"Killing more elephants to help save the species is one counterintuitive strategy for preserving them. Here’s the thinking: Invite hunters from rich countries to pay generous fees to shoot specified numbers of elephants, and use that money for conservation and to help give local communities a boost. Do that, the theory goes, and poor villagers won’t need to poach elephants to feed their families." (Source)
Wouldn't it make more sense to help these local communities become more self-sufficient by means other than poaching? A self-supporting agricultural/commercial/industrial ecosystem that both modernizes and encourages long-term growth?
“Let’s be clear: elephants are on the list of threatened species; the global community has rallied to stem the ivory trade; and now, the U.S. government is giving American trophy hunters the green light to kill them,” Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, wrote in a statement posted on his blog.
“What kind of message does it send to say to the world that poor Africans who are struggling to survive cannot kill elephants in order to use or sell their parts to make a living, but that it’s just fine for rich Americans to slay the beasts for their tusks to keep as trophies?” he added. (Source)
While I can't wait for #45's term to be over, I'm dreading how much global damage there will be to clean up in his aftermath. And 2020's Election already scares me considering how epically our system failed us last year by giving us two horrible candidates and leading us to where we are now.