Written by Dr Ross Harvey – EMS FOUNDATION

Ahead of this year’s Safari Club International (SCI) Convention, at which Donald Trump Jr will be a keynote speaker, the organisation issued a press release attacking Humane Society’s objection to its cruel practices.

HSI also questioned whether hunting makes an overall positive net contribution to conservation. The SCI statement insists that “overwhelming evidence from multiple independent scientific entities such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) proves this quote to be the opposite of reality.

The IUCN has repeatedly published articles that prove illegal poaching and habitat loss are the largest threats to wildlife and that so-called trophy hunting provides direct benefits for the species hunted, conserves a vast amount of land for wildlife habitat, funds anti-poaching efforts, encourages local community participation in conservation, supports livelihoods, and significantly contributes to rural economies…” (link to IUCN paper is https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/iucn_sept_briefing_paper_-_informingdecisionstrophyhunting.pdf)

The IUCN paper, however, does no such thing as prove the benefits of trophy hunting in the way that the SCI thinks it does. To be sure, it makes generous claims in support of well-governed trophy hunting. The EMS Foundation has analysed the IUCN document, which is typically hauled out by proponents of trophy hunting or referred to by governments who have become reluctant to ban trophy hunting imports. The analysis serves primarily to inform the British government’s deliberations over whether to ban trophy imports (and what kind of ban would be appropriate). More broadly, it exposes holes in the paper’s arguments and brings other evidence to bear that suggests it has not been sufficiently rigorous in its appraisal of the conservation benefits of trophy hunting. In a nutshell, it provides a contrary view to conventional wisdom in conservation circles and suggests that alternatives to trophy hunting are feasible and socio-ecologically preferable in the long run. It also provides support for the IUCN ethics committee’s position, which held that trophy hunters and hunting organisations should not be permitted to IUCN membership. As the UK considers a ban on trophy imports, we trust that it will make the correct call and that the rest of the world will follow its lead.

READ THE FULL RESPONSE TO THE IUCN SULi PAPER WRITTEN BY DR ROSS HARVEY

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