Griffith University tells us, “While tourism has traditionally relied on the environment, today it is increasingly contributing to environmental conservation.” Hunters are already miles ahead on that score.
International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations will discuss how tourism must take more responsibility for the environment, instead of simply taking advantage of it.
We wonder if they’ll discuss what a perfect model hunting is.
Hunters on foot have a virtually zero ‘footprint’ on the environments they move through. They use far fewer resources than the hordes of camera-toting tourists in the world’s game parks.
At the same time, they provide invaluable service to the environment where they help control populations of both game and feral animals.
“Minimising negative impacts is absolutely critical and starts with taking responsibility for the environmental impacts of tourism,” Griffith University’s Professor of Sustainable Tourism, Susanne Becken, says as she prepares to attend the conference.
In 2009 Griffith University’s Director and Chair of the International Centre for Ecotourism Research, Professor Ralf Buckley, told a NSW Government inquiry, “If the parks agency decided to run a particular program of feral animal control in which it invited appropriately pre-qualified private hunters to join it, I do not see that that would be a problem.”
Hunters were the modern world’s first conservationists, and even earlier than that it was hunters who pioneered game management, sowing the seeds for wildlife management today.
Hunters have been and continue to be among the environmentally friendly tourists the world has known. In comparison with today’s dedicated, responsible hunter, it is unlikely any other kind of ‘tourist’ has such a miniscule negative impact on the environment while producing such positive outcomes worldwide against invasive species and the over-population of native animals. Tourism is just one industry that could learn from what we do.
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