Conservation Hunting

Conservation hunting holds promise for improving the conditions of rural communities, wildlife and habitat. This is the report of an international conference titled People, Wildlife and Hunting: Emerging Conservation Paradigms that was held in Edmonton, Alberta in October 2004. The conference brought together people sharing a common involvement or interest in conservation hunting, an outgrowth of recreational hunting, that recognizes the significant contribution that hunting can make to social and ecological well being. This report focuses attention more particularly (but not exclusively) upon community-based conservation-hunting programs operating in the Canadian North. Conference participants included hunters, outfitters, community representatives, wildlife managers, researchers and conservationists from across Canada and from overseas. The goal of the conference was to explore the relationship linking trophy hunting, wildlife conservation, and community sustainability in rural areas. Recognizing the importance of hunting to large-mammal management and to community economies in many rural areas of Canada, and especially in the Canadian North, the Canadian Circumpolar Institute (CCI) and the Alberta cooperative Conservation Research Unit (ACCRU) at the University of Alberta organized the People, Wildlife and Hunting Conference to foster greater awareness and understanding of this useful conservation tool. Papers by: William A. Wall; Peter J. Ewins; James Pokiak; Sulvia Birkholz, Naomi Krogman, Marty Luckert and Kelly Semple; Jon Hutton; George W. Wenzel and Martha Dowsley; H. Dean Cuff and Ernie Campbell; Frank Pokiak; Kai Wollscheid; Lee Foote; Graham Van Tighem, Thomas S. Jung and Michelle Oakley; Drikus Gissing; Marco Festa-Bianchet; and Barney Smith and Harvey Jessup.