From the Editor
T
he US Department of the Interior, which includes
among its mandates the enforcement of the
Endangered Species Act is moving ahead with a ban
on the commercial trade in ivory, as “part of an overall effort
to combat poaching”. No one is going to argue that elephant
and rhinoceros poaching and the subsequent trafficking in
ivory and horn aren’t a major threat to the survival of the
species concerned and a source of illicit finance for corrupt
governments and international terrorist organisations. But
a number of questions emerge, including the legitimacy of
the United States’ role as the world’s policeman and just
how effective such draconian measures will actually be at
reducing trafficking in ivory and rhino horn. In other words,
what works and what doesn’t?
Richard Epstein, in Defining Ideas, the journal of Stanford
University’s Hoover Institution, discusses the shortcomings
of such a ban and the inevitable attendant intrusion on basic
human freedoms in a very well-thought out essay entitled
“The Wrong Way to Combat Poaching”, and if you haven’t
read it, then stop whatever you’re doing and go to http://www.
hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/171651.
On a somewhat less academic, but no less worthy note,
Soldier of Fortune magazine’s flamboyant editor Robert K
Brown argues in his February editorial for the use of private
military companies to combat poaching “Instead of passing
feel-good resolutions and holding press conferences, the US
and other like-minded countries need to institute a program
to snatch poachers. Recruit former private contractors and
special operations personnel, or, better yet, former Executive
Outcomes personnel. After a command and control structure
is in place and the anti-poachers are trained, turn them loose.
Pay a bounty for every poacher that’s brought in tied to the
top of their ATVs.” It’s not a new idea. An NGO in Garamba
National Park in the Congo once caused much scandal after
soliciting a quote from Saracen International to secure the
Park. Of course such an initiative assumes that the respective
countries’ governments aren’t the ones orchestrating the
poaching and trafficking, but it would be probably the most
sensible and efficient way to solve the problem. Especially
if there is a direct link between the cartels and organisations
like al-Shabbab or al-Qaeda. And let’s not forget, of course,
that the more sport hunters we have on the ground, and the
bigger the presence of the safari outfitters, the more on-sides
the local populations will be with conservation and the less
room there will be for poaching gangs to move around in.
And speaking of Big Brother, I’ve been watching with interest
the recent confrontations between the citizenry in various
western US states and the Bureau of Land Management over
access to federal land. I am the first to agree that if fragile
ecosystems or petroglyphs or something of that nature might
be at risk, there has to be some regulation and access control,
but I don’t believe it should necessarily be federal and I do
believe that the states need to assert more control. Senator
Harry Reid’s “domestic terrorists” gaffe is all too indicative
of insidiously increasing federal oversight. Those of you
with long memories will recall that Reid rose to his level
of incompetence in the early ‘70s as the lieutenant governor
of Nevada, where mercifully Governor Mike O’Callaghan
kept him on a short leash. Why would he make a foolish
comment like that in the first place? Simple. He’s only up
for re-election in 2016, and in the time-honoured way of the
politician he’s confident that it will be long forgotten by then.
I reflect on this because I live in a country where everything
belongs to the state and it is not a good thing.
In a recent edition of South Africa’s excellent Magnum
magazine, Gregor Woods offered some thoughtful insight
into choice of guns for use on charging cats. It brought to
mind Peter Hathaway Capstick’s tales of linoleum floortiled leather jackets (which in turn brought to mind Peter
Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau for some reason) and shotguns,
and it contained a lot of good sense on an undying topic. I
have never been charged by a leopard or a lion, but an A10
Warthog would probably be nice to have. Unfortunately,
Magnum isn’t available online but the magazine is well
worth subscribing to for its well-written and varied content.
Interestingly, since we have launched our electronic versions
of African Hunter and African Fisherman, the feedback from
subscribers has been that they far prefer the good ol’ hard
copy anyway.
The advent of e-books is something that I’ve been interested
in for some time now. The concept is undoubtedly a force
to be reckoned with, not to mention an extremely efficient
medium for the 21st century. And then, on my bookshelf at
home is an 1878 first edition of Henry Stanley’s Through the
Dark Continent. I