African Trophy Hunting and Bushmeat

I will never hunt lion or elephant.  That's just me.  But I remain very interested in African wildlife conservation mainly because of some first hand exposure on my one trip there.  What is clear to me is that what works in the US (North American Model of Wildlife Conservation), is unlikely to work there.  There are too many forces at work - human population growth, poverty, weak governments, underfunded enforcement, corruption, high market value for poached animals, criminal networks trading in wildlife, worldwide demand for animal parts, etc.  African wildlife populations have been in decline for years - especially where legalized hunting was abolished (Kenya is an example).  There are some successes and it appears to me to be related to creating a legal market value for the wildlife (South Africa is an example).  Some people have summarized this as "if it pays it stays".  I'm not sure if this is the only or best answer but some sort of pragmatic approach is needed.  Anyway, I recently saw these two articles that I think describe the situation.  I also included an older 50 minute video on the elephant situation in Zimbabwe.  If you are interested and have some time, I think that this is good info on a complex subject.

NYT Article on Trophy Hunting

Sports Afield - Eating Eden to Extinction

The Elephant and the Pauper

On another note, I also get infuriated with the media who seem to use hunter and poacher interchangeably.  A law abiding hunter is like someone with a banking account and a poacher is like a bank robber.  Both are involved in banking.  But they are not the same.