The value of wildlife has been widely ignored or under-rated in the past by the international community, and one of the main threats to wildlife conservation is the reduction of the different values wildlife can offer (Chardonnet et al., 2002). Each year in Canada and the United States (U.S.), nearly 45 million citizens partake in the legal harvest and consumption of wildlife and fish obtained through hunting and angling. Despite this, no serious effort has been made to assess the social, ecological, and economic significance of the wild meat and fish that is consistently harvested and consumed, especially in rural and indigenous communities.
The Wild Harvest Initiative® will change this, providing a first-ever evaluation of the biomass and economic value of wild food harvested by recreational hunters and anglers in both Canada and the U.S while assessing the wider community of users who share in this harvest. The program will provide empirical evidence to support a new valuation for wildlife as a real component of community food security and health in North America.
Increasingly, food is being seen as a vehicle to forward many objectives – to promote health, build strong and diverse communities, protect the environment, and strengthen the economy (Healthy Eating and Food Security: Promising Strategies for BC, 2010). By emphasizing healthy food practices, the Wild Harvest Initiative® is providing common ground for discussion and greater community engagement in wildlife conservation issues, as well as expanding public awareness of traditional sustainable natural resource use activities as effective conservation tools. This is not only laying the groundwork for wider and more effective coalitions in support of wildlife conservation, but is also enhancing support for sustainable livelihoods, while dispelling the myth that hunting and angling activities have become irrelevant in modern society.
The Wild Harvest Initiative® will also link North American recreational and wild meat gathering to harvests by indigenous and rural peoples around the world to demonstrate the normalcy, as well as the cultural and historical significance, of this activity. Understanding the importance of wild meat to food security, livelihoods, and economies is a global concern for leading social and political institutions in terms of research and policy priorities, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Resources: Fish , Resources: Wildlife , Big Issues: Land use , Big Issues: Resource use , Solutions: Policy and planning
