Wildlife Tourism
I spend a lot of my time answering questions about where to visit in Scotland; where can I see a golden eagle? What’s the best place to see a capercaillie (the Loch Garten ‘caperwatch’ of course!) or where can I see the best spring flowers on the Machair?
Photo: Desmond Dugan
Wherever I travel people think of Scotland as a great place to see nature and are envious of what we have on our doorstep. Sadly that enthusiasm doesn’t always seem to be shared by some of my fellow citizens who complain vocally about geese, raptors, ‘balance’, introduced beavers and so on. At times you begin to wonder if they would prefer their native animals to be removed entirely!
Hopefully that will begin to change with the launch next year - 2013 - as the year of Natural Scotland. This will celebrate our wonderful landscapes, wildlife and outdoors. I hope it’s not a flash in the pan – and certainly RSPB Scotland is fully behind this Government initiative. I hope too it persuades decision makers in our Government to invest in caring for nature and make wise decisions about development impacts – protecting the best of what is on offer for wildlife and people to enjoy. And to be honest we could do rather better as a Nation to recognise and act on this, challenging short term decisions which can lead to long term degradation of the natural environment.
Given the interest in Scotland’s coasts, seas and landscapes from growing numbers of ‘eco’ tourists, it was quite a contrast to find myself in the Kruger National Park in South Africa for a week in late August. This is one of the great national parks of South Africa, but it is very accessible for large numbers of South Africans as well as overseas tourists. Unlike ‘our’ National Parks it is given over to wildlife (&low key tourism). The park saw its beginnings in 1926. In 2002 the fences to the North and East were taken down so animals can now roam into equivalent areas in Mozambique (Limpopo NP) and Zimbabwe (Gonarezhou NP). The scale of the Kruger is huge over 19,485 sq km(nearly a quarter of the area of Scotland!).
Quite rightly overseas visitors are asked to make a serious contribution to the parks running costs – a conservation fee of some $20 USD per day is levied and I for one did not begrudge this one bit. It pays for the infrastructure, but also the anti-poaching patrols. Sadly I saw some evidence of what poachers can do, with a lion with an appalling snare wound seen near Pafuri at the northern end of the park. Hopefully after some veterinary attention the lion will recover.
I saw four of the big ‘five’ – lion, rhino(white), elephant(many), buffalo (lots) – but missed leopard. When you see your first elephants in the wild you sort of wish you had never seen them in a zoo – they are just such extraordinary animals. The Kruger has big herds.
If my tourism dollars can help ensure my kids and grandson can see landscape scale habitats, full of all the mammals and birds you would expect – from top predators down, then that suits me just fine. So well done SAN parks – and the people of South Africa who have set aside serious areas of land for nature. I think we in Scotland, and the UK should be humbled by this and could learn something. Not least the need for the Governments of the UK as well as ‘eco’ tourists, to contribute more to protect and enhance our wildlife and countryside.
By the way I saw the bird ‘big 6’ – Martial eagle, Ground hornbill, Kori bustard, Saddle billed stork---but can you name the other two?