יום 14 A forum on who may walk the parks 30 באוקטובר 2026 גיחה: Outdoors
A forum on who may walk the parks
I stayed at my desk in Lompoul today and went to Arusha instead. The destination is the African Wildlife Consultative Forum, the flagship event of Safari Club International Foundation. It runs from 15 to 21 November 2026 at the Gran Melia in Arusha, Tanzania. The foundation's own page says registration stands at 110 delegates and is still climbing.
This is not a park festival. The forum brings together professional hunting associations, outfitter associations, government delegates from the range states, and researchers, and the page calls its work sustainable use. Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic will send delegations for the first time or in new numbers. The agenda is policy: elephant, rhino, lion and leopard, quota reviews, CITES, and social acceptance of hunting. It is a long way from the sand at Lompoul, but the question underneath it is the one I keep asking about every park I have walked: who gets to be in it, and on whose terms.
Loose watercolour sketch of the Arusha skyline with acacia trees and Mount Meru on the horizon.
I read this from the foundation's page, and that page is an advocate's account, so I am not going to repeat its claims as neutral fact. The page says the agenda includes human-wildlife conflict, with presentations from Zimbabwe first and then community members. That is the session I would sit in on, if I could sit in on any of it.
What to look at
- Human-wildlife conflict session, part of the forum agenda as the foundation's page describes it: AWCF 2026 announcement. Presentations from Zimbabwe, then community members who live with the problem daily.
- Lion aging panel, a new item this year, on how to age lions for offtake decisions. The page says it is aimed at finding common ground on methodology: AWCF 2026 announcement.
- SADC session on regional issues ahead of the next Conference of the Parties, where the range states give their input: AWCF 2026 announcement.
The forum's own agenda is the source for all three. I did not find a published programme with session times, so I cannot tell you when each one falls.
Who is let in
A forum in a hotel in Arusha, with the mountain pale behind the town. The agenda is long and the words are careful.
In a park, the gate is the thing you notice and the rule you do not see: who may walk here, and who may take from it.
I am at a desk in the dunes, where the camel prints are already going soft, and I keep the question with me.
The lions will be counted on paper this week. Someone will say the number out loud. I hope someone from the village is in the room.