May 2001
Take the Politics out of Grizzly Bear Protection
by Laura Jones
The Raincoast Conservation Society recently waged an aggressive advertising campaign (billboards, bus shelter ads, full-page newspaper ads, and radio spots) to stop grizzly bear hunting in British Columbia. Premier Ujjal Dosanjh responded by declaring a three-year moratorium on the hunt. Predictably, the decision is controversial— while delighting environmentalists, the moratorium has infuriated guide-outfitters and hunters. It has even turned into an election issue, with opposition leader Gordon Campbell claiming that the government is "pandering to urban voters at the expense of rural British Columbians." Campbell has threatened to review the moratorium if elected.
Ostensibly the debate is about grizzly bear populations. The Raincoast Conservation Society claims that there are not enough bears to sustain hunting. They estimate between 4,000 and 6,000 wild bears in BC. Hunters counter that BC’s own government estimates a grizzly population between 10,000 and 13,000, and that hunting is sustainable.
But even if the hunters are right, should the ban be lifted? Right now that decision is determined in an all-or-nothing way in the political arena. Before the moratorium, those opposed to hunting could only change the situation by campaigning, and thus influencing politicians. Now that the politicians have been influenced, hunters and guide-outfitters must wage a counter-campaign. So, should whoever hires the best P.R. firm win?
There is a better way to settle this dispute: use the market. A market could be established by allowing the rights to hunt (or protect) grizzly bears to be bought, sold, and traded. Before the moratorium, no such market existed. Instead, provincial government biologists determined the number of bears that could be killed without harming the population and then allocated these rights, which were not tradable, to hunters. Some were sold directly to guide outfitters and some were allocated to individual hunters through a lottery.
Under this system, the only way an individual or group opposed to hunting could influence the hunt would be to flood the lottery. This, however, would only work for one year. As Geoff Swannell from the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks explained, once the Ministry figured out that the licenses were not being used by hunters, it would increase the number of bears available for harvesting.
Creating a market where the right to hunt bears is tradable would give environmentalists a direct say in how many bears are protected. How would such a market work? The Wildlife Branch would continue to estimate the number of surplus bears that could be hunted in territories around the province. The rights to these bears would then be auctioned to the highest bidders—be they environmentalists, guide-outfitters, local hunters, or citizens opposed to hunting. Alternatively, some of the rights could initially be given to guide outfitters based on their allocations in past years. Since all rights would be transferable, guide-outfitters, hunters, and environmentalists could trade throughout the season.
This system has several advantages over the current situation. First, since anyone can bid for the bears, all interested parties have a chance to express their preferences. Under this system, environmentalists could focus their attention on those bears that are in areas they consider most vulnerable.
Second, since the auction would be an annual event, environmentalists, hunters, and guide outfitters would face less uncertainty than they do now; no one would be completely shut out, as is currently the case, unless they chose not to participate in the auction. No such security exists today. Environmentalists’ hard-fought moratorium, for example, will likely be reversed in a few months after the BC election.
Third, revenues paid to the provincial government will increase. Before the moratorium, hunters were not paying the full market price for bears. We know this because each year the number of people participating in the lottery exceeds the number of grizzly licenses available.
Not only would this increase in revenue be good news for taxpayers, it could also benefit conservation. Before the moratorium, 70 percent of the revenue from the grizzly species hunting permits went to the provincial government while 30 percent was given to the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund for environmental projects. If that formula were retained, more money would be set aside for conservation work. One unfortunate result of the current moratorium is that the conservation fund has lost all revenue from selling grizzly hunting licenses.
As our environmental sensibilities continue changing, conflicts over hunting will continue to erupt. The best way to resolve these disputes is to use the market. So how about we (hunters, guide-outfitters, traditional environmentalists, and free-market environmentalists) get together and start a new campaign: take the politics out of grizzly bear protection.
References
BC Liberal Party (2001). "Grizzly Bear Policy Aimed at Politics, Not Science." News Release. February 8. Internet at: http://www.bcliberals.com/news/newsarchive/news02080102.html.
Ministry of Environment Lands and Parks. "Three-Year Moratorium on Grizzly Hunting Announced." News Release. February 8, 2001. Internet at: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/main/newsrel/fisc0001/february/nr123.htm.
Personal Communication with Geoff Swannell, Head of Legislation and Regulation, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, March 2001.
Read, Nicholas (2001). "BC Orders Immediate Halt to Grizzly Bear Hunt." Vancouver Sun. Feburary 8, p. A1.
The Grizzly Facts. Internet at: http://www. bcwf.bc.ca/bears/grizzfacts.html. Site accessed March 16, 2001.
Laura Jones (lauraj@fraserinstitute.ca) is Director of Environment and Regulatory Studies at The Fraser Institute. She received her M.A. in Economics from Simon Fraser University.
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