DAR ES SALAAM, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian wildlife authorities on Wednesday announced postponement of auctioning of vacant hunting concessions in the east African nation through online bidding process.
Hamisi Kigwangalla, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, said auctioning of the hunting blocks which was scheduled to begin on Thursday will be conducted in a date to be set afresh.
A statement issued by the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA) said the postponement of the auction followed complaints by stakeholders in the tourist hunting industry.
It came against a backdrop of allegations of impropriety and loss of revenues.
Recently TAWA announced the auctioning of 29 hunting blocks beginning March 5, 2020, an exercise it said was planned to last for five days.
TAWA said eligible hunting companies were to be allocated a maximum of five hunting blocks, each of different categories.
Most of the hunting blocks were allocated within the 50,000 square km Selous Game Reserve ecosystem, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its elephants, lions, zebras, black rhinos, giraffes and other species.
TAWA estimated that about 3.4 million U.S. dollars were generated annually from hunting block fees and associated fees from the utilization of wildlife.
