FWS Ignores Science in Upholding Elephant Ban

Safari Club International (SCI) and millions of hunter conservationists worldwide are shocked and disappointed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decision to continue the ban on the importation of elephants from Zimbabwe for the rest of 2014.

“Like my fellow hunters, I am disappointed in the FWS decision to persist in upholding a ban that has no sound basis in science and undermines conservation,” said SCI President Craig Kauffman.  “This administration continues to talk publicly about the benefits of hunting while siding with anti-hunting extremists time after time.  SCI’s Washington team will do everything within its power to reverse this misguided and baseless policy.”

This decision comes months after SCI, Zimbabwe, and others provided data and detailed responses to questions submitted by the FWS.  Both Zimbabwe and SCI provided extensive information supporting Zimbabwe’s adaptive elephant management plan and regulated hunting program.   The information demonstrates that Zimbabwe’s management works, U.S. hunters are part of the solution, and the elephant population is not drastically declining as alarmists would have you believe.

Removing the U.S. hunter from Africa’s great outdoors will permanently handicap communal wildlife administrators in their fight against poachers and result in significantly less money for conservation and rural development.

• Problems with poaching in Zimbabwe will be exacerbated by this ill-advised importation ban.
• International hunters are the first line of defense for conservation, management, and anti-poaching throughout Africa.
• History has proven that, when wildlife has no value to local residents and businesses, poaching will increase.

The following examples show how hunter-derived revenue is critically important to the rural economy of Zimbabwe:

• In Zimbabwe, hunter-derived revenue contributes between 60-90% of the annual budget for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.  This funding is critical to on-the-ground anti-poaching efforts.
• In many areas, the fees paid by international hunters are immediately reinvested in community projects through a community-based natural resources management program called CAMPFIRE.

An average of 90% of CAMPFIRE revenue annually comes from hunting.  Elephant hunting contributes more than 70% of CAMPFIRE’s annual revenue.  On average $2 million per year in net income directly benefits local communities, and most of this is derived from the lease of hunting rights to commercial safari operators in 49 CAMPFIRE hunting concessions.

Safari Club International

Protecting hunters’ rights and promoting wildlife conservation, SCI’s two areas of focus, historically has been the interest of hundreds of individuals long before SCI was established. But how did SCI as an organization begin?

Forty years ago, there were many safari clubs across the country made up of local, unaffiliated groups of hunters. One such was Safari Club of Los Angeles, which was formed in April 1971 by forty-seven individuals. In early 1972, an out-of-towner from a similar club in Chicago attended one of the monthly Wednesday night meetings, and it was decided that the L.A. club should attempt to combine with the one in Chicago to make it an affiliated chapter. The founder of Safari Club of Los Angeles, C.J. McElroy, went to the Windy City and instituted the new chapter.

Eleven months after the formation of Safari Club of Los Angeles, on March 9, 1972, the name was changed officially to Safari Club International. SCI continued to reach out to other independent safari clubs throughout the United States in an effort to combine them into a single overall organization.

Today, interest in SCI’s two primary missions has grown a worldwide network. Subsequent involvement and promotion of these missions is rooted in each of our 55,000 members, supported through each of our 190 membership chapters found across the globe, and put into action by government representatives and personnel both nationally and internationally.

In this way, we can encourage an appreciation for nature and wildlife so that conservation efforts remain strong, while also fighting to protect our rich hunting heritage. Big changes can be achieved through the endeavors of many who are united in a mission – the mission of Safari Club International.