You should expect to see more trophy hunting propaganda in 2023
A philanthropic organization founded by real estate tycoons is hiring a campaigns and communications manager to spread the gospel of sustainable use.
Jamma International is a charity founded by the Johanssons, a European family of real estate barons interested in philanthropy – or, as some might say, interested in hiding money from the government and funding organizations that entrench the capitalist system that made them so very wealthy and powerful.
The charity is a philanthropic sponsor of Resource Africa and IUCN SULi, organizations that claim to support rural African communities but seem to spend most of their time promoting trophy hunting and wildlife trade as conservation tools (two practices that very much benefit the world’s capitalist elites like the Johanssons).
Maybe Jamma thinks the trophy hunting and wildlife trade industries could use a little publicity help because they posted a job opening for a campaigns and communications manager to promote the concept of sustainable use.
Jamma says that the “purpose of this role is to develop an evidence-led sustainable use communications campaign to promote sustainable use as a principle in conservation and community economies and challenge entrenched narratives around conservation in the global north.”
I guess we’re all just going to ignore the fact that the global north are the ones actually doing the trophy hunting and wildlife trading… And let’s not forget that sustainable use itself was a concept created by the global north for the benefit of the global north.
Privatizing natural resources, expanding property rights, deregulating industry, opening trade across international borders, and applying market-based solutions to environmental problems are all part of the global north’s neoliberal agenda. In many cases, the global south was forced to adopt these policies as part of the capitalist shock doctrine enacted by the likes of USAID, IMF, and World Bank.
[Also, this whole narrative of trophy hunting being a community development tool can be found in Safari Club International’s Strategic Plan for Africa which predates Jamma by decades. It’s clearly an entrenched narrative coming from the global north.]
The job posting states that “Jamma and our partners are strongly committed to preserving the principles of the sustainable use of natural resources and the rights of people living alongside wildlife and other natural resources to choose how best to manage and utilise it sustainably.”
What a bit of irony that the capitalist elites decided that trophy hunting and trade are how best to manage and utilize wildlife sustainably when talking about the rights of the people living alongside wildlife. So much for those people to decide what they think is best.
[And God forbid anyone discuss the rights of the nonhumans in the context of trophy hunting either. The American hunting industry did a good job reframing the hunting debate as human rights vs. animal rights.]
Jamma says that they are “looking for an exceptional, experienced, and strategic person to develop an evidence-led sustainable use communications campaign to promote sustainable use as a principle in conservation and community economies.”
Of course, the job posting does not state that the applicant needs experience in wildlife conservation, community development, or any related field. Knowing how to spin a story is the top priority for anyone promoting sustainable use.
The right candidate must have experience “communicating contentious issues and developing messaging related to said issues” and “deliver a cohesive content and social media strategy and cultivate and develop relations with media outlets to secure placement of thought leading content.” The candidate must also have the “ability to create and place articles in major media outlets and experience with social media strategy and content creation.”
[Similarly, Safari Club International wanted to take this route in their Strategic Plan for Africa. They identified the “need to consider hiring a Fifth Avenue Public Relations (PR) firm to give trophy hunting linked to community based conservation and development an image to the world.”]
The campaigns and communications manager is expected to start towards the end of 2022 so we can expect a lot of trophy hunting propaganda coming from Jamma and its affiliates like Resource Africa next year. But I’m sure we’ll be told that all they are doing is giving a voice to communities.
Hopefully they do a little better than the public relations campaign run by the American trophy hunting industry and don’t get caught spewing disinformation “through an African’s voice.”