Communal Area

Rural community-benefiting hunting areas emerged at the end of the 1980s with the establishment of the Communal Areas Management Program For Indigenous Resources(C.A.M.P.F.I.R.E.) Program. Borne out of a need to add direct value to rural communities of existing wildlife or the potential for it, in a bid to stem the destructive reaction to human wildlife conflict on wildlife in the form of poaching and sanctioned destruction of ‘problem animals’ – where there was little control and the only benefit to the community as a whole was their perceived safety from wildlife and occasional boosting of diets with protein. Today, under the C.A.M.P.F.I.R.E. Program wildlife is revered or at least tolerated by affected communities, as the benefits of looking after it have been realised in the form of increased household income and development of schools, water systems and amenities.