Is it Possible to Gamify Wildlife Conservation?
[Image Source: Pixabay.com, licensed under CC0, Public Domain]
Last July, the Internet blew up when a hunter killed a charismatic and seemingly popular lion in Zimbabwe named Cecil. I didn't participate much in the dust-up (and I don't particularly want to reopen it here), but I spent a lot of time in reflection. In this scenario, two of my beliefs came into conflict with each other. On one hand, I have no interest in hunting. Except when it's to put food on the table, I don't understand what motivates people to do it. Unless it comes down to a choice between a person and an animal, I think people should protect wildlife, not destroy it. On the other hand, though, I am almost always against using the government's guns to impose my own preferences on someone else, moreso when the events in question are half-way around the world.
So I began to wonder if there was a way to resolve this deadlock and bring these two beliefs into harmony, and I concluded that there needs to be a conservation method that sets up the right incentives and then works entirely through voluntary participation. It was around that time that I learned about the Property and Environment Research Center PERC, and was thrilled to find that there are people who call themselves free market environmentalists. This seemed to be on the right track.
