The Big I in SCI

This week, I was a hunter in London and New York City.? What can you hunt there?? Nothing as it turns out.? You don’t have to be hunting to be a hunter, though.? Whether I’m in a blind or in a multilateral, multinational meeting, I’m a hunter through and through.? Just like everybody at Safari Club International.?

In every meeting, SCI’s International Government & Public Affairs team has the honor of representing the most engaged and active hunters in the world.? This is a privilege we don’t take lightly.? For all my friends whose furthest travel this month was to their favorite dove field, I’m spending time in NYC and London so that you don’t have to.? You’re welcome!? But seriously, ensuring a bright future for hunting requires that hunters be present at high-level conservation discussions wherever they are taking place.

Maybe it was visiting the Big Apple and the London Eye, but following my trip, I was struck by how the “Big I” in SCI truly sets SCI apart in its efforts to protect the freedom to hunt and wildlife conservation worldwide.?

Hunting is under attack.? A major contributing factor is that politicians in world capitals, places which are decidedly detached from nature, make decisions for the people who live in rural places.? SCI recognizes the interconnectedness of the conservation conversation and its inherent international nature.? That’s what I mean by the “Big I.”

The meetings that took place in London and New York City are great examples.? In London, I represented SCI at WORLD FORUM ON SHOOTING ACTIVITIES (WFSA).? SCI is a member of WFSA, an association of hunting, shooting, and industry organizations representing over one hundred million sport shooters around the world. The purpose of the WFSA is to promote fact and science-based solutions to issues related to firearms possession and use.

WFSA provides an exceptional venue for information exchange between our partners.? This meeting focused heavily on battles over the use of lead in the USA and Europe, as well as a fascinating deep dive into a recent survey on discrimination against legal travel with firearms.? The productive and informative meeting was thoughtfully hosted by WFSA Chairman and Secretary of the The British Shooting Sports Council (BSSC), Graham Downing.

Once the meetings had concluded I had dinner with a UK journalist who, get this, hunts!? In the most toxic, anti-hunting media environment in the world (one of the most widely read London newspapers, the Guardian, openly supports and endorses the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting) there are a handful of journalists willing to actually look at and share the facts.? This doesn’t make their lives any easier but sometimes doing the right thing can get you past that.? Efforts to present the conservation benefits of hunting have paid off recently in the UK media.? The voices of scientists and local communities have broken through and been covered rather than just the voices of urban Londoners.? These are voices that make clear the irreplaceable role hunting plays in conserving wildlife and habitat.

Early the next morning, I flew to New York City to participate in the UN General Assembly.? The UN General Assembly (#UNGA) is the main policy-making organ of the United Nations.? Made up of member states, it provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the charter.

Many are understandably leery of multinational agreements and organizations like the UN.? But for the countries that we love to visit to hunt, though, forums like UNGA provide rare platforms to promote their messages.? When it comes to sustainable use, local voices are too often ignored especially when they point to the critical role hunting plays in maintaining and enhancing wildlife populations and habitat.??

While in New York, I attended an event hosted by our partners the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF) where I had the opportunity to meet with the President of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi as well as ministers from the Kavango–Zambezi (KAZA) countries -- Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. KAZA is the world’s largest Trans-frontier Conservation Area.? It stretches 106 million acres and is home to 2.7 million people.? KAZA is home to some of the world’s most beloved animal species.? In fact 20% of the world’s lions and 80% of the world’s elephants reside in KAZA.? It is under a great deal of stress that is both environmental (drought, drying of wetlands, increased competition for water resources) and political – much of which can be attributed to policy making in the USA, UK, and EU.?

The issues faced by KAZA will not be solved overnight, and long-term issues require long-term solutions. A bill in the U.S. Congress proposes to establish the U.S. Foundation for International Conservation Act (USFICA or the foundation) that is up to the challenge.? SCI is working with our partners in Washington and Africa towards its passage.? This bipartisan bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) and it has companion legislation currently being drafted in the U.S. House by the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.).

The act would establish a foundation that will facilitate long-term conservation projects leveraging a private and public dollar match.? Enormous sums of private dollars have already been identified and now require public dollars and a framework for identifying and distributing dollars to the projects of need.?

SCI was the first hunting organization to support the act.? We spearheaded a coalition letter of sportsmen’s groups that represents the support of USFICA by millions of hunters and anglers.? The foundation clearly prioritizes buffer zones around national parks.? By securing the most habitat, providing the largest share of operating revenue for wildlife authorities and being the primary source of anti-poaching revenue, hunting in buffer zones is an essential tool for conserving and enhancing the species and habitat we all hold dearly.? You can love wildlife as much as a hunter, but you can’t love it more than a hunter!

My travels and meetings this week have strengthened relationships and improved perspectives.? The dialogue on defending the freedom to hunt continues to deepen, and the political will to pass pro-hunting legislation is growing.? There is plenty more work to do, but for now I’m taking the Amtrak Northeast Line back to my family, listening to the Tom Jones’ The Green, Green Grass of Home and making plans for deer season.? No matter how far I roam, I never lose sight of the hunt.?