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How we can make the trophy hunting debate less fraught

Nature Human Behaviour volume 7, pages 6–8 (2023)Cite this article

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Trophy hunting remains a high-octane debate for scholars and actors at various levels, including governments, lobbies, supranational bodies, local communities and broader publics. These actors are often driven by a range of competing interests. Bridging the divides will require collaboration and a focus on shared goals.

Why is trophy hunting and its links with conservation such a fraught debate? The answer comes in many layers, which, as a relatively junior scholar thrown in the deep end, I have had to navigate over the past few years. I will break down the various tensions and domains that make the trophy hunting debate so complex. These layers interact with colonial histories of Africa, questions of power and of agency, as well as questions of morality. Beyond that, they also interact with the processes and institutions of knowledge production that inform wildlife conservation practice.

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  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Mucha Mkono

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  1. Mucha Mkono
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Correspondence to Mucha Mkono.

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Mkono, M. How we can make the trophy hunting debate less fraught. Nat Hum Behav 7, 6–8 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01488-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01488-3

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