INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FISH AND WILDLIFE AGENCIES
Wildlife Resources Policy Committee
White Paper
Prepared by:
Joanna Prukop, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish/IAFWA
Ron Regan, Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife
Approved at the IAFW A Business Meeting-Big Sky, Montana, September 21, 2002
The Value of The North American Model of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Please note: The following paper is essentially a synthesis of thoughts and ideas written, voiced, and/or shared by a variety of authors and other wildlife conservation practitioners, including ourselves. Given this approach, references and background literature not specifically cited are listed in the Literature Cited and References section that follows.
At the dawn of a new century, and as the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies commemorates its l00th anniversary, we can proudly credit many successes in fish and wildlife conservation in North America to the efforts of state, provincial, federal, tribal and non-governmental organizations. One need only consider the restoration of white-tailed deer and wild turkeys, or the recovery of bald eagles and peregrine falcons, to conclude that such achievements are truly remarkable and of inestimable value to society. Our successes are rooted in habitat conservation initiatives, partnerships with private landowners, inter-jurisdictional law enforcement, natural history research across the taxonomic spectrum, and the concept of user-based funding.
However, there remain tremendous challenges facing wildlife managers across the continent, including habitat degradation and conversion, educational deficits concerning wildlife values, loss of rural traditions that foster wildlife appreciation, locally overabundant wildlife populations, expanding lists of species at risk, and a paucity of data for many taxa. Not the least of the challenges is the slow, but sure, creep of privatization upon wildlife resources.
Each of these trends strike at the heart of the historic foundations of fish and wildlife conservation on our continent, referred to herein as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. In the United States and Canada, the precepts of wildlife conservation are rooted in a legal history that dates back to Anglo Saxon law and the Magna Carta of 1215, a discussion of which can be found in. Lund (1980), Roth (1993), Tilleman (1995), Bean (1997), and others. In a recent examination of the evolution of wildlife conservation on this continent, Geist et al. (2001), distilled the seven key components of this model as follows:
• Wildlife as Public Trust Resources
• Elimination of Markets for Wildlife Allocation of Wildlife by Law
• Wildlife Can Only be Killed for a Legitimate Purpose Wildlife are Considered an International Resource
• Science is the Proper Tool for Discharge of Wildlife Policy
• Democracy of Hunting
Currently, challenges to these fundamental principles or components come from many directions. For example, the first three components are in danger of being eroded by various actions that have lead to increasing privatization of wildlife. In the past two decades or so, interest in owning wildlife for pets has grown, as has domestication of species for ranching, hunting or agricultural purposes. Wild animals, intentionally or otherwise confined within high fences, are increasingly claimed as private property. Each of these seven principles face legal and philosophical challenges, in some form or other, in today's world. This in turn threatens the due and proper discharge of wildlife obligations by government fish and wildlife agencies and professionals, especially those obligations that stem from public trust doctrines and other legal precedents.
If one further examines the wildlife conservation movement over the course of its development in the I800s and I900s, key strategies of the North American Model can be identified that contributed to its success. Early leaders in the wildlife conservation movement-Roosevelt, Grinnell, Pinchot, Muir, Shelton, C.G. Hewitt and others- recognized a wide range of wildlife values and uses, and were skilled in using collaboration, partnerships, coalition building, broad-minded approaches, professional development, science, political savvy, and persistence to achieve their goals. The numerous players who were instrumental in the development of this model had at the core of their efforts: habitat protection (including the concept of public lands); maintenance of an abundant and diversified wildlife resource; elimination of most commercial uses and strict regulation of those that continued; the traditions and values of hunting, fishing and trapping; public funding mechanisms for wildlife conservation; and a long-term vision-essentially the original wise use doctrine (see Trefethen 1961 and 1975, and Reiger 2001). A common theme, and essential unifying belief, was the concept of democracy of hunting -equal access for all--coupled with the North American pioneer spirit, that could best be evoked and nurtured through the hunting experience once frontiers ceased to exist.
In many ways, not much had changed in the substance of fish and wildlife conservation efforts as we entered the new millennium. The struggles on many fronts are the same as those of our forefathers. Some things however, especially the social aspects of conservation, have become far more complex and challenging. These include: a higher level of and more diverse public expectations, rapidly changing demographics and associated changes in societal and cultural trends, more sophisticated and involved publics, changing perspectives among fish and wildlife professionals (Muth 1998, Organ and Fritzell 2000), and changes to the discipline of fish and wildlife conservation itself (e.g., conservation biology vs. wildlife management) (Muth 1991, Muth et al. 1998).
New and improved strategies that have evolved to go along with these modem challenges include: use of demographic information, human dimensions assessments, public involvement processes, outreach strategies, conflict resolution, media training, leadership training, communication skills, the concept of best management practices (BMPs), and the emerging practice of adaptive impact management (AIM)(Riley et al. 2002). Ultimately, then, comes the question "What else, if anything, is needed to maintain or grow the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation in this new century?"
Based on this review of how we arrived in the 21st century, it appears that additional strategies may be needed and others strengthened. These include:
• Development of new or improved conservation alternatives, with a better understanding of such, their cost and their benefits,
• More effective education and outreach efforts, using more effective marketing approaches and targeting new constituents,
• More effective and widespread use of human dimensions information,
• More effective conflict resolution models, tailored to conservation issues, more skill development in pre-conflict management, to take the lead and be proactive on issues, e.g., overabundant wildlife,
• More effective public involvement and stakeholder participation methods, More effective social and cultural forecasting,
• Better understanding of our changing profession and our organizational cultures,
• Improved organizational management and agency effectiveness, Development of BMPs for more aspects of our work,
• Overall, more effective integration of multiple disciplines in management, more effective evaluation of our efforts,
• Broadening our conservation agenda to reflect a diversity of values, users and their desires,
• More effective strategies for broadening our conservation funding base,
• Diligent work to maintain our hunting, fishing and trapping heritage, and
• More direct approaches for dealing with moral and ethical issues.
Given this overview of the history, values and successes of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and the challenges that affect its future, the IAFWA Wildlife Resources Policy Committee makes the following recommendations:
1. The IAFW A, its members and affiliates remain diligent in their efforts to maintain principal authority and control over all wildlife at the state/provincial/territorial level, except in those areas relegated to federal
wildlife law—primarily inter-jurisdictional commerce, treaties (e.g., migratory birds, anadromous fish), and regulation of public uses on federal lands. This is a fundamental requirement of state/provincial/territorial ownership of wildlife in trust for the benefit of the people-to ensure that all citizens in North America have access to wildlife resources.
2. State, provincial and territorial wildlife agencies remain diligent in meeting their obligations pertaining to importation, possession and use of wildlife. For example, such duties should not be outsourced to other government agencies, like departments of agriculture, for convenience or lack of operational resources. Likewise, these efforts should continue to include law enforcement programs that combat illegal trafficking, market hunting and commercialization of wildlife; as well as, careful attention to allocation of surplus, wildlife by law (not by the market, economics, land ownership or special privilege).
3. The IAFW A, its members and affiliates aggressively engage hunters and anglers, wildlife enthusiasts, other conservationists and the general public about the need to maintain wildlife as a public trust. We should not shy away from the concomitant philosophical, ethical and economic debates in the public arena. The keystone of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation is the principle that wildlife are owned by no one, and are to be held in trust for the benefit of all people by government. [This is particularly important to our efforts to secure an adequate, broader funding base.]
4. The IAFW A, its members and affiliates renew their commitment to using scientific principles to improve resource management practices, going beyond the traditional and including a commitment to improve our scientific work at every opportunity. An important aspect of this will be stronger integration of human dimensions and communications science in our decision-making processes.
5. The IAFW A, its members and affiliates remain diligent in their effort to perpetuate the role of hunting, fishing and trapping in the North American Model of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, using all appropriate strategies to achieve this common goal.
6. The IAFW A, its members and affiliates recognize that integral to maintaining leadership in conserving wildlife resources in North America is the need to make wildlife relevant to a broad spectrum of society. Key to this effort is the additional need to ensure public acceptance of wildlife conservation practices. To this end, more direct approaches for dealing with moral and ethical issues of wildlife management are called for. We, therefore, recommend that the IAFWA, its members and affiliates embrace the task of establishing guidelines or criteria by which our activities can be evaluated such that most of society will be satisfied as to our leadership in the moral, ethical and humane nature of our business—the caveat being, that should any activity violate these premises, leadership must act to modify or eliminate the practice. [An example of such criteria can be found in the Malouf Report concerning seal harvests in Canada (Hamilton et al. 1998).
Literature Cited and References:
The Value of The North American Model of Fish & Wildlife Conservation
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Bennett, Joel. 1998. Can State Regulatory Agencies Resolve Controversial Wildlife Management Issues Involving the Broad General Public? Transactions of the 63rd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. 63:556-562.
Decker, Daniel J., Tommy L. Brown and William F. Siemer. 2001. Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management in North America. The Wildlife Society, Bethesda. Maryland. 464 pp.
Duda,Mark D., Steven J. Bissell and Kira C. Young. 1998. Wildlife and The American Mind: Public Opinion on and Attitudes toward Fish and Wildlife Management. Responsive Management, Harrisonburg, Virginia. 772 pp.
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