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EDITOR: We read with interest Emmanuel Koro’s opinion article “The day ED took animal rights groups to ‘tusk’” on Page 7 of The Herald on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, and published in full online on herald.co.zw and chronicle.co.zw. 

Absolutely recognising the right of opinion/analysis commentators to present their opinions as they wish, we would like to highlight inaccuracies upon which Mr Koro bases his opinion. 

Mr Koro writes that at the Wildlife Economy Summit hosted by His Excellency President Mnangagwa in Victoria Falls last week, hunting and the consumptive use of wildlife were “suspiciously” or “curiously” “excluded from the agenda”. 

That agenda, he suggests, was skewed “to grow the African wildlife economy exclusively using non-consumptive tourism”. Mr Koro bases his powerful thesis on this assertion, but it is wrong. 

The publicly-available Summit agenda included from its inception the following panel: “Africa on the Move: Key considerations for unlocking wildlife-based utilisation”, that included a representative from the Safari Club hunting association, George Pangeti, and Maxi Louis, from Namibia CBNRM Conservancy Support Organisation. 

In his piece Mr Koro quotes Ms Louis and Dr Brian Child both advocating for consumptive wildlife economies, and both addressed the Summit and were listed on its programme. 

Mr Koro also claims that His Excellency President Masisi of Botswana joined our Giants Club initiative “incognito” when he did so in the presence of Their Excellencies President Bongo of Gabon and President Museveni of Uganda, and his office approved a Press Release for dissemination immediately after the event. Mr Koro also asserts that at Space for Giants we are an “animal rights organisation”. 

That is not correct: we work to protect wildlife and its habitats in order that they bring economic as well as ecological value to people and countries.

Sir, Mr Koro is correct to say that at Space for Giants we oppose trading in ivory, and would advocate that countries hosting elephants and other wildlife can significantly increase the revenue those  assets bring by expanding responsible tourism. 

We, however, do not oppose any country’s sovereign right to choose responsible consumptive utilisation as one of its policy tools to generate value for local citizens and conserving wildlife. 

We are also aware that there are many who argue that we are wrong to focus on tourism. 

We welcome the chance to learn from them as we hope they might learn from us. 

That way we can all move forward with different but complementary approaches to protecting Africa’s natural assets, so they can sustainably drive the continent’s economies. But what is critically important is that as we learn from each other and express our differing opinions, we always draw on provable facts to make our assertions. 

Max Graham, CEO and Founder, Space for Giants