1.Front section - IUCN

The role of hunting in promoting protected areas 4
© Kent Redford
Kayapó boy with fish, Brazil.
(Lewis et al., 1990). By 1994, communities received
67% of the total government revenue from hunting,
and approximately 20% of hunting-industry receipts
from hunting in GMAs (Lewis and Alpert, 1997).
The increased funding to local communities is
beneficial for protected areas because some of this
funding has paid for community game guards, and
because community attitudes towards wildlife
conservation have improved (Lewis and Alpert,
1997). The ability of revenue-sharing projects to
improve biodiversity conservation in national parks
depends upon their ability to meet livelihood needs
and generate real income and subsistence products.
Community-level projects may encounter difficulties
achieving these benefits across individuals and
households (Emerton, 2001). However, small
communities can receive substantial benefits from
sport hunting revenues. Tiburón Island in Mexico
contains a community of approximately 800 people
who share the profits from bighorn sheep hunting,
with permits raising $100,000 per trophy sheep
(Medellin, 2003). When less resources are available
per individual, funds that provide subsistence hunters
with alternative sources of livelihood can have a
substantial impact on wildlife conservation within
parks. Reducing subsistence hunting also makes more
animals available for sport hunting. Annual revenue
saved from animals not illegally hunted exceeds
$300,000 (Lewis, 2003).
Hunting and protected area
management
Hunters play significant roles in protected area
management. In both protected areas dedicated to
sport hunting and protected areas dedicated to
subsistence hunting, sport hunting outfitters and
hunters may engage in a variety of management
practices, including habitat management and
restoration, monitoring wildlife and managing
hunting offtake, and protecting the area from
poaching or hunting by outsiders (Mayaka, 2001).
Hunters also contribute ecological knowledge which
can be utilized by protected area management. If
hunting areas are located outside no-hunting protected
areas, enforcement and maintenance in hunting areas
will also benefit no-hunting protected areas (Pasanisi,
1996). Within protected areas, recreational hunting
may be used to control pest species.
Habitat management
Habitat management and restoration are some of the
more profound alterations of the environment that
may be undertaken to improve or maintain hunting.
The manipulation of habitat to increase hunting has a
long history, and was present in 19th century Germany
and England (Schwenk, 1991; Leopold, 1933). Habitat
alterations may be motivated by a desire to maintain a
single species (e.g., heather Calluna vulgaris moorlands
managed for red grouse Lagopus lagopus), to maintain
a suite of related species (e.g., increasing wetlands to
maintain migratory ducks), or to maintain a diverse
array of species. Management alterations may be carried
out by governmental agencies or hunting outfitters in
protected areas in order to maintain hunting
opportunities.
In western Zimbabwe and northeastern Botswana,
habitat management in sport hunting protected areas
is undertaken to “provide the wildlife community with
a diversity of habitats and waterpoints, and provide the
high paying hunting client with access to a diverse
community of trophy quality game and an exclusive
wilderness experience” (Hunter, 1996). Management
actions include controlled burns, bush clearing, water
provisioning (through pumping or damming seasonal
rivers), annual cutting, and occasional planting of
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