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Hunting Out of Control |
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By Marcela Valente *
Some 7,000 foreign hunters visit Argentina each year, setting their crosshairs on deer, antelope or puma. Controls for protected species are scarce.
BUENOS AIRES - Argentina has become a magnet in recent years for sports hunters, not only because of the relatively inexpensive access to a broad variety and quantity of animals, but also because of the lack of effective regulations to protect the hunted species.
The head of wildlife monitoring at the National Wildlife Directorate, Marcelo Silva Croome, told Tierramérica that since 2002 he has seen "very big" increase in hunting tourism from abroad, and admitted that it has proved "very difficult" to prevent abuses.
The rise in hunters coming from the United States and Europe is evident in the data gathered by the Aeronautical Police, which tracks entry of weapons into Argentina carried by people traveling by plane. There has also been an increase in hunting trophy export permit requests.
An estimated 7,000 foreign hunters come to Argentina each year. In addition are the unknown numbers of local sports hunters and even poachers who pursue their prey for commercial reasons, or for survival, in all provinces of the country.
Silva explains that Argentina's federal system means that each province has jurisdiction over its hunting reserves and wildlife, making national regulation of hunting very difficult. "From the Wildlife Directorate we can only regulate which species may be hunted or not," and punish the violations that are detected, he said.
"It's impossible to prevent hunting of protected species," said the official.
"In some cases -- for example the collared and white-lipped peccaries (Pecari tajacu and Tayassu pecari, both pig-like species on the list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) -- we established a very limited (hunting) quota nationally, but there are provinces that don't enforce it, and we can only apply sanctions if the hunter tries to take the trophy out of those provinces," Silva said.
These sanctions consist of seizing the animal carcasses and slapping the hunter with a fine.
The lack of interest in protecting wildlife and the lack of power on the part of authorities are utilized by tourism operators to attract visitors, promising tailor-made trips for hunting various kinds of animals, as well as enjoying beautiful landscapes and delicious local foods.
"Thanks to its extensive geography and the diversity of native species, Argentina is recognized around the world as a hunter's paradise," says the Argentine tourism agency Big Hunting in its advertisements. "All of the prodigious wildlife of this South American country awaits the foreign hunter."
The company offers weekend packages that cost 700 to 2,250 dollars to hunt red deer (Cervus elaphus), European wild pigs (Sus scrofa) or blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), and other packages with prices ranging from 3,550 to 7,450 dollars for a week of hunting with a guide and a guarantee of coming away with up to seven animals.
Safari Travels also talks about the country as a "hunting paradise." "Because of its climate, topography and size, Argentina permits hunting of the most varied species year round," says the agency, promising that the hunter's expectations will be surpassed by the number of prey for hunting each day of the trip.
Fallow deer (Dama dama), chital deer (Axis axis) and red deer, puma (Felis concolor), blackbuck, peccaries, wild pigs, buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are some of the species offered to those who love big game hunting. This agency also offers for smaller game the choice amongst different types of ducks, partridges, doves, vizcacha (a burrowing rodent similar to a chinchilla), hares and foxes.
Officials representing Argentina's wildlife agencies and representatives of environmental organizations alike recognize that this country has a long tradition of sports hunting, but they point out that after the economic crisis of 2002, the devaluation of the Argentine peso made the country much more attractive to foreign visitors.
"Compared to what they charge in other countries, Argentina offers low rates and accommodations, but also here the regulations are precarious or nonexistent," Claudio Bertonatti, coordinator of the environmental education division of the Fundación Vida Silvestre (Wildlife Foundation), told Tierramérica.
The inspections that the state should be conducting is delegated to the guide or to the tourism operator, who tend not to obey the regulations, and furthermore the existing laws are not effective, because they set arbitrary quotas for hunting the different species, not based on animal census information, he said.
Argentina has an abundance of autochthonous fauna, but also a wide range of exotic animals, whose populations sometimes expand to the detriment of native species. That occurs, for example, with the red deer, introduced more than a century ago, and which gradually has displaced the native huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus), or South Andean deer.
"The problem is that they hunt too many animals per day of the permitted species, and sometimes, in some hunting reserves, they also promote taking otherwise protected autochthonous species like the marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus), the huemul, or the Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus)," said Bertonatti.
Fundación Vida Silvestre accepts sports hunting as long as it is done in a sustainable way, respecting the species, the quotas and the hunting season for each type of animal, with the appropriate permits and in authorized areas.
It also calls on everyone involved in hunting activities to act responsibly to prevent the decline in resources. In that sense, Bertonatti was very critical of the tourism companies that do not reinvest in studies of the natural resources their clients exploit.
"They boast that they're an industry without chimneys, that doesn't pollute, but they leave behind a footprint even bigger than that of a mammoth," the activist said with a note of irony, adding that many of the hunting guides don't even know how to identify the species they are prohibited from hunting.
"The hunter shoots at everything that moves, and the guide applauds," Bertonatti concluded.
* Marcela Valente is an IPS correspondent.
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