Wild “Harvest”
The wild harvest, required by falconers, is very small and entirely sustainable. It encourages the involvement of falconers in conservation and is certainly in keeping with the concepts of the Convention on Biological Diversity. There are other real advantages to this source of falconry birds that may not be immediately apparent:
1) Birds harvested from the wild are usually readily releasable back to the wild when no longer required for falconry. This reduces the number of birds held in captivity and further lessens any impact of the activity on the wild populations.
2) It discourages the trading in birds as wild-taken birds are not saleable and it keeps the practice of falconry within the reach of less affluent members of society and particularly young people whom we wish to encourage.
3) The access to a wild take is seen a considerable privilege and encourages compliance with the law and good practice.
4) Wild taken birds are not private property and remain the property of the state. Thus they can readily be confiscated from someone who is failing to adequately care for them or who is found to be breaking the laws and rules that govern falconry. South African falconers have a good record of policing their own membership for this reason.
5) The access to a harvest of wild raptors undoubtedly encourages the involvement of Falconers’ involvement in Raptor Conservation. The converse is also true. Were the harvest be withdrawn, falconers would be discouraged from monitoring raptor nests as this may lay them open to allegations of nest-robbing.
6) The principle of a harvest of wild raptors is one that is accepted widely internationally. It is permitted in all North American countries, several Central and South American countries, and several European countries and is accepted under the Bern Convention with proviso, several middle-Eastern, central Asian and Asian nations as well as several African nations. Countries that do not permit a wild harvest may do so for reasons of revolutionary politics, conservation concerns or that no “falconry ethic” exists within the country.
The principle of a sustainable harvest of a natural resource is not unusual as many natural resources are harvested. What is unusual is that the harvest of Raptors required by falconers does not result in the killing of the resource and that the resource is often returned back to the wild. The harvest required by falconers is very small. Good studies on raptor populations from around the world exist to show the very high attrition rate amongst immature raptors, the pool from which falconers will source their birds. Similarly an excellent Environmental Impact Study has recently been produced examining the impact of harvesting wild Peregrines in the USA. This shows that a 5% harvest is entirely acceptable and that a 10% harvest would probably have no significant impact. South African Falconers do not require anything even approaching these numbers.
