife conservation: an exclusionary approach that is aligned with the, mostly Western, animal protection movement; and the inclusive human rights-based approach of many African...

Open letter to WHO and UN Environment Programme

Resource Africa May 13, 2020 0 Comments
Dear Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Ms. Inger Andersen, COVID-19: Holistic, equitable solutions are required to improve human and planetary health and reduce zoonotic pandemic risks  We, the undersigned individuals and organisations, commend the work the UN is doing to tackle the COVID-19 disease pandemic and its socio-economic consequences. The recently released UN Framework for the...

Letter about Trophy Hunting to the Editor of Science Magazine: A Response from Southern African Community Leaders

Resource Africa April 24, 2020 0 Comments
A recent letter in Science by Dickman et al about trophy hunting unleashed passionate debate in the Western media.  These discussions have involved over 400 conservationists, academics and animal rights advocates from the US, Europe and Australia, voicing strong, if divergent, opinions on effective conservation strategies. Much of the discussion focuses on Africa, but with the notable...