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practitioners from around the world to examine in depth the claims that recreational hunting makes asignificant contribution to conservation and rural livelihoods”.For the purposes of the symposium recreational hunting was given a working definition of “hunting wherethe hunter or hunters pursue their quarry primarily for recreation or pleasure”. From an economic perspectiveit was recognized that there are two broad but not exclusive types: local hunting, where the hunter originateslocally to the hunting area, and hunting tourism, where the hunter travels a considerable distance, oftenabroad, and pays a substantial amount of money for the hunting experience.Some 35 contributors, amongst them well known names like Leader-Williams, Millner-Gulland, NaseerTareen, Lamprey, Child, Baldus, Reimoser, etc made 26 presentations during two days of marathonsessions which ranged from the origins of modern conservation in the initiatives taken by famous hunters,through global overviews of recreational hunting, angling and falconry, to regional models from NorthAmerica and Southern Africa, scientific studies of the effect of trophy offtakes on population dynamics forspecies such as lion, red deer and bighorn sheep and the interactions of game management and agriculturalpolicy. Case studies demonstrated and critically evaluated how controlled hunting played critical roles andprovided vital incentives for conservation.Scientists and Inuit, falconers and philosophers, representatives from governments, non-governmentalorganizations and development agencies discussed a wide array of topics for two days with hunters,professional hunters and representatives of international hunting organizations – not only during thediscussion sessions following the presentation of the papers, but significantly also in a most welcomenetworking process outside the formal meetings.Dr. Rolf Baldus, president of CIC’s Tropical Game Commission said to African Indaba that „the discussionsand interaction of the participants were characterized by a high level of expertise and the will to findsolutions“; Baldus said further „even those amongst the participants, who oppose hunting, were quick inadapting to reasoned dialogue and discussions.“Astonishingly with the heterogeneous make-up of the participants, the major focus of the symposium didnot target the usual polarizing and dividing question of whether one should hunt or not, but rather aimed athow to optimize the hunt and hunting practices. According to Baldus, participants showed a high level ofagreement from the very start in the assessment that hunting could contribute significantly to conservationobjectives and to poverty alleviation schemes in economically marginal regions. There was agreement thatthese positive contributions can already be observed in many individual cases. The Canadians have coinedthe expression „Conservation Hunting“ for this interactive process – and this term gathers more and moreimportance and the political acceptance of what is enshrined in „Conservation Hunting“ is growing locally andinternationally.The conference participants discussed conditions as well as political and cultural initiatives which could beused to make hunting an even better instrument to further environmental protection and biodiversityconservation objectives and incorporating socially and culturally important aspects. The existing data indicatethat hunting can be a very positive force for conservation. This discussion did not omit that those who huntand their activity of hunting actually create certain direct and indirect services for society in general. Theyalso acknowledged the right of hunters to enjoy hunting as a recreational activity.When examining new approaches to improving the governance of hunting, various initiatives definingprinciples, guidelines, criteria and indicators for sustainable hunting in Europe as was an outline code ofconduct derived from an analysis of sport hunting in Southern Africa were described. Possibilities forcertifying hunting at a local level on the lines of forestry schemes were considered, but something muchsimpler was advocated.There are of course also pitfalls and serious problems that need to be addressed. Hunters, theirinternational organizations, non-hunting conservation NGOs, government officials and scientists withinterdisciplinary skills need to work cooperatively to improve data collection and standards across the globe.Cases were presented of over-exploitation, of corruption by a few key individuals and of bad governancewhich prevent the revenues from tourist hunting being maximized for conservation and community benefit.These are serious obstacles for sustainable conservation hunting schemes. The dire need for goodgovernance at all levels was a theme echoed by many speakers. In her concluding remarks to the100