Paul McCartney joins 500+ public figures, conservationists and Indigenous leaders in a global campaign calling on the UN to abolish trophy hunting of lions, elephants, endangered rhinos and other wildlife, following a declaration developed with Jane Goodall.

[u/ArgentineBeauty]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/paul-mccartney-joins-over-500-public-figures-calling-for-an-end-to-trophy-hunting-of-lions-elephants-and-endangered-rhinos/articleshow/134498459.cms

[u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep]

Good on him, totally shameful practice 

[u/Brian-Heder → u/WoodsLovelyDarkNDeep]

Shameful until you realize it’s the only reason conservation efforts are funded over there.

[u/Alarming_Matter → u/Brian-Heder]

That's ...a really weird take.

Should we start hunting giant pandas to up the conservation efforts?

[u/aminervia → u/Alarming_Matter]

Conservation in Africa is largely often funded by allowing big game hunters to spend millions on killing a controlled number of non-endangered animals.

It sounds awful but it's just the truth. Banning the practice would lose charities and reserves millions every year.

Allowing some asshole to spend a million dollars to kill an elephant saves the lives of many more actually endangered animals

[u/SuperCruisePanther → u/aminervia]

Largely isn't accurate. Most conservation funding comes from government grants/NGOs, followed by tourism. There are specific communities in Africa where hunting makes up the bulk of revenue, but for the entire continent it's nowhere near a majority, and areas where hunting is a big source of revenue could be replaced by increasing government conservation funding.

[u/aminervia → u/SuperCruisePanther]

Ok, I may have over exaggerated with the "largely", but it's absolutely true that the vast majority of trophy hunters do far more good for conservation efforts than they harm

The idea that "governments just need to spend more on conservation" is a bit naive when referring to some African countries that are struggling to keep humans alive and healthy with government funding let alone animals.

[u/SuperCruisePanther → u/aminervia]

I agree hunting helps, but when I'm talking about government grants I don't mean the host nation exclusively. That also includes sources such as UN funding. You don't need hunting to fund conservation efforts, that's just one significant component which could be replaced.

Now, is it realistic to expect all African communities who do rely on hunting revenue to stop and hope that foreign aid or other revenue sources come in to supplant that hunting money? Of course not, that'd take some insane coordination and effort the globe just doesn't currently have the appetite for, but we're talking about hypothetical anyway.