From NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131194364
It tells of how an endangered toad was saved because the locals liked the animal, and more importantly, hated the gov’t (podcast has the exact wording) and saved the toad without gov’t help- well maybe…
They were motivated to act against the gov’t, but still.
The only places in Africa where wildlife is not only surviving but recuperating are privately owned hunting reserves.
Oh, and Pere David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus) was saved by a nobleman (the 11th Duke of Bedford) acting in private capacity.
Government is the WORST protector of animals. Government actually funds animal killing, so how can, even most retarded person assert, that free society would be worse at protecting animals? Actually, I don’t think animals need protection at all. What they need, is to be left alone.
Sorry for rant.
Spain is a great example of this. Privitization of forests in that country have achieved what years of government eco-zealotry never did.
A few years ago, John Stossel had a report on 20/20 about the privitiaztion of land in Africa and how elephants were able to thrive there, instead of on public lands.
In the book “The Not So Wild, Wild, West, Property Rights on the Frontier,” by Terry L. Anderson and Peter J. Hill the authors discuss on pg. 101 how private not-for-profit efforts were instrumental in helping to save the bison population from extinction in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In fact, these private individuals were ahead of the government in acting to save the bison.