African Expedition Magazine

The hardcore Africa safari and adventure magazine delivered worldwide to the real conservators of nature... hunters.

Nobody else actually pays for conservation.

good post

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Bunn:


Nobody else actually pays for conservation.

Our own ddrhook has an article on his Uganda hunt with Steve "Shakari" Robinson in this month's.
He sent me an e-mail saying "Last month I didn't know how to spell Arthur, now I are one"

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Bunn:


Nobody else actually pays for conservation.

I am guessing that you misunderstood Mr/ Bunn's intent. His point was that only hunters pay for conservation(this would include SCI, BTW).

(Maybe the hair trigger on your "defend SCI" knee-jerk reaction went off before you could contemplate what was written? Or maybe you think there are a lot of non-hunting groups paying for conservation?)

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:


I am guessing that you misunderstood Mr/ Bunn's intent. His point was that only hunters pay for conservation(this would include SCI, BTW).

(Maybe the hair trigger on your "defend SCI" knee-jerk reaction went off before you could contemplate what was written? Or maybe you think there are a lot of non-hunting groups paying for conservation?)

No mate I knew what Alan meant ... I just thought it was a funny comment, considering other threads about here.

Wish we got the magazine here on the stand!! I reckon the more hunting mags the better too!!

quote:

Nobody else actually pays for conservation

That is not strictly true Alan.

I did some research, and found that SCI has actually spent aproxomately 60,000 on African conservation projects during a few years.

for those who don't know the African Expedition Magazine is an E magazine. so you get it on your computer with no wait for the postman

Edit.
Please delete

Saeed,

Thanks for the clarification!

Wow, $60,000 is more than HALF of what they pay one of their big dogs to work 20 hours a week.

I'm sure the rank and file members would approve of this use of their money in such an expansive manner to support conservation.

BTW, this issue has articles written by two AR members, and concerning another one.

The first one is from ddrhook about his safari in Uganda with Shakari Robinson. Not much information forthcoming about big game hunting in Uganda, so this was a very good story to read. One hell of a big scrum cap buffalo too!

Also, Terry Blauwkamp wrote an excellent article about reloading the classic metric caliber: 8x57 Mauser.

Makes me wonder why SCI dropped Terry's reloading column from Safari Times? Since he was a former chapter president and on the finance committee, I assume it was not a good idea to ask too many questions about where the money goes.

If you want to see our back issues, go to the link below and click on any of the cover photos. The link will take you directly into the the page turning mode.

Also, there is an icon in the upper left to blow it up to full screen, which is really the best way to enjoy the photography and makes it easier to read.

http://www.africanxmag.com/virtualxmag.htm

Thanks Alan!

Great Magazine and I even got a story published a few months back in the rookie writers forum. Many thanks to Alan for giving some of us a chance.

I really enjoyed writing the story about Uganda. I appreciate the opportunity to share the hunt with people who I know appreciate it. If you like it let Alan know and I can add a story about the Greek river area where Bell had his base camp. As far as I can find out Alan is the only one out there who offers this kind of opportunity of new writers to get there stories publisher. It really is the icing on the cake for me to be able to share what I was able to do THANKS to Steve and Susan. I was the third american to hunt that area since it reopened and I got to meet the second one. That is Lane Easter who some of you will know from his postings here. and if I have not said it before THANK YOU ALAN

Come on guys, I'm no big fan of the good ole boys club but you have to get your crap straight. As the treasurer of our chapter I wrote checks for 30,000 to the Mojave desert conservation project, a project to conserve and restore water sources for game and non game animals and to fight to restore public access to the area... from our our chapter alone in two years. And most chapters in california give money to this project. Not to mention the 190 some odd chapters in the US that HAVE to do some form of consevation project every year.
This is is getting pretty sad and you guys are starting to look ignorant.

Max

Thanks guys for your African safari stories. I will personally edit and print all the stories you want to send. Please do as much spell checking and editing on your end as you can, to make it a little less time consuming for me. If you have someone that would proof read it for you, they will find things that are hard for you, as the writer, to see. Barring that, reading it out loud can help find sentences that don't make good sense, or just don't communicate what you are trying to say.

Rookie Writers link



@maxart: Bravo for your chapter in helping conservation projects in your area. The local chapters do a lot of good work and are an asset to us all. Saeed's point was that it seems only $60K was spent on helping conservation efforts in Africa. If you have information that they have spent more than that, please share it with us.

I am not against SCI, in fact I am a life member. My complaint is that SCI could have stopped Out of Africa a long time ago, but didn't despite the fact OoA was ripping off and extorting money from rank and file members, conducting illegal hunts on confiscated farms in Zimbabwe, shooting lions at night on Parks property and a host of other crimes.

All of this was long before OoA was busted for smuggling leopards and poaching rhinos. All complaints to the ethics committee were apparently quashed. In addition, when the chairman of the ethics committee is also the lawyer of the outfit being accused, it just doesn't look good that NOTHING was ever done to address the problems.

Now, we see that Out of Africa is one of the major poaching syndicates destroying the rhino populations. This whole thing has erupted and blackened the reputation of SCI. It doesn't matter how many secret meetings they have to try to protect their friends, they have no one but themselves to blame for this public relations disaster.

sorry Alan, missed the distinction.
I understand how you feel about ooa situation and SCI, I to am sick of the pecking orderand the people that are running SCI as "THIER" club. But the constant attack on SCI at every appointment makes us,the hard working members of the oganization, the one who are really fighting for the rights of hunters, feel like we are getting sh!t on by not only the guys running the club but by you guys too in the hunting comunity.
Again my apologies for the missed distinction .

Max

Maxart,

No need to apologize. I completely understand your position. Most of the people in Safari Club are appalled that their leaders in the upper echelons seem to be constantly in the news for game violations, such as shooting wildlife from helicopters and openly violating the game laws of foreign countries.

Now, we see that there might have been a cover-up at the highest levels of the organization to protect an international animal products smuggling operation. I cannot imagine why an organization that claims it exists to protect hunter's rights and promote conservation would tolerate such open criminals for one second. Yet, for years the Out of Africa gang was not only protected, but heavily promoted at the annual convention in Reno.

There has been some speculation that it was only because of the amount of money brought in from the OoA donations. It is hard to see how any safari operator could give away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hunts away, unless they were indeed a money laundering front for the South African mafia, as I was told by Zimbabwean wildlife officials.

However, when you start following the trail of events, you find other safari operators involved in a multitude of criminal activities, and you start to wonder is a much larger story unfolding?

In any event, I am under no illusion that anything I say or do will make any difference in bringing down these organized crime syndicates, or will save the life of a single rhinoceros. The only consolation I have is I may be able to post the story when they get themselves caught by their own actions of arrogance, greed, and stupidity.

I wish you all the best, and hope you have great success in protecting and sustaining the great Mojave Desert for future generations. Even though it is not African related, if you have a press release that can be linked to online, please send it to me and I will send it out to all my followers and friends on Facebook and Twitter. This could potentially reach 7-8000 hunters and many outdoors media people. It might not result in any contributions, but it would get your message out to a lot of folks that care about your struggle.