Safari Club International (SCI) recently joined the ranks as a Trailblazer in Conservation supporter in the Boone & Crockett Club’s (B&C) Poach & Pay project, which is the “highest, mission-focused partnership level available,” according to a press release. Currently, the project is underway in eight states and this funding will ensure that the program will push forward with outreach about the impact of poaching on wildlife and state conservation efforts. 

“SCI is proud to support the Poach & Pay program and to work with the Boone and Crockett Club in the fight against illegal poaching,” said CEO W. Laird Hamberlin. “This program will be critical to our efforts to increase participation in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and promote legal, regulated hunting. Hunters are the first line of defense against poaching, and SCI is excited for this important initiative across the country.”

According to B&C, Poach & Pay research will evaluate “barriers to prosecuting poachers,” determine detection rate and overall conservation impacts of these sorts of wildlife crime, identify motivational factors and “potential deterrents that influence poachers” and “provide solutions to improve prosecution and conviction rates” while also establishing a “defensible framework for poaching penalties.” It will also create an arsenal of data that sportsmen and women can use to separate hunters from poachers. SCI will also assist with policy recommendations at both the state and federal levels. 

“We appreciate SCI’s support as a Trailblazer in Conservation as we move forward with our Poach & Pay project. The research that got underway this summer will help provide us with the specific actions that we can take to change the game on poachers,” said B&C president James F. Arnold. “Our partnership with conservation organizations like SCI will ensure that we can implement the changes that the Poach & Pay research identifies in order to promote hunting ethics and the future of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.”

SCI joins other companies that have already signed on as Trailblazers in Conservation, including Advanced Telemetry Systems, Bass Pro Shops, Bushnell, Federal Ammunition, Leupold & Stevens, Inc., SITKA Gear and YETI.