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December 04, 2007
Recently, I found myself crammed in a transatlantic flight next to a man who looked as though he could be Dick Cheney’s smaller and younger brother. Balding, pink-faced, and bespectacled, he was wearing the mainland equivalent of an aloha shirt and overly primed for a long chat. He turned to me and asked, chipper, “Well, where are you returning from?” I answered that I had been traveling in the countries of Morocco and Turkey, but instead of launching too much into the mind-blowing lessons and sights of my own trip, I turned the question on him, sensing that this was an instance of someone asking you a question merely in order to be able to answer the same one when it is returned.
My instincts were correct. At the end of the question mark following the predictable “And what about you? Where have you been traveling?” his face lit up with excitement.
He had been in sub-equatorial Africa, bumping around in off-road vehicles from South Africa to Botswana and Namibia. He was there to hunt down and kill big game. Perhaps he could tell by my grimace at the thought of killing such a beautiful creature or by the creative light still shining in my eyes that he would have to carefully explain his reasons for holding the sport in such favor.
He said that he had been called because two leopards were causing trouble for a group of of Himba, the tribe that largely populates the country of Namibia. These animals were so problematic because they were dining on the people’s main livelihood: goats. In climates like Namibia’s, there is little options for farmers. It is an arid place. The people there can grow some grains such as sorghum or millet, and mainly eat corn meal or animal blood-soaked balls of grain. (The people draw blood from the animal by piercing its neck with a sharpened stick, allowing it to remain alive). When food is scarce, the people turn to gamemeat to subsist. And hungry Africans certainly do not tolerate any big predator hunting their goats, no matter how pretty. When the question of how valuable that predator is enters the equation, however, things get more interesting.
Enter the capitalists. Like my friend on the plane, they are usually white, middle-aged males with large amounts of cash expendable for leisure activities, specifically, the sport of hunting big game. Guys like these turn that pesky leopard into a cash cow, fetching, in this case, $5,500 each. Suddenly, the people in the area become much more tolerant of these beasts.
Although it may come as a surprise to supporters of PETA, Greenpeace, and vegans everywhere, it turns out that hunters of everything from waterfowl in America to the giant eland in the African plains are some of the largest contributors to environmental conservation efforts the world over.
If the natural habitats of these creatures is encroached upon to such a degree that it starts to negatively affect species’ population, hunting licenses become more expensive and harder to come by. If the numbers dip below a given point and are observed as endangered by regulatory and governing bodies, suddenly the sport finds itself as permissible as slinging dope on Sunday mornings.
And research shows that this group is highly active, even fierce, when it comes to preserving the environment in which their favorite prey flourishes. In the United States, the revenue generated by hunting and fishing licenses combined with the excise tax levied on the purchase of hunting and fishing equipment constitute about 75% of state wildlife agencies’ revenue. Since 1934, 5.2 million acres of wetland habitat have been purchased and preserved by the Federal Government exclusively through the sale of “duck stamps,” required by law for duck hunting. Ducks Unlimited alone is responsible for conserving over 11 million acres of wetlands. Even on our own Molokai, the Nature Conservancy has hired guns to hunt the feral pigs that destroy pristine habitat for other species (although much to local hunters’ shagrin).
Ted Turner, one of the biggest landowners in America, is responsible for preserving over two million acres of land. The sale of hunting permits for giant elk brings in close to two million dollars annually to maintain the property free of development.
This formula also applies in Africa. In a recent interview with National Geographic magazine, Peter A. Lindsey, a conservation biologist who has done much research and work in this area, agrees. “To justify the continued existence of [protected] areas in the context of increasing demand for land, wildlife has to pay for itself and contribute to the economy, and hunting provides an important means of achieving this,” Lindsey said. In areas too remote or unstable for revenue from the new fad of “ecotourism,” the large sums paid by hunters in search of exotic wildlife helps the local economy, provides a certain amount of jobs, and, more importantly, creates incentive for local landowners to purchase and provide safe, amenable habitats to animals like the white and black rhino, the giant eland, zebras, leopards, lions, and many others. Of course, people like Peter Lindsey call for greater scrutiny from scientists and biologists in the application of hunting as a conservation effort.
Jeff Buck, the game hunter from San Diego, witnessed this phenomenon personally. During his trip to Namibia, he said that he had the opportunity to be present at a meeting where the World Wildlife Foundation, the tribe’s leaders, the professional hunter, and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism convened to discuss the numbers of certain species and how many hunting permits would be given out for the following year. Meanwhile, in the process of obtaining the permits to shoot leopards, the tribe there actually required him to shoot and kill a grocery list of other wild animals for their meat.
Although hunters such as Beck are largely responsible for the surges in populations of elephants, cape mountain zebra, white rhinos, and black wildebeest, this practice is not without its critics. Rosa Hill of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IRAW) says killing these animals is still “morally unjustifiable.” She argues that there is no way to tell whether the funds raised from hunting permits go back into conservation. Others express concerns that hunting interferes with natural selection. Hunters are after the healthiest, most robust, and otherwise “fittest” male individuals.
Still, Dr. Lindsey contests, “The industry’s not perfect, and we have to work on the problems; but there is no question in my mind that if hunting were to be banned, the conservation consequences in Africa would be dire.”
As Americans, we can still learn from another big African game hunter, President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1908 he said, “Our position in the world has been attained by the extent and thoroughness of the control we have achieved over nature, but we are more, and not less, dependent upon what she furnishes than at any previous time of history.” He was also responsible for creating the United States Forest Service and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership which is still very active today, as well as successfully preserving over 194 million acres in national parks and nature preserves.
Or if you prefer, take a lesson from rocker Ted Nugent, who in an interview with National Geographic’s Tom Foreman said, “We [hunters] stop the bulldozer boogie. We put value in wild ground.”
Amanda Li Wilson
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