Hungary joins the 1 Euro per Hunter Initiative
5 May 2019

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Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary, dr. Zsolt Semjén, announced in a video message that Hungary joins the CIC’s 1 euro/hunter initiative. The announcement video was played at the Gala dinner of the 66th General Assembly of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation in Windhoek, Namibia.

What is the 1 Euro/hunter Initiative?

Over the years, our opponents (often being animal rights NGOs) have developed a sophisticated, yet deceitful, business model. Many of these organisations claim to be conservation-oriented, but stir up emotions and focus only on the act of killing by hunters to garner support. Every year, they collect hundreds of millions of dollars from naive people who are certainly willing to do good, enviably so, but are misinformed about what their money is being used for. For example, these enormous financial gains for the NGOs finally land—to a large extent—in the pockets of their own leadership, and then with the rest, they promote exactly the opposite of conservation. In Africa, for example, opponents of hunting have advocated for hunting bans. Banning hunting, however, leads to increased human-wildlife conflict, which promotes poaching; and leads to locals favoring land development over habitat creation. The WWF and the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) are examples of organizations who, while they are not hunting organizations, have members among their ranks who recognize the benefits of hunting. Such members stand behind a legal hunt, carried out in accordance with the principles of sustainability.

The CIC has committed itself to fight for the preservation of hunting and recently launched a worldwide campaign “1 Euro per hunter” where each hunter contributes one euro to the campaign, which, while a negligible cost to the individual, is an indispensable contribution to the preservation of hunting.

Decisions with far-reaching implications are made on the international stage, not at the local, regional, or national levels.

Opinion-shaping conferences all over the world form the core of those decisions that are so dangerous for the sustainable use of nature. Their impacts will only reach us at a much later stage when it may be too late. Remember the European weapons regulation, the Zurich hunting abolition initiative, the wolf problem, the ban on the transport of hunting trophies and much more. Preventing the impacts is easier than reversing them.The CIC are striving to participate in as many conferences as possible to influence and defend the sustainable use of nature.

What is the sustainable use of nature?

The foundations involve a deep sense of respect between humans and nature, where humans feel it is right and logical for them to use forests and fields for forestry and hunting, to use lakes and oceans for fishing, to make use of the soil for agriculture, and to care for the horses and dogs that we keep as pets. The sustainability element comes from knowing what we can and cannot take, how much is enough, and what will allow future generations to experience the same wealth of natural resources as we do today.

Hunters clearly distance ourselves from sectarian and almost extreme views on life, such as veganism and extreme animal protection.

If the hunters do not stand together as a community, if we fail to see the increasingly clear signs of the “urbanization” of our political decision-makers, we will meet a terrible end within a few years’ time. I never want to look my grandchildren in the eye and have to explain to them that we hunters could have fended off the imminent disaster with one euro, but that the comfortable “current state” prevented us from doing so.

In order to be able to take up this fight on the international stage, we need spikes of the same length as those who wish for us all to go to hell.

Hunters need to attend conferences, penetrate non-hunting media, be present in schools at an early stage, explain to children the sustainable use of nature, and, above all, be present in modern social media. This, dear readers, requires an early recognition of the alarming international situation of hunting and also an extremely modest participation on behalf of each individual hunter.

I would like to call upon your national hunting association to show their solidarity and ask them to collect the solidarity euro for this incredibly important struggle and to transfer it to the CIC  for the sake of our future generations.

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