Guest guest Posted August 26, 2007 Report Share Posted August 26, 2007 Link: http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/001719.html August 15, 2006 Barun Mitra: Sell the Tiger to Save It *Lynne Kiesling* I heartily recommend Barun Mitra's op-ed column in today's New York Times<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/opinion/15mitra.html?ex=1156305600 & en=e5\ 94faba223d8ea4 & ei=5070 & emc=eta1>on the importance of property rights in the conservation of the tiger: Yet for the last 30 or so years, the tiger has been priced at zero, while millions of dollars have been spent to protect it and prohibit trade that might in fact help save the species. Despite the growing environmental bureaucracy and budgets, and despite the proliferation of conservationists and conferences, the tiger is as close to extinction as it has been since Project Tiger, a conservation project backed in part by the World Wildlife Fund, was launched in 1972 and adopted by the government of India a year later. If we truly value the tiger, this crisis presents an opportunity to help it buy its way out of the extinction it now faces. The tiger breeds easily, even in captivity; zoos in India are constantly told by the Central Zoo Authority not to breed tigers because they are expensive to maintain. In China, which has about 4,000 tigers in captivity, breeding has been perfected. According to senior officials I met in China, given a free hand, the country could produce 100,000 tigers in the next 10 to 15 years. Yes, precisely. Instead of pricing the tiger at zero and creating a profit opportunity for poachers, why not enable the business of tiger farming? That's what kept the bison from going extinct in the 19th century. Defining property rights over resources that have value, including wildlife, increases the likelihood that they will avoid extinction due to poaching. Another great resource on tigers is Michael 't Sas-Rolfes' PERC Policy Series analysis from 1998 <http://www.perc.org/perc.php?id=638>. His thorough analysis includes references to a lot of valuable field experts, including Mitra. Don Boudreaux's take on the article<http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2006/08/roaring_applaus.html>is much the same as mine; no surprise, there. Posted by lkiesling at August 15, 2006 8:58 PM | TrackBack<http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view & entry_id\ =1719> Comments Great op-ed -- the bit on wildlife-management as a revenue source for villagers in Zimbabwe especially caught my eye. -- Fight captive Jumbo abuse, end Elephant Polo http://www.stopelephantpolo.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 26, 2007 Report Share Posted August 26, 2007 The magnitude of factual misrepresentations in this posting was truly astonishing. Let me point out some of them-- >Link: http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/001719.html >August 15, 2006 Barun Mitra: Sell the Tiger to Save It >*Lynne Kiesling* >If we truly value the tiger, this crisis presents an opportunity to help it >buy its way out of the extinction it now faces. The tiger breeds easily, >even in captivity This is correct. For this reason, tigers have never been scarce in captivity, let alone endangered. The U.S. has actually had a surplus of tigers in captivity for 30 years, as India and several other nations do now. Tiger endangerment is entirely in the wild, always was, and the issue is wholly a matter of whether tigers will continue to survive in the wild. Raising more tigers in captivity does not address that issue. >Instead of pricing the tiger at zero and creating a profit >opportunity for poachers, why not enable the business of tiger farming? >That's what kept the bison from going extinct in the 19th century. Bison were rescued and raised by the Bronx Zoo and several Native American tribes. Commercial bison ranching did not begin in the U.S. until after more than 40 years of rebuilding captive herds by these nonprofit entities, and did not become economically significant until more than 30 years after that. In short, breeding bison for profit did not become a major factor is rebuilding bison populations until more than 70 years after bison were rescued from extinction. >Great op-ed -- the bit on wildlife-management as a revenue source for >villagers in Zimbabwe especially caught my eye. Zimbabwe has experienced a 59% loss of wildlife nationwide since 2000, according to Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force chair Johnny Rodrigues, including a loss of 83% from conservancies and 91% from game farms. The land invasions promoted by the Robert Mugabe regime are the immediate cause. The longterm causes include the insidious role of the very heavily U.S.-subsidized CAMPFIRE program, which free marketers frequently and misleadingly present as an example of success. CAMPFIRE, the Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources, began receiving funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1989. Receiving close to $40 million from USAid, cumulatively, CAMPFIRE raised about $2.5 million per year in revenue during the next 15 years, mostly from trophy hunts, and functioned as a slush fund for paying off well-placed members of the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front, Mugabe's revolutionary army turned political party, ZANU-PF for short. The Zimbabwe Standard, eventually closed by the Mugabe regime, extensively exposed the use of CAMPFIRE as cover for land seizures and related thuggery, including arsons, beatings, and kidnappings, as villagers were forced to turned their cultivated property over to CAMPFIRE hunting operations. When there was no longer enough CAMPFIRE money to keep all of Mugabe's violent supporters on the payroll, Mugabe authorized the land invasions to pacify them and maintain power. From an economic perspective, the most obvious aspect of CAMPFIRE is that it never even remotely resembled " free market " activity. From the beginning, it was exactly the sort of government-subsidized boondoggle that free marketers supposedly most detest. Free enterprise has actually had a far greater role in wildlife conservation in Kenya--which does not allow sport hunting, but has allowed countless entrepreneurs to develop businesses based around opportunities to view wild animals who are relatively easily seen, having never been shot at. -- Merritt Clifton Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE P.O. Box 960 Clinton, WA 98236 Telephone: 360-579-2505 Fax: 360-579-2575 E-mail: anmlpepl Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org [ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations. We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year; for free sample, send address.] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 1, 2007 Report Share Posted September 1, 2007 It is like raising Children to sell them as bonded labour or selling their Kidneys or other body parts. Sandeep On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 AZAM SIDDIQUI wrote : >Link: http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/001719.html >August 15, 2006 Barun Mitra: Sell the Tiger to Save It > >*Lynne Kiesling* > >I heartily recommend Barun Mitra's op-ed column in today's New York >Times<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/opinion/15mitra.html?ex=1156305600 & en=e\ 594faba223d8ea4 & ei=5070 & emc=eta1>on >the importance of property rights in the conservation of the tiger: > >Yet for the last 30 or so years, the tiger has been priced at zero, while >millions of dollars have been spent to protect it and prohibit trade that >might in fact help save the species. Despite the growing environmental >bureaucracy and budgets, and despite the proliferation of conservationists >and conferences, the tiger is as close to extinction as it has been since >Project Tiger, a conservation project backed in part by the World Wildlife >Fund, was launched in 1972 and adopted by the government of India a year >later. > >If we truly value the tiger, this crisis presents an opportunity to help it >buy its way out of the extinction it now faces. The tiger breeds easily, >even in captivity; zoos in India are constantly told by the Central Zoo >Authority not to breed tigers because they are expensive to maintain. In >China, which has about 4,000 tigers in captivity, breeding has been >perfected. According to senior officials I met in China, given a free hand, >the country could produce 100,000 tigers in the next 10 to 15 years. > >Yes, precisely. Instead of pricing the tiger at zero and creating a profit >opportunity for poachers, why not enable the business of tiger farming? >That's what kept the bison from going extinct in the 19th century. Defining >property rights over resources that have value, including wildlife, >increases the likelihood that they will avoid extinction due to poaching. > >Another great resource on tigers is Michael 't Sas-Rolfes' PERC Policy >Series analysis from 1998 <http://www.perc.org/perc.php?id=638>. His >thorough analysis includes references to a lot of valuable field experts, >including Mitra. > >Don Boudreaux's take on the >article<http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2006/08/roaring_applaus.html>is >much the same as mine; no surprise, there. > Posted by lkiesling at August 15, 2006 8:58 PM | >TrackBack<http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi?__mode=view & entry_i\ d=1719> > Comments > >Great op-ed -- the bit on wildlife-management as a revenue source for >villagers in Zimbabwe especially caught my eye. > > >-- >Fight captive Jumbo abuse, end Elephant Polo > http://www.stopelephantpolo.com > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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