Enshrining hunting as a foundation for conservation – the North American Model

The hunter-conservationist movement of Canada and the USA arose in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Many complex forces influenced its emergence as one of the great North American inventions: citizen activism for nature based principally upon sustainable use and vested interest - the North American Model of Conservation. Although unrestrained slaughter by commercial hunters had endangered North America's wildlife legacy, regulated hunting became the origin of the world's longest standing continental movement for wildlife protection, use and enhancement.