Commercialization of Wildlife: A Value-Added Incentive for Conservation

Abstract

The debate about commercialization of deer and other wildlife by hunting or captive rearing is confused with the unrelated history of market hunting during the 1800s and undermined by false presumptions and fears about wildlife and public lands being taken over by private interests. Opponents underestimate the private role in landscape and wildlife management and the control that landowners have on wildlife populations and recreational hunting. Assertions are incorrect that harvested animals and sport hunting are not integral to the success of wildlife conservation. Fallacious arguments about hunting may have entered the commercialization issue into an antihunting debate. The issue should not be whether the public or private sectors should benefit from wildlife, but rather how providing wildlife values to landowners can increase their stewardship. I argue that it is right and proper that private individuals should be entitled to manage and benefit from wildlife and recreation on their properties. It is pragmatic for governments to enable landowners to do so in conjunction with rules established and enforced on behalf of all the people. Public wildlife ownership and management have been imposed upon the private sector even though land is controlled privately on which wildlife are maintained and where recreationists seek access. Private lands (which encompass 66% of the United States) will continually grow in value to sustain biotic diversity, wildlife populations, and to provide recreation. To deny landowners a role in the management of their own lands is a mistake. Pressures are mounting for private landowners to account for costs and benefits and to operate effectively. Wildlife must be treated as a benefit, because as a cost, wildlife will be treated negatively either directly or indirectly. Lands not economically competitive for wildlife enterprises will likely be put to agricultural, industrial, or residential uses that diminish natural environmental values.