“Nobody in this situation, with this particular black rhino put more value on it than I did,” said hunter Corey Knowlton this week, before killing the rhino with several shots he had paid $350,000 to fire. “I’m absolutely hell bent on protecting this animal.”

Knowlton’s highly-publicised bid to kill a critically endangered animal came to a successful conclusion on Monday amid scrubby bushland in Namibia. It was, he said, a victory for conservation.



“100% I felt like from day one it was benefitting the black rhino. And I’ll feel like that until the day I die,” the Texan told CNN.

His Namibian hunt coincided with an announcement by the government in neighbouring Zambia that it would lift its ban on hunting lions and leopards just two years after it was imposed. Jean Kapata, Zambia’s tourism and arts minister, said the move would benefit wildlife conservation.

Trophy hunting, the practice of selling expensive permits to shoot big game, is a drawcard for a certain type of tourist. Many of them, including Knowlton and Kendall Jones (who last year became a hate figure for animal rights groups after posting photos on showing her posing beside kills), claim their primary motivation is conservation.

Previous studies have drawn links between the increase in the population of white rhinos in South Africa - one of conservation’s great success stories - and the introduction of animals to privately managed hunting reserves where they are protected from poachers and development. In Zambia, 21% of the land is locked up in these private reserves. A 2012 study by Traffic, an anti-poaching group, offered support for well-managed hunting.



Some national governments and scientists back the industry’s claim it can support population recoveries in endangered species.

But many experts the Guardian spoke to said that in reality, hunting rarely helped to conserve species. Critics say hunters hide their enjoyment of a bloodsport behind a cloak of goodwill.

“If it is well managed, then yes there might be a case to be made for hunting as a means for conservation because it does bring in a little bit of money,” said Pieter Kat, co-founder of Lion Aid. But for hunting to act as an unlikely bedfellow for conservation it relies on good management and in the majority of cases this did not occur, he said.

“I would say there are some examples, but it largely depends on the honesty of the hunting operators. By far the largest majority of people that are in the hunting profession are not doing it out of any form of conservation. They are in it for the money,” said Kat.

A leopard in Zambia. The country has lifted a two year ban on hunting the animals. Photograph: Will Burrard - Lucas / Barcroft/Will Burrard-Lucas / Barcroft

Kat was highly critical of Zambia’s decision to overturn its lion and leopard hunting ban. He said the government had “caved in to powerful hunting interests”. Zambia’s government said the move was based on fresh field assessments, but Kat said no such count has occurred. The government estimates there are 4,000 lions in the country, but informal estimates put the number at more like 400.

“There is little evidence that hunting does much to conserve wildlife in Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique or much of West Africa,” said Professor Craig Packer, a lion expert at the University of Minnesota. Only in Zimbabwe and Namibia did he say hunting revenues appeared to be actively protecting species.

Poaching has caused the population of black rhinos to decline by more than 90% since the 1960s. Numbers crashed to just 2,300 in the 1990s and the past two decades has seen a fragile recovery take place. Namibia has 35% of the current population of 5,000 and the country’s management has overseen a slow but steady growth.

Each year the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) issues Namibia with between three and five hunting permits for rhino. They depend on evidence that the practice is benefitting the species.

But in the first months of 2015, Namibia’s rhino population has been hit by 60 poaching deaths. A spokesman for Traffic said that although Namibia possessed a legitimate hunting quota based on years of careful rhino management, unless the current poaching spike was addressed, its basis would be seriously undermined.

Wildlife viewing brings in so much more revenue to Africa than these small game hunts for small privileged groups Jeff Flocken, IFAW

Kat said one of the problems was a lack of transparency around the income derived from hunting. “In terms of trophy hunting as a conservation activity, there’s lots and lots of problems with that because we just don’t know where the money goes. We know what the hunters are paying, but it’s a big step from there to finding out whether the money actually benefits conservation or even benefits communities,” he said.



Packer said the situation varied from country to country. “Tanzania receives $15m per year from trophy hunting revenues, which is supposed to cover the management and conservation of 300,000km2. This is almost nothing compared to the real costs of effective wildlife management (which are close to a thousand dollars per km2 per year).

“As far as any benefits going to individuals living near the reserves, this only amounts to about 50 cents per person per year - that’s about the same as an egg. Namibia, though, appears to generate quite a lot more revenue per capita.”

Patrick Barkham visits a lion-breeding farm in North Eastern Free State, South Africa, to investigate the relationship between the rearing of lions in captivity and the so-called ‘canned hunting’ industry Guardian

But in the case of Namibia, and the $350,000 paid by Knowlton, much of the money ends up with the Game Products Trust Fund, which Kat says does not help save rhinos.

Jeff Flocken, North America regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the revenues from hunting, which one study found to be just 1.8% of the overall tourism revenue in nine African countries, were immaterial to the conservation of species.

“I certainly agree that engaging communities is going to be the solution, but engaging them in a non-lethal way. Photographic and wildlife viewing brings in so much more revenue to Africa than these small game hunts for small privileged groups,” he said. Locking up vast swathes of land for hunting concessions was “ludicrous,” said Kat. “It’s the least economical way to use the land.”