Elephant Import Permit Rule Revision
HSC, along with Conservation Force and Dallas Safari Club, requested that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provide a 60-day extension of a comment period for its proposed revisions to its elephant regulation entitled Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision to the Section 4(d) Rule for African Elephant and requested inclusion of the petition for revision of 50 CFR 17.40(e)(6)(E) jointly filed by Conservation Force, Dallas Safari Club and Houston Safari Club on September 28, 2022 to revise section (6)(E) of the same special 4(d) rule that limits trophy imports to two elephant per annum regardless of the period taken.
2023 Farm Bill Development
Houston Safari Club aligned with several NGO’s, to submit an offer of assistance for development of the 2023 Farm Bill, to the House Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry and Senate Agriculture Committee. The offer requested the prioritization of fish and wildlife related to enhancing, restoring, and conserving natural resources on private lands to provide broad ecosystem services, including providing fish and wildlife habitat, improving water quality and quantity, and promoting landscape resilience.
Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA) Endorsement of Updated MTPA Bowhunting Policy
Houston Safari Club is part of an effort, in support of the Ashby Bowhunting Foundation, expressed their endorsement and support of PHASA’s recommended changes and updates to the Mpumalanga Nature Conservation Act Bowhunting Policy. PHASA is lobbying for updates to the Bowhunting Policy to bring the policy current, including the legalization of bowhunting pachyderms. In PHASA’s effort to bring this policy current, PHASA has requested assistance from the Ashby Bowhunting Foundation, a non-profit organization that is the leading global authority on arrow lethality with a cumulative of nearly fifty years of research and data that shows these animals can be ethically and humanely harvested with bowhunting equipment if specific guidelines are followed.
Tajikistan Argali (Marco Polo) Imports
HSC, in partnership with Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF), Safari Club International (SCI), Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF), Dallas Safari Club (DSC), Dallas Safari Club Foundation (DSCF), Grand Slam Club/Ovis (GSCO), International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), Conservation Force (CF), and IUCN SSC CEESP Sustainable Use & Livelihoods Specialist Group (IUCN SULi), provided a letter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior support the methodology, repeatability, and reliability of a 2021 Tajikistan Marco Polo survey. The reason for the correspondence is based on concern regarding the continued denial of 2021 import permit applications and the failure to process any Tajikistan import permit applications since the 2021 period denials. The letter stated that this delay is unacceptable to the sustainable use conservation community, and most alarming, is now jeopardizing the most successful argali conservation and restoration program in Central Asia. USFWS preciously stated that the delay and denials are because information the USFWS has requested from the Tajikistan CITES authority has not yet been provided by said authority. The task force issuing the letter saw no justification for the lack of movement other than vague references to the above and request the Department provide the specific information that the Tajikistan CITES authority has not yet provided with a commitment to work with both the USFWS and the Tajikistan CITES authority to bridge what may be a communication gap and help assure that necessary information is provided.
