President Teddy Roosevelt said more than 100 years ago “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. This statement aptly describes the present status of the relationship between hunters and non-hunters.READ MORE
A new paper by IUCN experts presents substantial evidence that the controversial practice of trophy hunting can produce positive outcomes for wildlife conservation and local people. Download the PDF at Unasylva 249, Vol. 68, 2017/1
People that don’t live in Africa tend to learn about wildlife conservation in easy-to-understand terminology. But safeguarding animal species like lions is often more complex than mainstream media sound bites would have their audiences believe.READ MORE
Editor’s Note: Carl D. Mitchell sent me this article. Considering the main topic in this issue of African Indaba it seems appropriate to include this opinion piece of Darimont et al. in full length.
1. Introduction
The killing of Cecil the lion (Panthera leo) ignited enduring and increasingly global discussion about trophy hunting [1]. Yet, policy debate about its benefits and costs (e.g. [2,3]) focuses only on the hunted species and biodiversity, not the unique behavior of hunters. READ MORE
A briefing paper titled Trophy Hunting: UK and international policy, Alison Pratt and David Hirst, 2017. Briefing Paper Number 7908, 23 February 2017. House of Commons Library provides incorrect information to the Members of Parliament in the UK (MPs) and their staff on policy and sustainability aspects of trophy hunting.READ MORE
Africa’s protected parks and reserves are capable of supporting 83,000 wild lions if well funded and managed, according to a new report led by Panthera. Published in Biological Conservation, the study shows that populations of the African lion and its prey species are drastically below their natural potential inside most of Africa’s protected areas (PA). READ MORE
The advocates of captive lion breeding and canned lion shooting often claim that these practices have broader conservation outcomes, such as a demand reduction in the hunting of wild lion and positive conservation outcomes as the reintroduction of captive bred lion into the wild. READ MORE
The breeding of wildlife to produce unusually colored animals, in the hope that hunters would pay a lot more to shoot them, has fallen flat in a spectacular manner — with the practice being widely condemned
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. READ MORE
Editor’s Note: I recently discovered Dougherty’s 2011 article when searching the internet. Although written in a North American context, it strikes me as being applicable to Southern Africa, if one exchanges deer with buffalo, antelopes, etc. and readjusts the property sizes. READ MORE
The Boone and Crockett Club, the oldest hunter-conservationist organization in North America, has released a position statement and video on big-game trophies and hunting on 18 January 2017.
There are several aspects to public hunting and its connection to wildlife and habitat conservation that are not well understood. READ MORE
