Renowned conservation group WildCRU infiltrated by ultra-conservative gun rights activist
WildCRU research is supporting an initiative to promote trophy hunting to fund militarization to secure property rights to protect wealthy foreigners’ control over African resources.
NOTE: The paywall was removed due to popular demand.
Journalists conducted a multi-year investigation of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Australia’s far-right One Nation party. Undercover video footage exposed the connection between wildlife conservation, guns, and right-wing politics.
An American gun lobbyist told a One Nation member that “hunting and fishing rights” should be used as a guise for gun rights.
“Do not ever put gun rights in front of your ballot. You’re going to say hunting and fishing right. … You’re going to pass it, and you go, ‘How can I hunt without a gun?’” – American gun lobbyist
One Nation’s members met with Koch Industries, one of the largest donors behind climate denial and right-wing politics in the United States, to discuss campaign donations.
A One Nation member told Koch Industries representatives that he worried about a “lefty attitude” and Australians turning into socialists. Koch Industries’ Director of Federal Affairs, a former NRA employee, replied that it was “terrifying” that data showed that young people had a positive perception of socialism.
“When you look at the data on young people and how they perceive socialism, it’s terrifying. … We’re not naïve to know the importance of the policies in Australia and how they relate here in the US. … It’s not lost on us that the world we operate in is driven by international commodities markets.” – Koch Industries’ Director of Federal Affairs
Young people becoming disillusioned by capitalism because of its negative effects on society and the living planet is not frightening. What is frightening, however, is that an ultra-conservative gun rights activist found their way into one of the world’s most renowned wildlife conservation groups – University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU).
WildCRU’s new member is cause for concern
You may be familiar with Catherine Semcer’s name if you follow the trophy hunting debate. Semcer is a staunch trophy hunting supporter getting their PhD at University of Oxford and one of the latest additions to WildCRU.
Although trophy hunting is likely a significant part of Semcer’s WildCRU research, the main focus is centered on anti-poaching efforts in Africa.
“I am conducting a fine scale survey of anti-poaching programs across Africa, mapping them, and examining the geospatial relationship of their capabilities and activities with a variety of socio-economic factors. In doing so I am building an evidence base that businesses, non-governmental organizations, donors, and governments can use to better target resources while also increasing understanding of the contours and gradients of militarized conservation.” – Catherine Semcer
This research may sound innocuous on the surface. But the fact that Semcer is studying militarized conservation at a time when most wildlife conservationists have come out vehemently against the concept should be a red flag for everyone.
Additionally, Semcer comes from a military consulting background, is an ultra-conservative gun rights activist, is a close ally of the NRA, and is a research fellow at Koch Industries climate denial front group Property and Environment Research Center (PERC).
Semcer’s WildCRU research does not appear to be a good faith attempt to expand our understanding of trophy hunting or militarized conservation. On the contrary, Semcer’s WildCRU research appears to be part of an overall movement to promote gun rights and fight socialism in conservation which, uncoincidentally, aligns with PERC’s latest initiative to protect wealthy foreigners’ control over African resources.
Catherine Semcer comes from a military consulting background
Semcer was the COO at Humanitarian Operations Protecting Elephants (H.O.P.E.). The organization specialized in militarized conservation and trained and assisted African game rangers.
H.O.P.E. was founded and advised by US military veterans. Their mission was to increase “natural resource security by employing a mature socio-cultural understanding and cost-effective measures in concert with expertise derived from military special operations and intelligence, wildlife management and commercial enterprise.”
H.O.P.E.’s CEO believed his hunting and military experience was just what was needed to save the world.
“As a hunter… I understand the importance of wildlife conservation and as a solider I understand the importance of security against all threats. Africa’s elephant poaching crisis is a threat to the world’s wildlife heritage as well as the ability of free people to live in peace and prosperity.” – H.O.P.E. CEO
Because if there is anything that history has taught us, it’s that the US military has an excellent track record when it comes to helping “free people” in foreign countries “live in peace and prosperity.”
Semcer wrote an article demonizing trophy hunting regulations and valorizing H.O.P.E.’s militarized approach to conservation.
“Prohibiting American hunters from importing trophies will not stop Islamic Terrorists from poaching elephants for the black market any more than limits on gun rights will prevent criminals from using guns to commit crimes. One thing that will help to end the poaching crisis is increasing the capability and capacity of African anti-poaching units to confront the new breed of well trained, heavily armed poachers and the terrorist and criminal networks behind them.” – Catherine Semcer
Semcer’s article reads like an American conservative bingo card. Islamophobia? Gun rights misinformation? Military valorization? Bingo!
Catherine Semcer is an ultra-conservative gun rights activist
RedTea is a conservative online media publication where you can find headlines such as US Shoots Down Mystery Objects as Commie China Takes Advantage of Biden and The Genocidal Tendencies of Climate Change Crazies. It’s clear that those writing for RedTea live in world full of delusion.
Semcer wrote many articles for RedTea.
Semcer wrote an anti-socialism (or anti-communism, it’s all the same to these people) article titled New Research Shows Millennials Increasingly Favor Authoritarianism. The article was essentially a longer version of the Koch Industries’ Director of Federal Affairs’ “frightening” story about young people viewing socialism in a positive light.
“New research reveals a growing threat within, with millennials increasingly rejecting free markets and favoring authoritarian forms of government including socialism, communism, and fascism.” – Catherine Semcer
Younger generations have a more positive view of socialism and communism?! How absolutely terrifyingly spooky!
What’s really spooky is that someone unironically referred to free markets as if they are something that exist in reality. Semcer conflating socialism and communism with authoritarian forms of government was also beyond laughable.
The ‘report’ cited by Semcer came from Victims of Communism (VOC), a McCarthyist front group funded by America’s right-wing billionaires. Semcer has very low standards for her sources, apparently.
Semcer also grouped the American far-right’s boogeyman, “communists,” together with neo-Nazis.
“A casual look at torch-bearing fascists in Charlottesville or black-clad communists marching under the Antifa flag reveals a preponderance of angry youth yearning not to be free, but to impose a new order antithetical to the ideas of revolutionary liberty the United States was founded on.” – Catherine Semcer
Semcer was partly correct though. There are many that want to do away with the white supremacy that the US was founded on.
“If the American cause is to be secured it is imperative that libertarians, conservatives, and others who value individual rights not only broaden and deepen their engagement with millennials but begin developing and implementing workable policies and programs that address their concerns and help them achieve the stability they are looking for in all the wrong places.” – Catherine Semcer
Perhaps Semcer forgot that the neo-Nazi rally in Charlotesville was called “Unite the Right” and not “Unite the Left.”
Semcer also published multiple gun safety legislation fearmongering articles for RedTea. Semcer played up the conservative nightmare that the US government was trying to take away their citizens’ guns and, thus, their citizens’ freedom.
“This gun ban legislation is just the latest bullet point in Senator [Diane] Feinstein’s long resume of working to undermine the Constitution and the rights of individuals.” – Catherine Semcer
Guns, according to Semcer, are not a major threat to people’s lives. Guns, at most, are no more dangerous than the government, itself.
“The lifetime risk of dying in a mass shooting is around 1 in 110,154, roughly the same odds as being sentenced to death by the government.” – Catherine Semcer
Thanks to rhetoric like Semcer’s, guns are now the leading cause of death for American children.
Catherine Semcer is a close ally of the NRA
Semcer’s gun rights activism was not limited to obscure conservative media outlets. Semcer was also a regular contributor to the NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum (NRAHLF).
In an NRAHLF article titled Trouble in Tanzania, Semcer complained that US trophy hunting import regulations were negatively impacting trophy hunting operators in Tanzania.
“This past March, Eric Pasanisi, whose family owned the largest trophy hunting operation in Tanzania, announced the surrender of all of the family’s hunting blocks adjacent to the Selous Game Reserve. Their holdings totaled more than 6.6 million acres, roughly the equivalent of three Yellowstone National Parks.” – Catherine Semcer
Pasanisi is a French national that inherited hunting blocks from his father. Pasanisi and his father were listed in the Panama Papers because they used of offshore companies and banks to hide their wealth from the Tanzanian government.
The fact that a foreign family controlled about 3% of all Tanzania’s land should concern all conservationists, particularly because of Tanzania’s colonial past. Nonetheless, American conservatives see the elite capture of foreign lands as one of capitalism’s benefits.
The 2019 NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits held a panel discussion titled Fighting Poaching: How the Hunting Community Can Stem the Tide. The panel was comprised of US military veterans, trophy hunters, and Catherine Semcer.
The panelists were “valuable assets in the battle against poaching in Africa” that realized “that government agencies alone cannot win the war on poaching and that there must be a partnership with local people and groups if we stand any chance of reversing the trend and exposing poaching as possibly the single greatest threat to hunting,” according to the NRA.
Staying true to typical NRA propaganda, the topic of good guys with guns (trophy hunters and game rangers) versus bad guys with guns (poachers) came up multiple times during the panel discussion. But Semcer’s rhetoric focused on changing the narrative around trophy hunting by connecting it to anti-poaching initiatives.
“We don’t change the narrative by doing things the way we’ve been doing them for the last century. We have to start telling the full story of hunting. Take pictures of the anti-poaching unit, take pictures of the snares that have been recovered, the rifles that that been recovered, the spears that have been recovered.” – Catherine Semcer
Semcer noted that the NRA and hunters should focus their efforts on the National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking which considered trophy hunting to be a potential cause of wildlife trafficking.
“The [National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking] actually lists trophy hunting as a potential cause of wildlife trafficking. And I think that gets back to the narrative question. We need to get that stripped out of the strategy and we need to get [the US government] to recognize the value that hunting provides in emerging markets around the world.” – Catherine Semcer
Catherine Semcer leads PERC’s Wild Africa Initiative
Semcer is a research fellow at PERC, a conservative think tank that promotes free market environmentalism. PERC lobbied to deregulate the trophy hunting and wildlife trade industries, to privatize public lands, and to prevent climate action.
PERC received millions upon millions of dollars in funding from the biggest climate denial movement donors. Climate denial researchers noted that PERC espoused “environmental skepticism” which “denies the seriousness of environmental problems.”
Greenpeace listed PERC as a “Koch Industries climate denial front group.” Center by Media & Democracy described PERC as one of the “most egregious climate misinformation groups” that “consistently mislead the public about the climate crisis.”
Semcer represented PERC at a Brookings Institute panel discussion titled Conservation and Security: New Challenges, New Opportunities, and the US-Africa Leaders Summit. At the top of Semcer’s list of talking points was how US government regulations negatively impacted the trophy hunting industry and how the private sector could aid with militarization.
“[H]ow we implement the Endangered Species Act can be very important in determining the extent to which African nations can raise the revenue that they need to field game rangers. … We also need to begin thinking about how do we play to our strengths as a nation in helping our African partners achieve shared conservation and security ambitions?” – Catherine Semcer
In true neoliberal fashion, Semcer promoted unlocking the potential of America’s private sector to solve public problems half way around the world.
“I think there's a question of how do we take our private sector, which is incredibly strong here in the United States both civil society and the business community, and deploy it to enable our African partners to achieve these shared conservation and security ambitions.” – Catherine Semcer
Semcer admitted that the Republican-led campaign to promote private solutions to public problems was “politically controversial.” However, that did not appear to be a cause for concern.
“Some of this will involve, you know, speaking up for the positive role that businesses can have in delivering conservation, something that has become politically controversial in the United States and is a discussion that that we know that Republicans in Congress are planning to have. But also thinking about how do we create pathways and platforms for businesses to positively engage with African civil society and with African businesses to maintain supplies of clean water, to protect biodiversity, and really start aiming for developing those green chip investments if you will, that will provide the stability of financing and governance needed to drive us forward into a more prosperous and secure future for people on both continents.” – Catherine Semcer
How brave of Semcer to ‘speak up’ for those poor multinational corporations.
Troublingly, Semcer called for “increasing the strength of tenure rights and property rights” which is nothing more than a dog whistle for elite capture of foreign resources. Tenure rights and property rights simply do not exist in capitalism except for the wealthy.
In a US House Committee hearing on the Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies Act (CECIL Act), Semcer, representing PERC, once again lamented that French national Pasanisi was ‘forced’ to give up his trophy hunting property because of US government regulations.
“Following the U.S. ban on elephant trophy imports from Tanzania and increased restrictions on lion imports under the Endangered Species Act, more than 6 million acres of hunting blocks were surrendered back to the government due to decreased booking by American hunters and trophy hunting having lost its economic viability as a land use in these areas. The surrender of these areas was accompanied by the dissolution of a 100-man counter-poaching unit that had been employed by a hunting outfitter.” – Catherine Semcer
Semcer, like pretty much every other trophy hunting advocate, failed to mention that the trophy hunting industry admitted that trophy hunting, itself, was to blame for decreasing viability. Safari Club International’s Strategic Plan for Africa stated that “[the Tanzanian] government quotas are not sustainable in many of the hunting areas” and that “[increased hunting quotas are] believed to be having a major negative impact on trophy quality, and in combination with other factors (e.g., human encroachment, poaching) potentially on the viability of game populations over much of Tanzania‘s hunting areas.”
But Semcer gave up the game when she argued that a wealthy foreign national could no longer control land and resources without the help of a privatized military funded by a poorly regulated trophy hunting industry. And it’s not just Pasanisi.
American billionaire Dan Friedkin owns 2 million acres of Tanzanian land which enriches him through trophy hunting. Friedkin also uses anti-poaching units to prevent his land from being exploited by poor local people.
Take away trophy hunting and you take away an avenue that capitalist’s use to control African resources. Semcer clearly spelled this out in a PERC article when she argued that deregulating the trophy hunting industry could help “improve access to African mineral deposits.”
To think that Semcer’s end goal is to promote trophy hunting is naïve. Semcer leads PERC’s Wild Africa Initiative which seeks to empower “entrepreneurs and investors to build an Africa that is verdant, prosperous, and free.”
PERC, home to mythical free market environmentalism, wants unimpeded private sector exploitation of African resources.
“Increasing the role of private enterprise in forging an Africa that is verdant, prosperous and free requires building on a status quo that embraces market-based approaches to conservation. It is essential to avoid creating policy obstacles to entrepreneurship and investment while at the same time encouraging policies and programs that remove barriers to free trade and the free flow of capital, encourage free enterprise, and secure property rights.” – PERC’s Wild Africa Initiative
US trophy hunting regulations hinder the unfettered capitalist exploitation that PERC and Semcer so desperately want.
“The African status quo is most threatened by existing and proposed trade restrictions, generally originating outside of Africa. An inability to access the United States and other international markets under existing restrictions has already opened millions of acres of national parks and abandoned hunting areas for large-scale energy, infrastructure, and agricultural development.” – PERC’s Wild Africa Initiative
It's not some random coincidence that Semcer, a PERC research fellow, found her way into WildCRU, a renowned wildlife conservation organization. It’s obviously a concerted effort to legitimize the Wild Africa Initiative’s agenda.
“PERC is working to increase understanding of the role that free enterprise, free trade, and property rights play in sustaining the ecosystems that African economic prosperity depends on. We are producing research and analysis capable of informing high level decision-making in markets and multilateral forums that influence the African conservation economy. … Our scholars are currently producing a fine-scale assessment of the contributions African photo-tourism and hunting operators make to efforts to counter poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. The results will be catalogued and compared with each other and the inputs of national governments to create a deeper understanding of the impact of commercial enterprise on wildlife conservation.” – PERC’s Wild African Initiative
Compare PERC’s description of their Wild Africa Initiative research with Semcer’s description of her WildCRU research and you will quite clearly see that they are same thing.
WildCRU is not an innocent third party
WildCRU’s Director, Amy Dickman, and Semcer collaborated on multiple pro-trophy hunting articles in the past. Dickman was also listed in PERC’s ‘People’ section prior to Semcer joining WildCRU.
Nearly three years ago, I raised concerns about Semcer’s relationship with PERC and Dickman’s profile being used to greenwash PERC. Dickman did not seem to care.
“Regarding my link with Catherine, I believe we have only met once, at a conference in Oxford, but clearly shared concerns about how conservation was being impacted by simplistic and misguided narratives. I have no relationship with PERC and was not aware of my bio on the site, but that is their choice not mine.” – Amy Dickman
The idea that Dickman, a highly-regarded wildlife conservation scientist, shared similar concerns with an ultra-conservative gun rights activist that is a climate denial front group’s research fellow is terrifying. Dickman later defended PERC against their obvious climate denial to me in an email exchange.
It wasn’t until I called Dickman out on social media for greenwashing a climate denial front group that she privately requested PERC to remove her from their ‘People.’ Despite Dickman never publicly admitting anything, it appears that she understands the implications of being associated with PERC.
We’re in the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis fueled by capitalism. And the people that claim to be following the science are helping protect the status quo.
NOTE: Catherine Semcer was listed as PERC’s Wild Africa Initiative leader when this article was published on April 3, 2023. Semcer’s PERC bio was updated to say that she left PERC and stopped working on the Wild Africa Initiative only a few days later. Semcer joins Amy Dickman and Adam Hart in cowardly distancing themselves from PERC after being exposed.