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Sustainable Hunting Committed to the Biodiversity Conservation

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainability, Biodiversity and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2023) | Viewed by 7072

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Juan Rengifo-Gallego

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Guest Editor

Department of Art and Territory Sciencie, University of Extremadura, 10002 Cáceres, Spain
Interests: rural development; land uses; management of natural heritage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Javier Pérez-González

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Guest Editor

Biology and Ethology Unit, Department of Anatomy, Cellular Biology and Zoology, University de Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain
Interests: population genetics; behavioral ecology; game management; red deer; wild boar
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Sebastián J. Hidalgo-de-Trucios

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Guest Editor

Research Group on Wildlife, Game Resources, and Biodiversity, University of Extremadura, 10003 Cáceres, Spain
Interests: conservation biology; animal behavior; wildlife management; applied ecology; natural resources conservation; behavioural ecology; widlife conservation; biodiversity; conservation; endangered species; game resources management; sustainable hunting

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hunting has played a relevant role throughout human evolution. At present, hunting is considered a recreational and economic activity, and is rarely necessary for survival. In this context, in a society increasingly committed to conservation, hunting must be managed, not only to ensure its sustainability, but also to conserve and promote biodiversity in the natural environments and agricultural systems in which it occurs.

To achieve these objectives, the hunter and the game manager must rely on a solid base of scientific knowledge, playing a role in controlling the environment and its imbalances. In this way, such management will improve habitats and their animal and plant diversity.

On the other hand, hunting activity represents an important economic and labor resource in rural communities. In addition, good management maintains and increases natural values, allowing a sustainable tourist exploitation of them, with consequent benefits of a harmonious sustainable rural development of these rural urban settlements.

In this general context, contributions to this Special Issue are welcome. Scientific answers are sought, related to the benefits or harms that hunting and its management can bring, whether as a tool to maintain biodiversity, conserve the environment, or contribute to the socio-economic development of the rural population.

Prof. Dr. Juan Rengifo-Gallego
Dr. Javier Pérez-González
Prof. Dr. Sebastián J. Hidalgo-de-Trucios
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable and responsable hunting
trophy hunting
territorial
social and econimic impacts
conservation
rural development
game management
hunting tourism
science-based hunting management

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 1378 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Deer Slayers: Examining the Scope of and Arguments for and against Legal Deer Theriocide in the US

by Michael J. Lynch and Leonard J. Genco

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5987; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075987 - 30 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1657

Abstract

Deer hunting has a long history in the US. It is supported by hunting cultures, described as necessary for protecting forest/plant biodiversity and ecosystems, but opposed by animal welfare and rights advocates as cruel. Using multiple literature sources, we examine the trade-off between protecting deer and ecosystems from harm in the context of contemporary America. We examine various approaches for exploring harms affecting nonhuman animal populations found in the green criminological, environmental sociology, wildlife conservation and management, and ecological literature. We argue that making sense of these opposing positions requires examining the extent of deer hunting to quantify those harms in some way. Here, we examine reported deer kills for US states for the period 1999–2020. These data indicate that nearly 7 million deer are taken annually in the US. We also examined some hypothesized correlates of deer harvesting across states. While these data tell us something about the number of deer killed, these data alone are insufficient. We argue no clear conclusion about the acceptability of deer hunting can be reached given the difficulty rectifying opposing moral/philosophical positions on deer hunting, opposing deer management objectives, and scientific evidence on the ecological impacts of deer populations in the US under contemporary conditions that include shrinking forest ecosystems and impaired ecosystem stability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Hunting Committed to the Biodiversity Conservation)

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19 pages, 2501 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Are Chilimira Fishers of Engraulicypris sardella (Günther, 1868) in Lake Malawi Productive? The Case of Nkhotakota District

by Kingdom Simfukwe, Moses Majid Limuwa and Friday Njaya

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 16018; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142316018 - 30 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1365

Abstract

An ecological shift has populated Engraulicypris sardella as a livelihood and economic drive among fishers in Malawi. However, the paucity of biological information regarding E. sardella limits the effective monitoring and sustainable management of the fishery. This has created a heavily invested fishery in terms of the effort put into fishing, but it is poorly managed. Moreover, the current production capacity from the fishery has a negligible impact on lessening the shortfall of the national fish demand, indicating its underperformance. Therefore, the productive efficiency of Lake Malawi Chilimira fishers in exploiting E. sardella was analysed. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample 355 Chilimira fishers between July and October 2021. Results from the translog stochastic frontier model revealed that Chilimira fishers had an overall mean technical efficiency of 60% that ranged between 21% and 92%. This indicates that Chilimira fishers are 40% technically inefficient in exploiting E. sardella. The fishing inputs of bunt area, light emitting diode (LED) bulbs, and mesh size significantly contributed to technical efficiency, whereas boat size, fishing depth, number of hauls, and mosquito net lining significantly reduced the technical inefficiency. On average, the Chilimira fishery is operating with increasing returns to scale with bunt area, the quantity of fuel (litres), and the number of LED bulbs having positive input–output elasticity. This means that new developments in the fishery, including LED bulbs, increased bunt area, and boat size, are key factors that will improve fishing efficiency for sustainable fishery exploitation. In contrast, illegal fishing units of small bunt mesh size and mosquito net lining at the bunt threaten the sustainability of the fishery. It is, therefore, important that relevant stakeholders put policy measures in place that promote sustainable fishing effort approaches in exploiting the virgin offshore fishery to maximise catch. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Hunting Committed to the Biodiversity Conservation)

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20 pages, 30717 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Hunting as a Tourism Product in Dehesa Areas in Extremadura (Spain)

by Luz-María Martín-Delgado, Víctor Jiménez-Barrado and José-Manuel Sánchez-Martín

Sustainability 2022, 14(16), 10288; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141610288 - 18 Aug 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1503

Abstract

The dehesa is one of the main agricultural landscapes in the Extremadura region. It is currently undergoing a production crisis caused by changes in the market, including the abandonment of uses linked to its exploitation. This situation could lead to the disappearance of this unique landscape due to its anthropogenic nature. It is therefore necessary to develop alternative activities to improve its productive profitability, which could include sustainable hunting. The hunting literature recognizes the role it plays in environmental, economic, and social sustainability, with hunting tourism being one of the productive activities that generates the most wealth within the sector, where big game hunting is of great importance. In this scenario, the regions of Villuercas-Ibores-Jara and La Siberia have an ideal landscape for the development of this modality due to their physical characteristics. For this reason, this study carried out an analysis of the situation of hunting tourism in these areas through the dissemination of a questionnaire among the managers of rural accommodation in the study area. The responses recorded were processed using statistical techniques that allowed us to extract interesting results such as the importance of hunting as a tourist resource, with a large number of big game species living in these areas, the high presence of hunters in these lodgings during the hunting season, the role that hunting plays in environmental, economic, and social sustainability, and the need to create a specific tourist product that meets the needs of the demand of hunters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Hunting Committed to the Biodiversity Conservation)

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Other

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9 pages, 551 KiB

Open AccessBrief Report

Women in the Hunt: A More Useful and Sustainable Hunt for Biodiversity?

by Javier Pérez-González, Sebastián J. Hidalgo-de-Trucios, Carlos Sánchez-García and Juan Ignacio Rengifo Gallego

Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7439; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097439 - 30 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1333

Abstract

Recreational hunting can have positive consequences on biodiversity conservation, but in many countries the number of hunters is declining. This downward trend threatens the sustainability of an important human activity that can be used as a tool for wildlife management and biodiversity conservation. On the other hand, in developed countries there is an upward trend in the number of female hunters. In this study, we analyzed women and men’s hunting preferences in Spain, focusing our attention on the game species they were interested in. We found that female hunters were more interested than male hunters in hunting big game species. We discussed potential consequences of our results on the sustainability of hunting and biodiversity conservation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Hunting Committed to the Biodiversity Conservation)

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