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Madame Chairman: 



On behalf of Safari Club International 1 want to thank you for this opportiinity to 

 testify on a topic that is very important to us. 



The members of SCI represent an important economic resource to the countries of 

 Africa. At the same time, we are a force for conservation of the great mammals of 

 Africa and all of the habitats that they occupy. 



The point is really very simple. Big game hunters, who come primarily from the 

 United States, pay significant premiums for the privilege of harvesting the biological 

 surplus of many species to be found in Africa. This input of foreign exchange is 

 earned at a very low cost in infrastructure development, because hunters are willing 

 to take to the field without the extensive development of nmning water, electricity and 

 resort hotel facilities. 



The ecological, biological and social costs are also very low. Sportsmen integrate with 

 the indigenous peoples. Tourists do not. In addition, it takes far less hunters than it 

 does tourists to bring in the same araoimt of dollars. Therefore, the impact on the 

 environment is much less. It's much better to have a sportsman who will wade across 

 the stream with the natives than a tourist who needs and demands a bridge. Himters 

 relish the low impact camps rather than the huge infrastructure of tourist 

 accommodations. They travel into these areas to become a part of the unique and the 

 remote and they prefer that few footprints precede or follow them. 



On the biological side hunting is highly regulated, very few animals are taken, and the 

 animals taken represent a genetic siuplus. So it is quite possible to continue hunting 

 of virmally all species without reducing the overall populations of animals. In fact in 

 some cases, eliminating the aggressive old male animals from the population often 

 stimulates the growth of populations by letting more fertile younger males participate 

 in the breeding. This is the case with elephants, for example. 



What 1 have portrayed here, Madame Chairman, is how the himters work with the 

 safari outfitters, who in turn work with the wildlife managers of the African countries, 

 to provide significant economic gains and to make a huge investment in the fiiture of 

 wildlife. For many rural communities, safari hunting provides a major portion of their 

 annual income without reducing the biological capital of Africa, without destroying 



