John Owens

May 18, 2015 By John Owens 2 Comments

Multiplier Effect

Filed Under: Economic, Multilateral Tagged With: conservation, ecotourism, multiplier effect, Poaching, Socioeconomic, sport hunting regulations, sport hunting revenue, U.S. Policy, wildlife population decline

While ecotourism provides clear, direct economic benefits to countries, those benefits are often underestimated, since the numerous inputs required to support the ecotourism industry are difficult to quantify. For example, items such as food, supplies, transportation, public works, infrastructure, and manpower are required to support ecotourism. Additionally, local citizens employed… read more

April 27, 2015 By John Owens Leave a Comment

Infrastructure and Guns May Curb Wildlife Trafficking

Filed Under: Economic, Security Tagged With: anti-poaching, conservation, ecotourism, Militarization, Poaching, Rangers, Shoot-to-kill, U.S. Policy, USAID, Wildlife poaching, wildlife population decline

As I discussed in my previous blog post, the US attempts to curb wildlife tracking through foreign assistance. Specifically, FWS provides $10 million annually to enhance and support wildlife conservation throughout Africa and Asia. The funds support essential wildlife protection activities in 25 African countries, including improving capacity to carry… read more

April 14, 2015 By John Owens 1 Comment

US Foreign Assistance and Ecotourism

Filed Under: Economic Tagged With: anti-poaching, ecotourism, foreign assistance, NGO, Poaching, U.S. Policy, USAID, wildlife population decline

The United States supports wildlife conservation and the development of ecotourism in foreign countries primarily through monetary aid. Unfortunately, data that dis-aggregates ecotourism revenue from tourism revenue is not routinely collected. Thus, analysts encounter difficulty when attempting to quantify US monetary support of the ecotourism industry. Nonetheless, ecotourism is a… read more

November 25, 2014 By John Owens Leave a Comment

Hunting Saves the Markhor

Filed Under: Sport Hunting

Sport hunting by definition reduces an endangered species’ population. However, if wildlife managers charge hunters a substantial fee and use the revenue to support the remaining species’ population, sport hunting may be justified as a conservation tool. An example of the successful implementation of sport hunting as a conservation tool… read more

November 10, 2014 By John Owens Leave a Comment

Sport Hunting Revenue

Filed Under: Sport Hunting Tagged With: conservation, hunting fee, sport hunting revenue

By one estimate, African sport hunting generates approximately $200 million annually. While sport hunting revenue is a small portion of African countries’ GDPs, it can have a big impact on wildlife conservation and the populations of certain species. This revenue stream is sufficient enough to positively impact conservation and in… read more

October 1, 2014 By John Owens Leave a Comment

Overfishing – Who cares?

Filed Under: Multilateral Tagged With: domino affect, fisheries, living planet report, overfishing, wildlife population decline

Wildlife populations have declined 52% since 1970. This staggering statistic was published recently by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) in their annual Living Planet Report. The question is, where did the animals go? According to the report, and the WWF graphic below, human development and population growth are the primary… read more