News for Immediate Release
October 16, 2019
Contact: Hannah Downey, 406-587-9591, hannah@perc.org
(Washington, D.C.)—Catherine Semcer, a research fellow with PERC, testified before the U.S. Department of the Interior’s International Wildlife Conservation Council today on the United States’ international conservation assistance programs.
The council is an official group that advises the Secretary of the Interior on international wildlife issues including anti-poaching programs, wildlife trafficking, and the role of trophy hunting in conservation.
Semcer spoke to the council about the importance of U.S. conservation assistance programs reflecting our nation’s long-held values of support for free markets, democracy, and human rights. Her presentation pointed to both public and private sector conservation programs that are on the right track and stressed the need for the U.S. government to shift from favoring command and control approaches to those that encourage entrepreneurship and clear the path for investment opportunities in habitat conservation. She also stressed that international conservation programs must limit the potential for government corruption and respect property rights in order to engage local communities and individuals in on-the-ground conservation.
As a part of her presentation, Semcer also showed PERC’s latest video Markets for Conservation: Hunting for Wildlife Recovery.
