KENYA: Food Vendors Want Ban On Game Meat Lifted

Kenya is seeking to reintroduce selling of game meat at restaurants and hotels to boost competitiveness of the facilities on the global culinary landscape.

Tourism secretary for tourism Najib Balala said his ministry will undertake research over the next year on farming of game ahead of the re-introduction.

We must benefit from game resource, my team is working on it and definitely we will encourage the farming of wildlife and then we will have availability of game meat being sold in our restaurants and our hotels, he said during the opening of Tamarind Tree Hotel in Nairobi.

Restaurants, including the Carnivore, have been lobbying the government to allow for the re-introduction since the 2004 ban, which only allows for sale of ostrich and crocodile.

Carnivore had been selling game meat since it was established in the early 1980s, but what it had been associated with for over two decades stopped abruptly, cutting out game meat enthusiasts from its customer base.

It has now become more of an events-hosting entertainment facility rather than the game meat haven it was famed for.

Killing of wildlife for sport was introduced in Kenya in 1910, but was banned in 1977 when the number of certain species fell drastically.

The poaching concern led to the ban on the sale or import of game meat despite constant lobbying by restaurants.

Since then, visitors expecting to sample game meat of antelopes, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests among other wild animals have had to bear with whetting their appetites with ostrich and crocodile.

Wildlife species that have significantly declined and are critically threatened in Kenya include elephants, rhinos, Grevy Zebra, bongos, lions and cheetahs, among others. Some are hunted in conflict, for game meat and trophies.

There are only 30 Sable antelopes in Kenya currently, 3,765 Grevy zebras and less than 2,000 lions, according to KWS data submitted to Parliament.

The numbers are set to keep dropping if these animals are not protected.

Licensed game meat sellers in Kenya are rethinking their business models following a continued sales ban and refusal by the government to allow imports from South Africa.

A restaurant such as the Carnivore which has been selling game meat since the early 1980s has now become more of an events-hosting entertainment facility rather than a game meat haven it has been known for.

Sale of any game meat was banned in Kenya in 2004 because of concerns over poaching, forcing game meat outlets to restrict themselves to selling crocodile and ostrich meat whose sale remains open.

“Our customers have become disappointed over the last few years because the government won’t even allow us to import game meat from South Africa,” said Martin Dunford, the chairman of the Tamarind Group, which owns the Carnivore Restaurant.

Carnivore has been selling game meat since it was established in the early 1980s, but what is has been associated with for over two decades stopped abruptly, cutting out game meat enthusiasts from its customer base.

Since then, visitors expecting to sample game meat of antelopes, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests among other wild animals have to bear with the only two types on offer ; the ostrich and the crocodile.

“We shall continue lobbying the government to lift the ban or allow us to import from South Africa because it is an added advantage to the restaurant and the tourism industry,” said Mr Dunford, whose company also operated a game meat restaurant in South Africa.

“Our business has been under severe attack because we have specialised and associated with the game meat for many years.”

Kenya currently cannot sell game meat as one of the delicacies visitors can find in the country, letting the opportunity slip to South Africa, where game meat industry thrives.

Statistics indicate that South Africa has 11,000 private game ranches that supply to the game meat outlets across the country. Kenya has 17 private and group game ranches.

The ban has also affected ranchers like the Delamare, which supplied game meat outlets.

The trade offered them alternative income stream from culling the animals in their ranches.

Forestry and Wildlife Minister Noah Wekesa said that despite requests from game meat sellers, the ban will stay in place to check on poaching, a crime that has been rising in the country.

“I have said the ban will stay to safeguard the wildlife,” said the minister, without giving indications whether the lifting of the ban for game meaty sellers will be considered.

Game meat sellers urge that allowing controlled sale of the delicacy helps to put more value to animals in an addition to the value derived from tourism, as long as that animal is not classified as an endangered species.

Because more than 50 per cent of wildlife in Kenya live in unprotected areas, it is argued the policy of restricting consumption of game meat by the hosts mostly farmers and pastoralists, worsens the human-wildlife conflict to the detriment of the animals.

Despite the ban on sale of game meat, trends of poaching in Kenya over the last three years have been rising, with the number of elephant deaths in that period growing by five times.

Data from various sources show that while 47 elephants died in 2007 due to poaching, the number rose to 145 in 2008 and to 216 in 2009.

Bonaventure Ebayi, the director of the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF), a regional anti-poaching initiative, said poachers are using technology to increase attacks against food and non-food wildlife.


Tourism Observer

TANZANIA: Katavi National Park Is A Promising Holiday Destination

Seldom visited, Katavi National Park is a true wilderness, providing few intrepid souls who make it here with a thrilling taste of Africa, as it shoukd have been a century ago.

The park was created in 1974, now located in Katavi region in the remote southwest, covering 4,471 square kilometers, which makes it the third largest national park in Tanzania. It encompasses the Katuma River, the seasonal Lake Katavi and Lake Chada floodplains.

The park provides tourists with walking, driving and camping safaris. Near Lake Katavi, people can visit the tamarind tree inhabited by the spirit of the legendary hunter Katabi, for whom the park is named, and offerings are still left there by locals seeking the spirit's blessings.

Acting Chief Park Warden, Mr Frederick Mofulu says the park that is within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley has a lot to offer to tourists, but faces enormous challenges in conserving it and getting rid of poachers.

Warden Mofulu says the park authority has intensified patrols using airplane to track and control poachers and use of arms by individuals and groups in the area. He says that the park in collaboration with the police has been running operations to ensure no arms proliferation in the area and also see to it that they bring an end to poaching.

Mr Mofulu says by using airplane to patrol the park now the situation is good. He says it is believed that some refugees in the district from Burundi have firearms and use them for poaching. "We use intelligence to track the firearms outside and within the park.

We cooperate with police outside the park so as to preempt poaching missions and we are succeeding and no elephant has been killed for a while now. We have successfully got some from the people," says the chief.

He notes that they collaborate also with traditional leaders, encouraging good neighborhood and raise awareness to their people of importance of conserving the park and avoid intruding the park that is famous for having hippopotamus.

The Chief Park Warden says patrol against grazing cattle in the park has been successful, highlighting that since March this year people have been charged fines for entering about 4,000 cattle in the park.

Mr Mofulu notes that the situation in Burundi before and after the general election has caused number of refugees to go down. He says that most foreign tourists come from the country that shares a boarder with the park.

In 2014/15 there were a total of 4,335 tourists in the park but the trend shows that in 2015/16 the number will not reach that, attributing the fall to Burundi political crisis. Mr Mofulu calls upon Tanzanians to make internal tourism in the park.

A special committee has been formed to find a solution to water problem as at times Lake Katavi is found with little water while hippos, crocodiles and other animals and birds rely on it for their survival.

He notes that people have been using water from Katuma River, diverting it from going to the lake, hence causing huge concern to park authority and that a research is being carried out on better water management from the river.

Katavi Region is a home to two refugee camps, which are Katumba and Mishamo and sometimes refugees mix themselves with citizens. Mr Mofulu says that Katavi National Park's most singular wildlife spectacle is provided by it hippos.

Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200 individuals might flop up together in one place, so does male rivalry heat up. "Bloody territorial flights are an everyday occurrence, with the vanquished male forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until it gathers sufficient confidence to mount another challenge and such thing are for tourists to enjoy," he notes.

The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland, home for substantial but elusive populations of the localized eland, sable and roan antelopes.

But the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal lakes Katavi and Chada. During the rainy season, the lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad water birds, and they support Tanzania's densest concentration of hippos and crocodiles. It is during the dry season when the floodwaters retreat that Katavi truly comes into its own.

The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains that support game concentration that defy belief.

A huge number of elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000 plus buffalo, while abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains. Mr Mofulu the park that is on the east of Lake Tanganyika can be reached by charter flights from Dar es Salaam or Arusha or by road.

"A tough but spectacular day's drive from Mbeya (550 kilometers) or in the dry season from Kigoma (some 390 kilometers). It is also possible to reach Mpanda by rail from Dar es Salaam via Tabora then catch public transport to Sitalike, where game drives can be arranged. If travelling overland, one must allow plenty of time to get at the park and back," he says.

The best time is the dry season, that is May to October as roads within the park as always flooded during rainy season. Wildlife features include large animal herds, such as buffaloes, zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, and elephants.

Along the Katuma River there are many crocodiles and hippos, which upon annual dry seasons results in mud-holes that can be packed with hundreds of hippos. Carnivorous animals that roam the park are cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas, leopards, and lions. Some sources claim a very high biodiversity in the park.

There were reports of wildlife decline due to illegal hunting and poaching, but according to Mofulu, the situation is all but contained. Katavi National parks is the core of the western Tanzanian wildlife reserves and one of the biggest and richest wildlife areas in Tanzania with concentration of diverse habitat mammals and bird species in the parks wetlands, lakes, woodlands and shrub lands holding dear some endangered and unusual species.