A community ranch dedicated to wildlife and conservation has won the UN’s Equator Initiative prize of US$30,000. The Shompole Group Ranch offers a five-star eco-tourist experience and has made great efforts to increase wildlife on its 62,000 hectares, spreading the benefits to community members. But does the ranch also grow the food to feed all those wealthy tourists locally? The story does not say, and nor do the many web sites that tout Shompole ranch as a resort. OK, it is a dry area, but there is freshwater in two permanent rivers.
Meanwhile, just across the border in Tanzania, the President of Sacramento State University apparently pulled strings to enable wealthy benefactors to hunt animals — including endangered species — as trophies.
The common thread, of course, is that wildlife has value — dead and alive — and cashing in on that value may be the most important way for local people to benefit directly.