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What Do You Know About Conservation Hunting?Conservation hunting is a form of regulated hunting contributing to conservation of local wildlifepopulations and providing social and economic benefits to involved local communities.The Conservation Hunting (CH) website aims to provide information on current research and discussionregarding the concepts, background, scope and outcome of CH, particularly in the Canadian North, but alsoelsewhere. Input and comments from all Conservation Hunting stakeholders, including researchers in variousdisciplines, wildlife managers, co-managers, policy advisers, hunters, outfitters, and conservationists isinvited.About Conservation Hunting:The term 'conservation hunting' is now applied to sport or recreational hunting when those hunts result indefinite conservation and social benefits. Conservation hunting (CH) is considered a form of regulatedhunting that provides diverse conservation benefits to both local wildlife populations and to ruralcommunities. Conservation Hunting is appropriately applied to all animals subjected to hunting for recreation,management, food and other culturally-significant purposes. A number of international environmentalconventions and organizations recognize that the regulated sustainable use of wildlife provides economicincentives that contribute to biodiversity conservation and cultural sustainability.Wildlife-derived economic incentives and the resulting economic diversification may serve to protectwildlife habitat and cultural practices from the damaging impacts of alternative land use practices, especiallyat a time when such activities may place an additional burden on human and biological communities subjectto climatic and other environmental stressors. Conservation hunting given its socio-economic and culturalcontributions to local communities has the potential to contribute to human adaptation in the changing world.Key Components of conservation-hunting programs and their relationship to wildlife populations,ecosystems and people (Abstract) by W.A. Wall and B.J. KernohanThere has been growing recognition from the international conservation community that conservationhuntingprograms can provide the basis for successful sustainable use conservation. These programs, basedin an ecosystem context, can be of considerable support for community-based wildlife managementprograms. A conservation-hunting program is one that contributes to the short and long-term viability of thespecies populations within an ecosystem context by generating incentives, management regime, and/orsources of funds for purposes of conservation. However, there is a general lack of understanding of thenecessary components for these programs and how interactions of these components provide for success orimpediments to conservation. Components of conservation-hunting programs include: a transparent legalbasis within the range state including linkage with international regulatory bodies such as CITES; anadequate biological management system based in adaptive management; an adequate economic basewhich links incentives for local conservation to a local or international market through good businesspractices; and an appropriate local cultural context.Conservation-hunting programs worldwide have reached varying levels of success. Since differentgovernments, cultures, ecosystems and species populations respond differently, it is critical to fit the programto the local and regional circumstances.This paper presents a framework for organizing and describing key components of conservation-huntingprograms and discusses their relationship to wildlife populations, ecosystems and people. Presented areaxioms of biodiversity conservation and conservation-hunting programs to establish common ground fromwhich a series of principles and criteria are derived. This lead paper establishes the underlying context forexploring each of the case studies presented in the papers of the symposium.For more details view the Conservation Hunting website http://www.ualberta.ca/~ccinst/CH/index.htmContact: Dr. Kashif M Sheikh, Program Manager Conservation Hunting, Canadian Circumpolar Institute,University of Alberta Suite 308, Campus Tower 8625-112 St., Edmonton T6G 0H1, Alberta Canada, Tel: 780-492-0108 kashif.sheikh@ualberta.ca68