The Moral Case for Hunting Tourism – How South Africa’s Rural Future Depends on It

In South Africa, few subjects ignite more emotion than hunting. For some, it remains a relic of colonial vanity. For others, it is a vital economic engine and conservation tool.

The numbers from a new North-West University (NWU) study make the moral argument clearer than any ideology ever could: hunting tourism is one of the best things that ever happened to rural South Africa’s economy and wildlife.

The study by Professors Peet van der Merwe and Andrea Saayman calculates that hunting tourism contributes US$2.5 billion, or roughly R44 billion, to the economy every year. It sustains about 95 000 jobs, many of them for low-skilled workers with limited alternatives in a country where unemployment sits at nearly 33%. For every rand spent by a hunter, almost two more ripple through the economy; reaching sectors from agriculture and accommodation to trade, transport, and personal services.

Those who work in the veld know that the rifle funds conservation. Hunting revenue pays the wages of trackers, farm hands, and game rangers. It allows private landowners to keep wildlife on their farms rather than cattle, to restore degraded landscapes, and to sustain the delicate balance of predator and prey. The result is astonishing: South Africa now hosts more wildlife on private land than within its national parks. Without the economic lifeline of hunting, much of this land would revert to subsistence farming or development, and the animals would vanish.

Critics may dismiss hunting as elitist, but they ignore who truly benefits. The majority of the industry’s workers come from rural communities long bypassed by mainstream tourism. Limpopo, in particular, thrives because of hunting. Every foreign hunter arriving from Texas or Turin brings dollars that flow into villages, schools, and households far removed from the urban economy.

The real threat to conservation is not the ethical hunter; it is indifference, policy confusion, ideological hostility to private enterprise, and the efforts of western funded environmental activists. The NWU study is a wake-up call for policymakers who still treat hunting as an embarrassment rather than as an ally. South Africa’s conservation miracle was built on the economic logic that what pays, stays. Remove that incentive, and both wildlife and livelihoods will vanish together.

In an age where sustainable development is more slogan than substance, hunting tourism remains one of the few conservation models that actually works. It funds conservation, fights poverty, and gives wild animals tangible value. The irony is that the rifle, so often condemned, has done more for Africa’s wilderness than any well-meaning activist ever will.