The following is a letter from Dr Grahame Webb asking forhelp. Please read.
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Dear Members - we need your help
PLEASE REFER TO THE FOLLOWING LETTER FROM DR WEBB FORINSTRUCTIONS ON HOWYOU CAN HELP.
Dear Friends,
I'm often been called upon to support sustainable use issuesaround theworld that are demonstrably worthy of support. Now I needsupport, from asmany informed people interested in sustainable use as we canpossiblymuster.
I'm in the middle of a dilemma here in the NorthernTerritory. We have aremarkably successful crocodile conservation and managementprogram, basedon SU, which has seen the wild population fully recoveredand "tolerated" bythe local people they eat from time to time. All because ofSU and thebenefits it provides. Landowners can get permits to collecteggs and to culla composite total of up to 600 animals per year (1% ofpopulation) for sale.CITES approval was gained in 1994, specifically so we had nobarrier tointroducing safari hunting.
The NT Government now wants to allocate 25 of these 600animals to safarihunting but the Federal Government needs to approve it. Itis NOT aconservation issue it is a matter of principle - the FederalGovernment hasannounced that they are "OPPOSED TO HUNTING FOR PLEASURE".
That 30% of people in the NT are Aboriginals, who take greatpleasure inhunting, and who stand to gain from this, has quietly beenignored inCanberra, 4000 km south. But Humane Society International(funded by HSUS)is getting all their members (national and international) towrite to theMinister.
The NT contains 200,000 people in the far north - the other19 millionAustralians are mostly in the south, where the politics isdriven from thecities at the expense of our primary producers and ruralpeople. In thiscase the NT has implemented a world class program forconserving crocodilesover the last 30 years and we need to keep adapting it - notchange it tomeet the perceptions of animal rights extremists.
The article below summarises the issue as I see it.
Seek as much support as possible
1. The NT's management program can be found on:
http://www.nt.gov.au/ipe/pwcnt/index.cf ... ge_id=5172
2. The draft declaration by the Federal Minister is on:
http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/gaze ... -croc.html
3. Support for the Minister to APPROVE SAFARI HUNTING in theNT needs to besent to:The Hon. David Kemp,Minister for the Environment,Parliament House, Canberra. ACTAustraliaD.Kemp.MP@aph.gov.au.
4. Copies should be sent to myself and
The Northern Territory' Minister's:Dr. Chris BurnsMinister for Parks and Wildlife,Parliament House, Darwin, NT.Australiachris.burns@nt.gov.au
COMMERCIAL HUNTING OF CROCODILES IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY
Grahame J.W. WebbDirector, Wildlife Management International Pty. Limited.PO Box 530, SANDERSON, NT 0813Australia.Tel: 61.8.89224500gwebb@wmi.com.au
(14th January 2004)
The Northern Territory's conservation and management programfor Saltwatercrocodiles is internationally renowned as a model ofadaptive management andsustainable use. It seeks and values pragmatic conservationoutcomes,especially by local people living with wildlife, and it hasa track-recordof success. It has left behind much of the philosophicalbaggage underlyingurban conservation. The NT is the only Government inAustralia that has a"conservation through sustainable use" strategy. The NT isalso the onlyState in which 30% of the population are Aboriginal people,many of whomstill live a traditional lifestyle. Hunting and gatheringare the mostwidespread forms of land use in the NT.
The NT's conservation program for saltwater crocodiles iscompletelyconsistent with the "sustainable use" aims of the Conventionon BiologicalDiversity. It is a textbook case of compliance with thepolicy onconservation through sustainable use adopted by the WorldConservation Union(IUCN) - which has over 700 international conservation NGO'sas members -and with the Convention on International Trade in EndangeredSpecies of WildFauna and Flora (CITES), which has 165 member countries.
In 1994 the Parties to CITES voted unanimously for theAustralian FederalGovernment proposal to allow commercial hunting ofcrocodiles in the NT.Specifically so that landowners - Aboriginal andnon-Aboriginal - couldincrease the commercial benefits they receive from theconserving crocodileson their lands. Removing a previous barrier that existed tosafari huntingwas an explicitly stated goal. But the Federal Governmenthas changed itsmind. It is now opposed to safari hunting.
Hunting and conservation seem diametrically opposed goals tosome people,and a number of "non-profit" animal rights organisationswith their snoutsfirmly stuck in the conservation money trough, aredetermined to keep itthat way. After all, the trough is continually refilled bydollars from thepublic simply because the public loves wildlife - just likeall hunters.They are told that supporting the animal rights religion isthe only optionfor saving wildlife. Complete bunkum, but it clearly worksfinancially andpolitically!
The crocodile case history does not rest easily with suchgroups. Crocodilesare not Magpies that create a problem for Canberra citizensby diving onthose who walk close to nests. Nor are they foxes, dingoesor feral catsthat eat the odd chicken or lamb and are hunted with a viewto making themextinct. Nor are they kangaroos and emus which eat wheat andtrample fenceson farm land, and get culled from time to time for doing so.Neither arethey the native ducks in the Australian States which bannedduck hunting toplacate animal rights extremists. The States in which ducksnow feed on anddestroy rice crops, and where they are poisoned, trapped andshot as pestswithout regard to breeding seasons or anything else. TheStates in whichwetlands kept historically for ducks are now going over torice and otherirrigated agriculture. The ground rules we set for creatingand managing"pest species" are well established.
Crocodiles are large and dangerous predators, that make someother "pests"pale into insignificance. They eat wildlife and domesticstock, and if giventhe opportunity, eat farmers' dogs, children and the farmersthemselves. Ifthey lived in Lake Burley Griffin (in Canberra), the YarraRiver (Melbourne)or the Hawkesbury River (Sydney), calls to conserve andrebuild the wildpopulations would be ignored. What an outrageous concept!Yet this is what the NT did and did successfully. The wildcrocodilepopulation was on the brink of extinction in 1971, and isnow some 60,000 to70,000 strong - completely rebuilt. Crocodiles are spreadthrough everyriver, creek and swamp in the Top End of the NT. and theNT's conservationprogram wins the balance of local public support. Aremarkable achievementin the eyes of the world, who struggle againstinsurmountable barriers whenthey try to conserve large predators.
It was only possible in the NT through deliberately makingcrocodilesoutside of national parks a commercially valuable resourceto the people andeconomy. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal landowners are paidfor the eggs ontheir lands, and they get permits to hunt and sell <600crocodiles per year.It is totally sustainable and provides cash incentives toretain the wetlandthat crocodiles live and nest in.
NT landowners are able to sell their rights to harvestcrocodiles or eggs tothe highest bidder, and this sometimes comes frominterstate. Free tradebetween States is a Constitutional right in Australia. Theyorganise safaristo the NT to harvest the eggs and hunt the crocodiles, takethe skins andmeat back with them, and sell it nationally andinternationally. If theywant, they can have the odd large head mounted on the wallas a memento.This is all occurring now under the NT's management programapproved by theFederal Government.
But landowners in the NT usually get a modest reward -$100-150/croc takenand $5-10 per egg - when they sell their right to hunt toothers. OurFederal Government went to CITES in 1994 specificallyclaiming that thereturns to landowners needed to be increased to consolidatethe financialbenefits and incentives to conserve. If the landowners couldget $2000 to$5000 per crocodile taken legally from their lands, soconservation would beconsolidated. This was the Federal Government's claim. Theone groupprepared to pay big dollars to hunt crocodiles in the NTwere overseasrecreational hunters, and the Federal Government wanted anybarriers tosafari hunting under CITES removed. Support from the Partiesto CITES wasunanimous. Who could argue against such logic. Well S theAustralian FederalGovernment has changed their mind and is clearly doing that.
The NT is responsible for management of wildlife within theNT, but toexport skins of a CITES listed species, their managementprogram must beapproved by the Federal Government. Overseas recreationalhunters need to beable to export their trophies to display them, and boast totheir friendsand colleagues about their unique hunting experience in thetrue wildernessareas of the NT's Top End. NT. The Federal Governmentapproves the export of10,000+ crocodile skins each year, including those huntedcommercially inthe NT by interstate interests, but is no longer having abar of safarihunting.
The Federal Government has the NT's latest managementprogram, which seeksto allocate 25 of the 600 animals to be harvested, torecreational hunters.The Minister has issued a draft decision refusing to givethat approval ifany animals are taken by recreational hunters - the finaldecision is yet tobe made. Hardly a conservation issue in terms of harvestsize, so why wouldthe Federal Government adopt such a bizarre position afterspecificallyseeking approval from CITES to go down this path.
The reason was outlined in a remarkable performance on theAustralia'sChannel 9 "Today Show "(13 January 2004), which rivals therecent antics ofSteve Irwin, another person who lives in the south butprides himself onhaving the answers to Australia's crocodile conservationproblems in thenorth. Minister Kemp's representative (Ian Creswell)announced that theGovernment had a policy opposed to "hunting wildlife forpleasure".
One may well ask how this bit of social engineering came tobe adopted as apolicy by the Australian Government, and how it rests withall the huntersin Australia, including fishermen and duck hunters. ForAboriginal people inthe NT, in particular, hunting is not only a great pleasurebut a necessityfor the maintenance of culture, tradition and sustenance.
But there was more. Creswell pleaded to the people ofAustralia to write tothe Minister about their views on the NT allowing commercialsafari huntingof Australia's crocodiles. You don't need to be a rocketscientist tointerpret this as a direct request to urban-based animalrights and welfareextremists, to crank up their letter writing campaigns.Flood the Ministerwith form-letters in opposition. So the Minister can atleast claim "publicsupport" for rejecting the NT's request.
By sheer coincidence, Humane Society International, ananimal rights lobbygroup with it's head welded into the money trough justhappening to issue apress statement fully endorsing the Federal Governmentposition, at the sametime Creswell was pleading. HIS is an offshoot of HSUS,supported by themfinancially to lobby their cases in Australia - where theyhave moresuccess. What a sham.
How the NT will play it's cards now remains to be seen. Withthe latestlocal fatality due to crocodiles barely three weeks old, andcalls forculling and the reintroduction of "pest" statusunderstandably mounting, wehave a growing dilemma. There needs to be more incentives tomaintain ourlarge crocodile populations on private lands, but theFederal Government isnot prepared to let us do it.Whether the Federal Government will come to its senses overthis issue, andhelp the NT to maintain its pragmatic conservationleadership seems a remotepossibility, especially with people like Creswell callingthe shots. It willall make an interesting debating point when the world's 300top crocodileconservation and management experts meet in Darwin in twomonths time.
But is Creswell's agenda much bigger than NT crocodiles. Ifit's about therights of Australians to "enjoy" hunting, then it is a thinphilosophicalsliver to cross from crocodiles to wallabies, to ducks andto fish. Perhapsthe NT's problem with crocodiles deserves a great deal moreattention fromAustralia's resource users than Creswell would like to see.Perhapsinternational interests struggling with Australia'sopposition to theirsustainable use programs - regardless of their conservationor scientificmerit - may consider the opportunity to say something hasarisen. ForAboriginal people, seeking to find opportunities foreconomic development ontheir remote traditional lands, the situation is a disaster.One group has asophisticated safari camp built now, and is ready to start.Just whatmessage is the Federal Government sending to them?
The Federal Minister's address is
The Hon. David Kemp,Minister for the Environment,D.Kemp.MP@aph.gov.au.
The Northern Territory' Minister's Address is:Dr. Chris BurnsMinister for Parks and Wildlifechris.burns@nt.gov.au
Grahame J.W. Webb,Director, Wildlife Management InternationalAdjunct Prof., Key Center for Tropical Wildlife Management,NTUPO Box 530, SANDERSON, NT. 0813. AustraliaTel: 61.8.89224500Fax: 61.8.89470678E-mail: gwebb@wmi.com.auWebsite: http://www.wmi.com.au/
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COMMERCIAL HUNTING OF CROCODILES IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY
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