Dereck Joubert responds to a hunter on the economics of hunting

This article was written by Derek Joubert and was published online by Africa Geographic on 28 August, 2015

Based on one of the most common suggestions I receive and usually not very politely I would like to make an open invitation here-the offer is to stalk a buffalo with a professional hunter, stay in the camp and do everything that a hunter would do but without any killing- on each successful stalk you will take a photo and pay an appropriate trophy fee for doing so…a buff will cost you around 3000 dollars-1000 of this will go direct to local government-10 days of this activity will cost you 1250 per day-the camps are very basic as most of this cost goes into the running and management of the area-you will also pay a community fee of 1000 per person (just to boost effort) – we will expect you to photograph at least 6 or seven other animals after appropriate stalking efforts-your entire safari will cost about 20-25000 a large proportion of which will go towards protecting and managing the area and wildlife- you will put into the local economy everything that a hunter would and can claim all the tags but nothing will be shot-please will all interested people inbox me and if we can get 100 people to pay these fees we will be able to effectively manage an area that’s otherwise protected and managed by barbaric hunters.