I have written my letters to my congressional and senate represenatives, traveled to DC for the SCI legilsative day, visited with congressional represenatatives and spoken with dozens of fellow sportsmen and conservationists on the negative and unintended consequences of the USFWS's recent suspension of import of sport hunted ivory from Zim and Tanzania.Most, if not all, of the congressional meetings were with "friendly" congressional reps. After some contemplation, I have concluded that we are all simply "talking to ourselves" and that the animal rights/prorectionist opposition doesn't give a s@#$ about the right of a bunch of well to do, white guys to shoot an elephant or lion and they dont care about poor rural Africans that have to struggle to co-exist with wildlife. We need to reach out to silent majority and stress the fact that there are people involved here - poor rural Africans that have to deal with food insecurity, HIV/Aids, corrupt governments,etc. and without the benefits of revenue, employment and meat generated from regulated sport hunting that these people will not tolerate these animals and their only choice is to eliminate the competition- specfically - elephant and lion. With the loss of incentives from sport hunting and as the major deterrent to poaching, poachers will have free reign. We also need to educate the general public on the fact that the elephant is one of three mammals that can signifcantly alter its environment - the other two are man and the beaver. Elephant populations, left unchecked, will literally eat themselves (and other wildlife) out of house and home. We need to understand and appreciate the fact that most people do not understand why someone would want to hunt an elephant or lion (including our fellow hunters) or care if we are able to do so. I have refocused the conversation away from me and the philosphical/moral debate about killing a single elephant or lion. Rather I shifted the discussion to how, in order for the elephant, rhino or lion to exist in sustainable numbers, that there must be an incentivized based approach, which includes regulated sport hunting, to allow rural and poor Africans to co-exist with and tolerate the elephant and lion. I use Kenya as an example of how banning hunting has been abject failure in protecting and sustaining elephant and lion populations as compared to Tanzania and Zim. I have coined the phrase the "3 P's - People, Poaching and Poverty" . They are all linked - if you have poor people competing with wildlife without incentives - poaching will be the result and wildlife will lose everytime. I have found that it is hard to argue the fact that these people have to co-exist with an animal that can destroy an annual maize crop or one fifth of a livestock herd in a single night and we cannot expect them to do so with no counterbalance or incentive. This is getting some traction with non-hunters and hunters alike and it is in stark contrast to the anti-hunting/animal rights position. Just some food for thought.

RickCap,

You've hit the nail on the head!!
Poaching is just an effect and not the cause. Sustainable conservation is about tackling the root causes. Being offensive instead defensive, its the only long term solution.
The rural people have by far the greatest sake in the matter and have faired the worst. They outnumber efforts 1000:1. If they're not on the program then there's little hope.
The Public needs to be sensitised and educated as you've said and African Governments need to be lobbied to change law & policy in favour of rural communities and rural communities need to be actively capacitated and objectively engaged. African Governments need to be supported along these lines and not ostracised as they really couldn't give a damn about wild animals. What's the loss of wildlife to African politicians??
Tanzania is a perfect example of this.
For what its worth.

RickCap,

Just re-read. Very well put. Its pointless to try to justify or explain why we hunt etc etc..
Thank you

Great post RickCap. I agree completly. Now how do you think we can accomplish our aggenda? How do we do things differently than things have been done in the past?