Moin. wrote:One dumb question.Does poaching happen in the US like it does in India XL. These huge funds from paid hunting has not been able to put a stop to poaching in Africa. So is it that only the game reserves prospers and are properly managed. What about the rest of the forests and wildlife in African countries.
Thanks
Moin.
Moin: I have only had one experience, knowing a poacher. This man had a family and was out of work at different times (this was before I knew him), and he would go out and shoot a deer to feed his family occasionally. He did it by parking his car in the middle of an open park in the mountains, he said, but I am sure he had some special place on someone's ranch where there were no other hunters. Anyway, he would wait until they got close to his car (deer are curious critters, when they are not spooky from being hunted) and he'd pop one in the head with his .22 from close range. That way, he did not destroy meat and there wasn't a sound that would alert very many.
My boss in New Mexico told me of a man who was in a similar situation. This man had a Spanish name, but my boss said he was Native American. (This is not uncommon, for reasons too lengthy to go into -- I would need to give a New Mexico history lesson!) Anyway, my boss said that this man was always being tracked by the game wardens, but his Native American hunting and tracking skills prevented them from catching him. Once, he dabbed his trail with meat and strong chile powder, and my boss said that sniffing the tracking powder ruined the tracking dogs' noses, so they left him alone after that.
Montana had a reporting line for poachers -- I'm sure some folks were turned it on that line, knowing Montana. But in some closed communities, there probably was regular poaching, but that is only conjecture on my part.
The big deal out west was endangered game, like eagles. In this case, something would break on the news on occasion. Native Americans use eagle feathers in their ceremonies, and there may even be some provision for them to somehow harvest some eagles. This is usually true for walrus, whales, and salmon -- species that Native Americans have traditionally harvested have some provision in law for them to pursue their traditional lifestyle. But I think that there would be some who would poach eagles and sell the feathers to Native Americans, and sometimes these people would be caught.
The penalties for endangered species poaching would be quite stiff, because they are protected by federal law, where regular game like deer and elk are under state jurisdiction.
So to answer your question, from my perspective, there is poaching, but when it begins to affect endangered species populations, the enforcement is very thorough. Fish and Game departmental funding does come from licenses and tags, so I think it is correct to say that hunting does play a significant role. Not only that, but it also funds studies by universities and hires biologists who can give expert plans for a sound game management plan, whether for hunted game or protected game. I think that the environmental study part is, perhaps, the most important part of this and the enforcement is second, personally speaking.
Regarding Africa, I think what you have there are governments with a relatively high level of corruption (see
http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2012/results/ ) and, perhaps more, governments that are influenced more by using the paid hunter monies for their economy, rather than plowing enough back into game protection and policing. The problem is like what we've said and read here about India: The government wardens have old SMLEs and maybe have shot them, while the goons have automatic weapons. These bands also seem to be much more organized and in larger groups that what one might hear about in the US, where a "gang" might be 3 or 4 hillbillies, rather than a group that resembles armed revolutionaries in temperament and armament.
My response to you is, therefore, that just paid hunting alone is not going to solve the problem. The solution requires a national and governmental will to protect and manage the game and hunting supplies money for that to happen, including proper scientific management and enforcement. Also, properly managed game becomes like "ecotourism" with many side businesses prospering. Once that happens, it becomes the concern of those businesses to see wildlife flourish, because if they do not, that impacts business income for many. In other words, the economy is changed so that following the law and business prosperity is aligned with what's best for wildlife and the ecology.
