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March 2008 Latest News

March 12, 2008

Registration failing in the Philippines

Beginning in November last year, a drive began to register guns in the Philippines. The accompanying amnesty is intended to run until November, 2008.

Senior Superintendent Danilo Maligalig, the Operations Management chief of the PNP Firearms and Explosive Division, spoke in favour of the program, and foreshadowed considerable publicity to come.

The authorities estimate that there are 110,000 unregistered firearms in the country, and the Superintendent in his statement said he hoped 100,000 owners would come forward.

The history of universal registration of firearms has never produced any reduction in crime following its introduction. Canada and New Zealand are two countries which have only recently withdrawn from such programs on the basis that they are ineffective.

If these current estimates of firearm numbers in the Philippines are actually correct, at present fewer than two per cent of owners have come forward. If they are underestimated, which is almost always the case, then the number is smaller.

www.gmanews.tv

March 8, 2008

Hunting trends in USA

The New York Times has published an article concerning the downward trend of hunter numbers over the last three decades. With a drop in hunting licence purchases of twenty per cent over the last ten years, the state of West Virginia has now passed legislation to allow hunter education courses in schools where interest is shown. Eight other states are now following Michigan, Nebraska, South Carolina and Utah, Louisiana, Montana and Georgia, which have all taken measures such as dropping or lowering minimum age requirements for training young people and changing their constitutions to protect the right to hunt and fish.

The diminishment of hunting as a pastime is causing concern among animal management authorities. Quarry species are so abundant in some regions as to constitute a substantial risk to human life. In West Virginia in 2006 alone, more than fifteen thousand deer were reported killed by motor vehicles on the roads.

Various natural resources departments have taken their own steps to restore hunter numbers, including increasing the diversity of managed and supervised hunting plans, such as for the disabled and for young people. There are plans, such as those of New Hampshire, directed at the promotion of hunting as a whole-family activity, and weekends for young people only, such as may be found in Vermont. A spokesman for the United States Sportsmen's Alliance is quoted as pointing out that hunting is statistically safer than bicycle riding, boating and swimming.

www.nytimes.com

March 1, 2008

Elephant culling in South Africa sparks controversy

South Africa's Minister for the Environment, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, has announced the country's intention to return to managed culling of elephants in order to save habitat that is being severely damaged by their increasing numbers. The minister cited severe clashes of the growing numbers of elephants in Southern Africa with the human populations and with the viability of other species as well.

With each elephant eating more than a quarter of a ton of vegetation per day, and ranging over large tracts of land, the environmental damage has become an increasing consideration.

There are complexities that are unique to elephant management, and the argument surrounding their possible culling is of course highly emotional, and animal preservation societies have spoken out strongly against the move. The ivory trade was banned in 1989, but poaching still continues in many parts of Africa.

Elephants have sometimes been successfully placed on contraception, but its overall value as a means of control is very limited. The same applies to relocation, which is hugely expensive. Culling in the presence of other elephants can lead to traumatization and consequent behavioural changes which make for the animals becoming increasingly dangerous.

The new program of management calls for culling to be carried out only under the auspices of an elephant ecological expert, and in recognition of various principles. These include that the culling must be done out of the sight of other elephants. Family groups are to be removed together, in order to diminish trauma. A minimum calibre for rifles has been established.

Eugène Lapointe, President of IWMC World Conservation Trust (www.iwmc.org ), was the Secretary-General of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) from 1982 to 1990. His organization made a statement in strong support of the new move.

"South Africa has been forced to take this step precisely because its conservation policies, based on the principle of sustainable use, have proven so successful in boosting elephant populations. It is taking a responsible, ethical and holistic approach to the environment, ensuring that stocks are maintained at levels that can be sustained not only by elephants, but by other wildlife too."

Lapointe went on to say: "Africa as a whole should reject the failing 'total protection' experiment that feeds off corruption, encourages poaching crimes and harms the welfare of elephant populations." His organization deplores a proposed nine-year moratorium on the sale of ivory, calling it a "poacher's charter", under which the black market will thrive. Instead, sustainable use, holistic, ethical and responsible, and which must include appropriate enforcement of ivory sales laws internationally, will maintain healthy elephant populations into the future.


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