SAFARI - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 160

sometimes at every park, there were bloody clashes between humans over the animals.
Just north of Andy Hogg in the North Luangwa Park, an American couple made it their
mission to protect the wildlife and succeeded for a while until they ran afoul of the gov-
ernment and were accused of murdering interlopers. Ardent conservationists, they were
thrown out of Zambia.
This was the reality for most parks in sub-Saharan Africa. Humans were as dangerous
as the wild animals that roamed far beyond the parks onto the grasslands, and forests with
the tasty “sausage” trees and were hunted by local villagers. In Zambia wild animals are as
likely to live beyond the park boundaries as in them.
Andy Hogg lived through that recent history with one foot in the tourist camp and the
other squarely with the conservationists. Most days he said he can't distinguish between
the two. With his trimmed graying beard, intense eyes locked in a permanent squint after
a life in the African sun, Hogg has more than a hint of Hemingway about him. He is solid
and square and practical about almost everything except his attachment to Zambia's wil-
derness. He works nearly nonstop. There are few days off while at the park—Mfuwe Lodge
is open all year, while the bush camps are seasonal. When Hogg is not at the park, keep-
ing accounts in his office at the lodge or roaming through the 9,050-plus square miles of
unfenced wilderness, he is traveling to promote the lodge.
“Normal people couldn't sustain this pace for this reward. If I were married with kids, I
couldn't afford to run this,” he said. “If I had put this much effort and time into any other
business, I'd be rich.”
In fact, he said, he loves his work and can't imagine another life. “Obviously there are
a lot of positives or I wouldn't still be here,” he said, gesturing at the bush around him.
The qualities that made South Luangwa so remarkable are the same that make it so
maddening. The park is one of Africa's last unspoiled expanses in part because Zambia is
such a backwater, protected from some of the worst pressures of modernity. At the same
time, this backwardness has meant that the government won't make the investment neces-
sary to maintain the park.
In the last few years, Hogg has had to create much of the improved infrastructure. “We
just put in seventy kilometers of all-weather road,” he said. “Unfortunately, lately we have
ended up financing just about everything else.”
The parks are managed by the Zambian Wildlife Authority, known as ZAWA, an under-
funded organization with a mostly impressive professional staff but burdened by politically
appointed leaders who are too often corrupt. Hogg is careful about describing his relation-
ship with ZAWA, since this is the organization upon which all tourism depends. “Some of
the guys are fantastic,” he said. “But if the leaders at the top knew what they were doing
and had some money to do it with, this place would be incredible.”
In a country as poor as Zambia that may not be surprising.