MEAT, MARKETS, PLEASURE AND REVENGE: MULTIPLE MOTIVATIONS FOR HUNTING IN BAMU NATIONAL PARK, FARS PROVINCE, IRAN

In this study an informal, qualitative methodology is used to explore motivations for hunting in Bamu National Park, Fars Province, Iran. The park has probably the highest level of hunting-related conflict of any protected area in Iran. Two senior park staff members and fourteen hunters were interviewed individually and a further six hunters were interviewed in a group. Reported motivations for hunting included poverty, market-related profit, pleasure (the love of the hunt and its traditional value) and revenge, in that resentment of the protected area was cited in itself as a reason to hunt. It is concluded that strict enforcement is unlikely to decrease hunting on its own and may actually increase hunting as resentment against the park grows. Managed sustainable hunting is not permitted under Iranian law but the presence of a traditional moral concept (shogoun) that commercial hunting is wrong may offer a basis for a more collaborative approach, and there is evidence that an emphasis on positive engagement between park staff and local people could improve the situation quite quickly.