Private lands best for conservation

A decade or so ago, a report was issued by an international monitoring group with respect to the status of Africa’s lions.

Approximately 25,000 of the cats remained in the wilds of Africa, shocking conservationists around the world, who had expected the figure to be considerably more numerous.

Unfortunately, on that continent, it is generally left up to governments and the people to conserve or abuse them.

This was a typical example of the tragedy of the commons, where humans, unless they have ownership of a resource, cause the destruction of that resource.

South Africa was one of the outliers because much of its wildlife is in private hands and not used for hunting, but for ecotourism. Also, conservation, not destruction of nature, has been a natural and national pastime for a century.

They would certainly be able to teach Canadians a thing or two about conservation.

It is part of the tragedy, that man has an infinite ability to destroy anything and everything it lays its hands upon.

The only solution is for laws to be enacted to allow landowners to become the guardians of our natural resources and for them to directly benefit.

If you leave it up to government and the selfish public, corruption will result in the entire species of mountain lions soon being extinct in this province.

Tim Jordan, Edmonton