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| Targeted by trophy hunters. |
By Natalie Ragan
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has prided itself for more than 40 years on providing humanitarian and economic assistance to countries around the world. While the organization's assistance has helped many people recovering from disasters and supported communities in underdeveloped regions, HSI discovered that USAID also has been directly and indirectly supporting the development of trophy hunting programs in Africa. HSI/The HSUS exposed this misuse of taxpayer money and informed members of the U.S. Congress about our findings. In response, in December 2007, Congress gave final approval in its omnibus appropriations bill to committee report language stating, “The Committee directs USAID to provide no funds to programs that support or promote recreational, sport, or trophy hunting as a conservation tool.”
Who's Involved
HSI/The HSUS identified five USAID programs that have been promoting trophy hunting as income-generating schemes. USAID-funded programs in Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania, and the Central African Congo Basin acquire revenue through attracting foreign trophy hunters who kill animals, including some threatened with extinction and protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). For instance, some of the programs target African elephants and leopards, which are both classified as threatened under the ESA. Lions and hippos are also targets of trophy hunters in the programs and are both classified as vulnerable by the IUCN-World Conservation Union (a category of threat meaning “high risk of extinction in the wild”).
In Kenya, USAID funding has been used to lobby for changes to a 1977 law that banned sport hunting. In Uganda also, USAID funding was used to lobby for changes to a 1979 law banning sport hunting and, as a result, a “pilot” trophy hunting program began in 2000 that now includes leopards.
Promoting "Non-Consumptive" Use
The HSUS/HSI supports wildlife-based programs that promote tourism and other non-consumptive uses of wildlife and does not support the use of taxpayer dollars to promote trophy hunting. It’s particularly outrageous for U.S. tax dollars to be used for lobbying to overturn laws in other countries where the people have decided to prohibit sport hunting.
While the report language does not ban funding for programs promoting trophy hunting, it does direct USAID to steer away from funding these programs—an outcome that we hope will preserve the lives of many wild animals.
