Scientists analyzed over a thousand studies on recreational hunting and its impact on conservation and people's livelihoods.
Papers often highlighted revenues that hunting generates, but not how the money benefits conservation and local communities. Researchers encourage future studies to fill these gaps, and thus develop more effective ways to help conservation and local economies.
Many papers showed how some hunting is sustainable, and some of it isn't.
Some papers showed that stopping hunting in South Africa and Namibia, for example, would harm conservation initiatives and local livelihoods as millions of dollars in hunting revenue would be lost.
But in Cameroon, for example, hunting did not provide enough revenue to support local communities.
Research also showed that managing habitats of one species helped others. For example, hunting white rhinos in South Africa generated enough revenue to incentivize landowners to conserve and restore rhinos and other wildlife as well as conserve the ecosystem.
Original article:
Recreational hunting, conservation and livelihoods: no clear evidence trail
Original study:
Consequences of recreational hunting for biodiversity conservation and livelihoods