Reports that an American hunter paid $400,000 for a permit to hunt a black rhino in Namibia sent social media and anti-hunting activists screeching with outrage. Yet he was doing exactly the right thing for preservation of endangered species. Revenue from trophy-hunting is indispensable to wildlife conservation in Southern Africa. Sentimental and ill-informed efforts to ban imports of legally-obtained lion, rhino and elephant trophies undercut successful programs in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana that provide incentives for local communities to protect wildlife resources. Namibia’s market-based wildlife conservation program is recognized as Africa’s greatest conservation success. During a recent trip, my wife and I visited these community-based wildlife conservancies and talked to leaders of anti-poaching efforts. The Namibian program was started shortly after the country became independent from South Africa in 1994. The initial impetus for Namibia’s program came even before independence, when Garth Owen-Smith started working with tribal to find ways to make wildlife conservation in the practical interest of their communities. The solution worked out in Namibia started with devolution of property rights in wildlife and other resources to the communities in which they were located. Then a governance structure for the conservancies that would be vested with those rights was developed. The conservancies were run by members of the community, and they were aided in monetizing the value of their resources through tourism, hunting and other concessions. ... Read More