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How To Save the Elephants? Buy Ivory, Shoot Them
mjperryblogspot.com.au ^ | June 8, 2011 | Professor Mark J. Perry

Posted on 11/19/2017 6:54:18 PM PST by marktwain

In the 1970s, Kenya had about six times as many elephants as Zimbabwe, and today Zimbabwe has three times more elephants than Kenya (see chart).  What happened that caused the dramatic reversal in elephant populations in the two African countries? 

Terry Anderson and Shawn Regan of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) explain in their excellent article "Shoot an Elephant, Save a Community":

"Anti-hunting groups succeeded in getting Kenya to ban all hunting in 1977. Since then, its population of large wild animals has declined between 60 and 70 percent. The country’s elephant population declined from 167,000 in 1973 to just 16,000 in 1989. Poaching took its toll on elephants because of their damage to both cropland and people. Today Kenya wildlife officials boast a doubling of the country’s elephant population to 32,000, but nearly all are in protected national parks where poaching can be controlled.

In sharp contrast to Kenya, consider what has happened in Zimbabwe. In 1989, results-oriented groups such as the World Wildlife Fund helped implement a program known as the Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources or CAMPFIRE. This approach devolves the rights to benefit from, dispose of, and manage natural resources to the local level, including the right to allow safari hunting. Community leaders with local knowledge about wildlife and its interface with humans help establish sustainable hunting quotas. Hunting then provides jobs for community members, compensation for crop and property damage, revenue to build schools, clinics, and water wells, and meat for villagers.

By granting local people control over wildlife resources, their incentive to protect it has strengthened. As a result, poaching has been contained and human-wildlife conflicts have been reduced. While challenges remain, especially from the current political climate in Zimbabwe, CAMPFIRE has quietly produced results with strikingly little activist rhetoric.

Between 1989 and 2005, Zimbabwe’s total elephant population more than doubled from 37,000 to 85,000, with half living outside of national parks. Today, some put the number as high as 100,000, even after decades of legal, trophy hunting. All of this has occurred with an economy in shambles, regime uncertainty, and mounting socio-political challenges."

See a related CD post here on how private property rights, legalized hunting, commercial farming, and the commercial sale of alligator meat and hides saved the American alligator from extinction. 


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1977; africanelephants; banglist; elephant; hunting; meat; pachyderms; poaching; trophyhunting
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Kenya banned elephant hunting in 1977
1 posted on 11/19/2017 6:54:18 PM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain; SMGFan

Thanks for the info. I wrongly told SMGFan, in another thread on this topic, that Kenya had the controlled hunting and an increase elephant population


2 posted on 11/19/2017 6:59:37 PM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: marktwain

There might have been reason to be alarmed about low elephant populations then. Less so now.

As long as elephant hunting is humane, no having to track wounded elephants, I agree it needs a rethink.


3 posted on 11/19/2017 7:00:05 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Tryin' hard to win the No-Bull Prize.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

People care about the things they own. They don’t care about things they don’t own.

Why is that so hard to understand?

Cue “The Tragedy Of The Commons”

L


4 posted on 11/19/2017 7:03:34 PM PST by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: Lurker

Nice tagline!

I am going to find a good image and create a meme with that tagline :-)


5 posted on 11/19/2017 7:07:56 PM PST by Bobalu (The NFL, Watching their demise is more fun than watching their games.)
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To: Bobalu

Thank you very much. Please share it with me when you do.

L


6 posted on 11/19/2017 7:09:48 PM PST by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: marktwain

Lucky for lib rats, they are NEVER held accountable for their unintended consequences...


7 posted on 11/19/2017 7:19:17 PM PST by Dr. Pritchett
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To: marktwain

I thought the only things that went up in Zimbabwe were famine and inflation.


8 posted on 11/19/2017 7:25:18 PM PST by wastedyears (US out of the UN, UN out of the US.)
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To: wastedyears

It is possible that the horrific mass murders by Mugabe reduced elephant poaching a little...


9 posted on 11/19/2017 7:28:00 PM PST by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: marktwain

Let people hunt the poachers.


10 posted on 11/19/2017 7:35:34 PM PST by Chipper (You can't kill an Obamazombie by destroying the brain...they didn't have one to begin with.)
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To: marktwain

The problem with that is Zimbabwe is one of the most corrupt governments in Africa. Where does all the trophy hunting money really go?


11 posted on 11/19/2017 7:41:21 PM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Chipper

People do hunt the poachers. It takes money. A lot of money.

Maybe we could send a cargo plane load of U.S. taxpayer money for it!?

It also takes guts. Poachers are well armed and have a mindset similar to drug cartel killers.

Maybe we could send our men and women into harm’s way to protect the elephants!?


12 posted on 11/19/2017 7:48:13 PM PST by TigersEye (0bama. The Legacy is a lie. The lie is the Legacy.)
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To: TigersEye

Saw off the Elephants tusks when they are babies. After a few generations they will no longer know what the tusks are actually for.

If you saw off the elephants tusks, they will no longer be hunted.


13 posted on 11/19/2017 7:55:24 PM PST by EQAndyBuzz (“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.” - DJT)
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To: marktwain

I accept the argument and tolerate the practice if that’s what it takes to preserve the species. But I still think getting enjoyment from killing exotic animals is less than admirable. Its not something I’d encourage my sons to do.


14 posted on 11/19/2017 7:57:19 PM PST by TexasKamaAina
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Them things are smart like dolphins and dogs. So we should leave them alone like we do pigs...

Oh wait.

Do they taste good at least?


15 posted on 11/19/2017 8:03:43 PM PST by 1_Inch_Group (Country Before Party)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

I would love to see what a baby elephant looks like in your brain.


16 posted on 11/19/2017 8:04:38 PM PST by 1_Inch_Group (Country Before Party)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Saw off the Elephants tusks when they are babies. After a few generations they will no longer know what the tusks are actually for.

If you saw off the elephants tusks, they will no longer be hunted.


So, your solution is to turn elephants into a domesticated species? Elephant tusks are there for a reason. They are not the only reasons elephants are hunted.

The idea that you could catch and saw off the tusks of elephants, and that this would be more humane than trophy hunting, is kinda weird.


17 posted on 11/19/2017 8:05:41 PM PST by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: 1_Inch_Group

“I would love to see what a baby elephant looks like in your brain.”

Cute little thing, big ears, flies around with a clown hat on.


18 posted on 11/19/2017 8:07:04 PM PST by EQAndyBuzz (“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.” - DJT)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Your brain is AWESOME!


19 posted on 11/19/2017 8:08:52 PM PST by 1_Inch_Group (Country Before Party)
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To: marktwain
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
20 posted on 11/19/2017 8:10:11 PM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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