The CIC is pleased to share a significant milestone for the Wild Harvest Initiative®, a long-standing CIC programme led by Shane Mahoney, President of CIC’s Policy and Law Division, and one of the most ambitious efforts to date to quantify the real-world value of regulated wild harvest.
New peer-reviewed research, published in People and Nature — a journal of the British Ecological Society — demonstrates that big game hunting in the United States alone produces 235,760 tonnes of edible wild meat annually, equivalent to 1.39 billion meals. Replacing that volume with domestically produced meat would cost an estimated USD 3.21 billion.
These are not merely striking statistics. They represent a substantive contribution to a debate that has too often been conducted on the basis of perception rather than evidence. For the first time, the scale of wild harvest as a food system — regulated, sustainable, and operating in parallel with conventional agriculture — has been rigorously documented and entered into the peer-reviewed literature.
The research also carries significance well beyond North America. As the authors note, regulated hunting provides an alternative to agricultural meat production for more than 24 million hunters worldwide. Yet the contribution of wild harvest to food security, rural economies, and biodiversity conservation has received remarkably little scholarly attention. This publication begins to address that gap in a form that is directly usable by governments, researchers, and policy advocates.
The CIC has supported the Wild Harvest Initiative® since its inception, recognising from the outset that sustainable use arguments must be grounded in rigorous, peer-reviewed science if they are to carry weight in international policy forums. This publication is a direct product of that commitment — and a demonstration that the patient investment in evidence-based research yields results capable of reshaping public and political understanding.
The full article is available at: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.70268
About the CIC
The International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) is a global intergovernmental and non-governmental organisation promoting biodiversity conservation through the sustainable use of wildlife. Founded in 1928, the CIC works at the intersection of science, policy, and practice across more than 80 countries.
Media Contact
Tristan Breijer MBA FRGS FRSA MCIJ
Director of Communications and Public Affairs
CIC — International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation
Email: tristan.breijer@cic-wildlife.org
Mobile: +44 781 408 7423
Website: www.cic-wildlife.org
