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Anyone who works in the conservation sphere in Africa has at some time been asked what they think of trophy hunting. As a rule, I try & duck the issue point out that my opinion was a white European has little relevance to a debate that should be driven by local voices. 1/7
I am, however, a scientist & will support my collegues when they are attacked for bringing scientific evidence to inform debate: what has happened to @AmyDickman4 this last week has been an atrocious abuse by people who ostensibly have the same goals https://twitter.com/AmyDickman4/status/1285331920231038976. 2/7
There is strong evidence to support the assertion that habitat loss is driving much of the conservation crisis (eg fig from https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12258) & much natural habitat is currently protected for trophy hunting. This unambiguously contributes to conservation. 3/7
To me the question is what happens next: trophy hunting is in rapid decline even without bans https://twitter.com/TZBirder/status/938621980802207746. If one wants to protect these habitats (& to my mind that is a decision local people should take, not me) the time to provide alternatives is now. 4/7
I think conservation has become too conservative: what we are doing now is not working. Too much is simply slowing declines, hoping that at some time in the future we can turn them around. There is a legitimate argument about buying time, but we need new long-term solutions. 5/7
Personally, I acknowledge trophy hunting's past & current role but don't think it's a long-term conservation solution. And I think anyone who cares about conservation should spend their $$$ & energy helping to find long-term solutions rather than fighting a dying industry. 6/7
Those fixes can't simply be more of we're doing now, because they aren't working (& I'm fed up of explaining why tourism doesn't work everywhere!). But particularly, no-one should expend energy abusing people who are also working to find those same long-term solutions. 7/7
