Impact Assessment of Community Based Trophy Hunting in MACP areas of NWFP and Northern Areas Dr. Ahsanullah Mir May 2006 MOUNTAIN AREAS CONSERVANCY PROJECT (MACP) List of Acronyms and Abbreviations AKRSP - Aga Khan Rural Support Program CITES - Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species CMP – Conservation Management Plan CSG - IUCN Caprinae Specialist Group CTHP - Community-based Trophy Hunting Program DC - Deputy Commissioner DCC - District Conservation Committee DFO - Divisional Forest Officer GEF - Global Environmental Facility GoP - Government of Pakistan GR - Game Reserve IUCN - The World Conservation Union KNP - Khunjerab National Park MACP - Mountain Areas Conservancy Project MoE - Ministry of Environment NAFD- Northern Areas Forest Department NA - Northern Areas (of Pakistan) NCCW - National Council for Conservation of Wildlife NGO - Non-Governmental Organizations NP - National Park NWFP - North West Frontier Province (of Pakistan) NWFPWD - North West Frontier Province Wildlife Department PA - Protected Area PRIF - Pre-Investment Feasibility (GEF pilot project phase) SCI - Safari Club International SKB - Skoyo-Karabathang-Basingo (villages) SKIDO - Shahi Khyber Imamabad Development Organization SVK - Shagharthang Valley & Kachura ToR - Terms of Reference UNDP - United Nations Development Programme VCC - Village Conservation Committee VCF - Village Conservation Fund VO - Village Organization VWG - Village Wildlife Guide WD - Wildlife Department WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature 2 Contents Chapter one Introduction of MACP 4 Chapter Two Trophy Hunting 5 Trophy Hunting in Chitral 6 Conservation and Trophy hunting of Ibex 6 Conservation and Trophy hunting of Markhor 6 Key Issues around Trophy hunting in Chitral 8 Trophy Hunting in Northern Areas 12 Conservation and Trophy hunting of Ibex 12 Conservation and Trophy hunting of Markhor 19 Conservation and Trophy hunting of Blue Sheep 22 Chapter Three Trophy Hunting and Livelihood 24 Chapter Four Trophy Hunting and Market Supply Chain 25 Chapter Five Wildlife Surveys 26 Chapter Six Summary and Conclusions 27 Lessons learned 29 3 1. Introduction of MACP Mountain Areas Conservancy Project (1999-2006) is the extension of famous Biodiversity Project (1995-99), which in its PRIF phase started the innovative idea of developing biodiversity to a level where its sustainable harvest can directly benefit communities. So its name, “Conservation of Biodiversity through local community Development” was proposed. This initiative was funded by UNDP/GEF and implemented by IUCN in Northern Areas (NA) and Wildlife Department of NWFP government in Chitral. The PRIF phase proved to be a very successful model and GEF enhanced its funding by scaling up the magnitude and coverage of the project. The IUCN was given the responsibility to implement the project in collaboration of five partners including MoE, WDNWFP, NAFWD, AKRSP, and HWF. While IUCN had the overall responsibility of implementing the project the WWF was responsible to implement the Environmental Education and Communication component of the project, the Output 2. The total project area has been divided into 8 Conservancies (of which the Tirichmir is effectively no longer a part): Three of these, Skardu, Astore and Gojal, are in the Northern Areas (NA) and another five, Garam Chashma (Tirichmir West), Tirich Tirichmir East, Chitral, Kalam and Dir Kohistan are located in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) (Map attached). The main objective of this study is to carry out assessment of the effectiveness of the trophy hunting program in order to generate knowledge on the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife for benefits of both, biodiversity and people. This study was conducted after visiting only MACP community Conservation Areas excluding other conservation areas managed by other institutions like WWF in Karumbar Ghizer and Bar valleys of NA, Hushe valley by the Hushe community itself, Dir Kohistan area and part of Qashqar Conservancy where NWFP Wildlife department is supporting the conservation efforts. The valleys visited are annexed to this report as Annexure 1. These include Bunji, Rondu valley of Skardu District, which has SKB, Basho and Kachura valleys. While in Chitral, Arkari valley, Golain valley and Koghozi was visited and interviewed the community conservation committee members. Meetings with DFO Wildlife Chitral and Gilgit were also held. In Gojal Conservancy meetings with VCC Khyber, KVO, SNT were also held. Outfitter, Asif Khan was also interviewed to know his views regarding supply and demand of trophies and to explore future potential. In addition, MACP teams in Chitral, Gilgit, Hunza and Skardu were also interviewed. 4 2. Trophy Hunting Trophy is described as “a prize that is given to the winner of a competition”1 or as something that you keep in order to show other people that you have done some thing difficult; a trophy hunting is an example of the latter; traditionally, adventurers would kill an exotic or dangerous animal and keep its head, horn, skull and skin for display and to take a pride. Trophy hunting is a form of sport hunting which has been practiced perhaps as long as human history may date back to. The animals selected as trophies have large horns (36” or more). Resultantly, most trophies are invariably males, while the animals most frequently considered as trophy species are the ungulates. The hunters seek the largest animal in a geographic area.2 Dr. David Shackleton describes3 “Trophy males are invariably in their prime breeding years. Where natural predators exist, the probability of finding “over-mature” males is exceedingly low, for once a male reaches the end of his prime, his condition deteriorates rapidly and he succumbs either to predators or inclement weather. It is important that almost all ungulate species considered in trophy hunting show marked sexual dimorphism (males and females differ significantly in external morphology) and are polygynous (1 male mates with several females, while a female mates usually with only 1 male). As a consequence of polygyny, removing some males from a population does not necessarily affect the reproductive capacity (growth rate) of the population. This also means that even small populations can be subjected to trophy hunting, often without jeopardizing the population. The critical aspect regardless of population size, is to ensure that sufficient mature males are left in a population for normal reproduction rates to be achieved and without jeopardizing the long-term survival of the population”. When Trophy hunting was initiated it was welcomed at various levels in NWFP and Northern Areas, specifically communities who were putting efforts in conserving their wild animal populations for years. Initially the departments (WDNWFP and NAFWD) were issuing permits to few communities who had proven their conservation efforts by means of population census and formation of VMPs. With the passage of time, issues like bad hunt, money refund, lack of hunters, fail to show up, bad weather and competition of getting permits from some communities than others surfaced. To avoid these issues to emerge, there was no valid and comprehensive written procedure(s) present. The Forest and Wildlife Department NA called a meeting of key partners and stakeholders to deal with this emerging situation. There were a series of meetings and consultations took place before a draft Trophy Hunting Procedure was realized. Representation from IUCN, WWF, AKRSP, NADP, fellow conservationists in other NGO’s and both serving and retired government wildlife personnel sat down to ink the ideas came during these discussions. These procedures are first in the country and are comprehensive enough to accommodate the whole range of experiences not only from Pakistan but also from elsewhere in the world. Several side consultations were held to finalize these procedures, which are currently waiting for the approval of Northern Areas Forest and Wildlife department. 1 Collins English Dictionary 2 Frisina, M.R.,Campbell, D. and Lajia Cairen. 2000. Enhancing conservation of Caprinae using geographic areas to define trophy types 3 A review of community-based trophy hunting programs in Pakistan 5 2.1 Trophy Hunting in Chitral In Chitral, NWFP, the trophy hunting started in 1983 the NWFP Wildlife Department spearheaded the initiative ‘Chitral Conservation Hunting Program’, a trophy-hunting program for markhor. Initially the program was not fully community-based conservation program that lasted 8 years until the GoP banned the export of trophies along with all big game hunting throughout Pakistan. The program continued from 1983 till 1991, when hunters from Shikar Safari Club International took trophies and paid US $250,000 as fees and also as help to conservation. This amount was deposited in a special account of the NWFP Wildlife Department for a while and later it was deposited in the national exchequer. In 1999 the trophy hunting program was again launched with the approval of Federal Government where surveys proved sustainable harvest was feasible. The NWFP Wildlife Department restarted the program while in Northern Areas IUCN supported and implemented the Pre-Investment Feasibility (PRIF) phase of the project “Maintaining Biodiversity in Pakistan with Rural Community Development” commonly known as Biodiversity Project. So far 21 Markhor and 5 Ibex trophies have been hunted by foreign hunters resulting in an income worth Rs. 280 million. The Wildlife Department NWFP auctions trophies